I always cover my cages. I made curtains for my maccaws new cage we built just so i could close him in.
Whenever my boys get to screaming and sqreeching i have to cover the one and close the curtains on the other just to get some time without noise! I always put them to bed at 10 p.m. and don't take cover off cage until twelve the next day. They need to have ten hours sleep to be in good moods.
They know when the cage gets covered in middle of the day, they have been bad. An hour down time for a nap really helps thier moods.
Yes, covering the cage is good. If you live, as I do, in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by woods, and the birds are in their own birdroom (no TV, no light coming in from another room, no street light, etc), then you don't need to but, if they are in a human living area and in a city covering the cage is essential. Birds can perceive light through the bones in their heads (humans only through their eyes) so they need complete darkness for their endocrine (glands) system to work properly. BUT twilight triggers response mechanisms from their glands (they set not only their daily but also their seasonal 'clock' by it) so they need to receive full exposure to both dawn and dusk to live a long and healthy life. This can be achieved by turning off all the lights in the room where they are kept once the sun starts going down, once it's dark and the bird has gone to sleep, cover the cage and, then and only then, turn the lights back on. In the morning, uncover the cage before the sun starts to rise and only turn the artificial lights on once the sun is up in the sky.
I cover our green cheek at night. But I do wonder sometimes. When I cover him, he will go a bit crazy in there for about 5 minutes. I will hear him make noise, and bounce around the cage. It's like he invites his friends over when no one is looking. Then he'll quiet down and go to sleep. Anyone know what he's doing in there?
He scrambles around because he doesn't want to go to sleep, his body is not telling him it's time for it. But if you expose him to the sunset (turn off all artificial lights in the room where he is kept and just allow the natural light through the window to illuminate it) and only cover him when it's dark and he has gone to sleep, he won't do this (and make sure the cover is really opaque so no light shines through it).
Birds, like people, start producing melatonin (hormone which makes us drowsy among other things) when the light intensity decreases and the angle of the light is low in the horizon (light refracts differently straight down than when it's in an angle) but the pineal gland needs some time to release enough into the bloodstream for it to start working. We don't know how long it takes in parrots to achieve full effect but we do know it takes about 20 minutes to half an hour for people and domesticated birds like canaries, chickens, etc so we assume it's the same for them. The thing about birds which most people is unaware of is that they have light receptors (neural or nerve cells that can sense light) deep in the brain and not only in the eyes (like humans have) because the bones in their heads are thin and the light shines right through them to activate them. A human can close his eyes and go to sleep in the middle of the day with no problem and his body will react to this sleep the same as if it was in the middle of the night. But birds need darkness because, even though they will nap when there is light, their brains are still 'sensing' light and will not produce melatonin.
Try doing this for about two weeks and you will see that, if you do it right, he will fall asleep as soon as it's completely dark and wake up in the morning much refreshed and in a better mood. It's much healthier for them this way because lack of adequate sleep over an extended period of time will mess up their immune system (same as with people).
This is interesting. The reason is that my wife typically is in our large living room where his cage is. She will typically turn off all the lights and watch tv. I am usually in the basement watching a movie or something. (we don't like the same stuff). She always goes to bed before me, leaving Surfer in the dark. I will put the cover on when I come up. So I assume he had some time to get into sleep mode. It is a black cloth cover that covers the entire cage.
a) Is he in complete darkness when you come in or are there lights coming in from the street or other rooms or a corridor or whatever? People who live in cities don't actually experience the same dark of night as in the country or the jungle but they don't even realize it because they are so used to living with a certain amount of light.
b) Is he fully exposed to the sunset every single day? People usually have a routine that doesn't really take into consideration the changing of the seasons. If you and your wife sit down to watch TV every night after dinner, say at 7 or 8 pm, it would be day during the summer but complete night during the winter. It makes no difference to us but it makes a difference to birds. Also, if his cage is not in front of a window or the window shades or curtains or whatever are not completely open, he would not get the full benefit of the twilight.
c) Can he see the TV from his cage? Because they have found that the way TV emits light to form the pictures on the screen (with super fast flashes) creates the same brain wave lengths (alpha) as those of people who have Attention Deficit Disorder and makes children hyperactive. I have since started advising everybody not to expose birds to TV and to leave a radio on if they want the bird to hear human voices when they are not there.
d) Is it possible that he is fast asleep and you wake him up when you walk into the room and cover him with the cloth? Some small species (tiels are famous for them) are prone to night frights when startled out of a deep sleep.
e) Why cover him if he is already in darkness? Does somebody in your household get up before dawn to uncover him so he is exposed to the sunrise? Because they need dawn to start the 'clock' and dusk to stop it and the time in between is what makes the difference (point of refractoriness).
Complicated, isn't it? And people get birds because they think they are low maintenance and easy to take care of
First, thank you for your very detailed response. Second, no worries, we knew what we were getting into. We have other bird lovers in our family and did plenty of research prior to getting even the conure.
You have made some very good points. He is close to a window, but not directly in it. I would put him closer, but the air conditioning vent is right under it and I don't think it's a good idea to have cold air blowing on his cage.
He can't see the tv so that is not an issue.
What I am thinking is that he may very well be asleep when I come in and cover him. Perhaps I should cover him earlier. I am in a suburb so it isn't incredibly bright but there is some light from outside. I will definitely take everything you said into consideration and see what the best thing for my bird is.
Florida and my birds are living in either their outside aviary or indoor cages, they do not get cage covers. They go by the natural daylight and night time from outside. But when I am visiting my parents, they cover their cages as habit.
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Brian
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Covering Cage at Night
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