Sleep

[davefv92c]

have read so much about this and seems most of the texts I have found say these guys need between 10 and 12 hours of quiet,dark down time a day? my birds all live in the main living area, and I have major sleeping disorders so they are only getting maybe 6hrs a night in an empty dark room. will this effect the health of my birds?


thanks

 

[Timmah]

I was wondering something similar, considering I stay up quite late. Do they put themselves to bed at night? Griffin goes to his sleep corner and does his bed time preen and grind. I put a dark blanket around his cage, and turn the TV down a bit and he doesn't even stir. If your birds are sleeping even if you're not, they should be ok. Remember they'll nap during the day too!

 

[plumsmum2005]

It has the potential to. I know how I would feel with only six hours sleep a night - c r a n k y !

Appreciate not easy situation for you but if you can put their cages in another room at night to allow them their full quota of sleep and allow them to completely switch off it would be better for them and their health. If not possible can you set up a TV in another room for you to go to? Hope you can organise something to please everyone.

A friends 'too stopped plucking when a sleep cage was introduced in another room.

 

[Loko]

They should definitely get more than that, and it has the potential to at the least make them cranky at the worst xompromise their immine system and get sick. Naturally birds go to sleep with the sunset and up with the sunrise. Mine goes to bed around 545 and gets up about 6-7. At the least 8, but 10 or 12 is better imo; he doesnt need to nap or anything in the day.

 

[davefv92c]

They should definitely get more than that, and it has the potential to at the least make them cranky at the worst xompromise their immine system and get sick. Naturally birds go to sleep with the sunset and up with the sunrise. Mine goes to bed around 545 and gets up about 6-7. At the least 8, but 10 or 12 is better imo; he doesnt need to nap or anything in the day.

mine do all go to their sleeping spots around 5 and I cover them then,but the wife and I stay up till 9 or so. then I wait till Sammy sounds off first which is between 4 and 5. but I have been up since 3. I do take a couple of naps in a recliner during the day I kick the lights down and we all nap kinda cool they realize when nap time is

 

[SailBoat]

This is one of the subjects that have a number of sources for the differences in recommendations. With that in mind, here is my take on this subject:

The Goal is to Match the Schedule of the Sun's Day in your Area.

But, at an extreme that could mean that at one time of the calendar year, your Parrot will be sleeping for possible twenty plus hours and at the other less than four hours. Clearly this would be in the far North or South.

With that retort behind us, the actual Sun's Day would be similar to that of the Natural Range that our Parrots are found! That would find the majority of our Parrots see between eight and twelve hours of sleep depending the time of year. But! Note that does not mean that you get to choose! This schedule means that during your areas natural Summer its eight hours, but in the Winter is twelve hours.

It is important to understand that if you follow this schedule, 'at least' two months (possible more or less) each year your Parrot will slide into and out of a natural mating 'Hormonal' season.

If you follow a schedule that is based around an unnatural Sun's day, which you create, you will have a Parrot that will either have very long and inconsistent Hormonal season(s) attached to short sleep periods. Or, very short and inconsistent Hormonal season(s), attached to a long sleep periods.

The twelve or more hours of Sleep Schedule is commonly used to halt a continuous Hormonal event, set-on by a very short sleep schedule, as a means of resetting the Parrot's internal clock. After the reset, the Parrot is returned to a Sun's day schedule.

The short answer; Follow a natural Sun's day in your area will provide you a healthier happier Parrot that will naturally have a fairly consistent Hormonal schedule. For those who live North or South of the half way point between the Equator and the Polar regions, adjust accordingly!

 

[EllenD]

All of my birds have their regular, big cages with their toys in my main living room/dining room so they can be where the action is and be with me when I'm cooking or eating or watching TV or on my computer. But the also all have their own small sleep cages upstairs in my master bedroom just for this reason. I stay up late, and typically what happens is as the sun goes down or a bit later they all slowly retire from playing outside their big cages or eating to going inside their big cages and settling down for the night, puffing up, foot up, beaks grinding like crazy. So as they put themselves to bed in their big cages, one by one I take them upstairs to my bedroom and tuck them into their night night cages. They are very small, cheaper cages that have no toys, just a single perch and a water dish. I cover each one, then go back downstairs and get the next one, until the Senegal, the Quaker, the green cheek, and the cockatiel are all upstairs in my bedroom, covered and grinding away...then I just carry the entire budgie cage from downstairs up to my bedroom and set it on its night stand and cover them (they are in a Vision Hagen large cage that's really light). Since they all live together it's much easier. Then hours later when I go upstairs to bed they are covered and completely out, so they never even notice me crawling into bed...

Once in a while I'll be downstairs watching TV and I'll hear one of them either having a nightmare (which usually wakes all of them up because of the cage thrashing) or somebody can't sleep or just doesn't want to sleep, and they start screaming or if it's the Quaker he actually will call for me...uhg...I swear it's like having a toddler. It only happens occasionally thank God, but I think it's because the cage is small and has no toys or food in it. So he'll want to come back downstairs and I'll hear "Hello? Hello? I love you! Hello?"...our...so like a sucker I go get him and he falls asleep on my shoulder or my chest, then I take him back up...the cockatiel has the night terrors, and that's awful. But in general the sleep cages work 95% of the time, and they get 12 hours of sleep.

"Dance Like Nobody's Watching"

 

[chris-md]

Keep the cages covered and be quiet early in the morning and you'll be fine. Don't stress about it. They do take naps too.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Just chiming in... as put forth above...
Ever since my Patagonian Conure hit sexual maturity at about 3-4 years of age, I've had to manage his hormones! If kept on too steady a long day, and too much light, he stayed "in the mood" (aggressive, even louder than usual, pleasuring himself on my neck ) year round. If I keep him on a natural light schedule... up with dawn, down with dusk, year around... THEN he's only a monster rooster from July to September). He has his own room, so I can manage that.

 

[EllenD]

Just chiming in... as put forth above...
Ever since my Patagonian Conure hit sexual maturity at about 3-4 years of age, I've had to manage his hormones! If kept on too steady a long day, and too much light, he stayed "in the mood" (aggressive, even louder than usual, pleasuring himself on my neck ) year round. If I keep him on a natural light schedule... up with dawn, down with dusk, year around... THEN he's only a monster rooster from July to September). He has his own room, so I can manage that.

Yep, you're exactly right, keeping your bird's on a "solar schedule" is the one sure, safe way to control the hormonal, uhm, issues...lol

"Dance Like Nobody's Watching"