They say Parrots need any where from 10-12 hours of Sleep each night. How can you help your parrot achieve that? Without it, your parrots may become cranky, angry, little buggers! I honestly don’t know how true this fact is because my household is a very noisy one and we never Cover our birds’ cages. They aren’t cranky, at least not to me.
However since I don’t know if lack of sleep may have a long-term effect, I am now thinking of covering their cages at night. Studies on kids say that kids who get 10+ hours of sleep at night are better rounded individuals. They are faster learners, happier and more likely to be successful in life so I’m thinking since parrots are like kids, the same philosophy may apply. So far I’ve covered Rasta (green naped lorikeet) and Purrain’s (female indian Ringneck) cages at night but I haven’t seen anything different in their demeanor. It’s only been a week so I’ll keep monitoring the progress. I’m putting them to bed at 10pm and waking them up at 10am. But the other parrots are making noise at the crack of dawn so I’m sure they are probably up before I remove the cover.
I think the cover up on cages is a great idea IF you’re like me and roam the fridge at night but…. Isn’t it better for them to not have the cover on so when I’m going through the fridge they can see me and know I’m the cause of the noise? If they have the cover on and I go in the fridge, they can’t see me so wouldn’t that cause them to be afraid as they can’t view the source of the sound? To me, it makes me think of being blindfolded, I rather be able to see… I don’t know, now I’m indecisive because I definitely want them getting enough sleep and even though I have them in the dark by 10pm, the family might still be up meaning we’ll keep them up, if they aren’t covered. Then when the light starts shining through in the morning they will wake up ensuring that they definitely did not get the desire amount of sleep needed to be successful birdies. Now, if I do the cover up method, they will definitely be in the dark regardless of us having other lights on throughout the house but wouldn’t our sound keep them up anyways? However when the light shines through in the morning, they would still be in the dark which means they would be able to get more rest? Well, I guess that’s it… Covering them up will be our next adventure! As it seems like the better option.
I will start small with only covering half of the cage and then 3 quarters and then all. Since they aren’t used to it, I don’t want to overwhelm them especially not Grayson (African grey). When they take their afternoon nap, they aren’t covered and they all seem to manage fine but I’m not a doctor so if the stats say covering them up is more beneficial to make sure they get adequate sleep then so be it!
