Time spent with your birds

[Joseph012]

Since I have 5 pets of my own, and a few breeding pair, I spent most of my "free" time doing something parrot related. I am wondering how much one on one time your parrots get, especially for those with multiple pets.
I have the unique opportunity to bring all of my pets to work with me if I chose, and therefore most of the week they are out of their cages about 12-15 hours a day- minus the 15min ride to and from work. However, not all of that time is spent directly with me. I make sure each bird gets some private attention each day, but the time varies. Sometimes it's just 20min and more often its about an hour each. By that I mean it is just me and that bird and he/she is on my shoulder or cuddled up in the crook of my arm (macaw only, but I wish it was all of them heh). Other wise throughout the day I go check on them and give them each a head scratch and maybe some kind of treat like a pumpkin seed pine nut or foot toy, each about 2-3min. So my question is how important do you feel the one on one attention is v. out of cage time and how much time do you devote to your pet. I just like to see how other owners live with their pets.

 

[vmashley03]

I think both quality of time spent with me as well as quantity of time out of cage is extremely important with MY two Greys. They are only in the cage or room for 3-4hours during daytime hours on any given day. It is critical that they both get ample time to fly around/forage/explore outside of their cage/room. Granted I have no human children or dogs/cats and so the household literally revolves around the girls and their welfare (I recently cut a lot of my work hours and rearranged my schedule so I could be home more which seemed to do the trick in alleviating Charlie's anxiety induced plucking). Also during the day both girls will take turns spending one on one time with me and both like to "help" with household tasks. Another factor that is very important is the quality time they each get to spend with my SO when he comes home from work (on days he has to work really late--or if he goes out for drinks with coworkers-- Charlie has to FaceTime him before she goes to bed or she will flat out refuse to settle down).

 

[sunnysmom]

Although it happened gradually since we got him, Sunny is now out of his cage all day. He only goes back in for bedtime. I spend about 45 minutes with him in the morning before I leave for work. Depending on my fiancé's schedule he'll spend a couple hours with him while I'm gone. Then I'm with him for about 2 hours before his bedtime. On weekends, I try to spend as much time with him as I can. Probably at least 6 hours at day? He's my only bird so he pretty much gets all of my attention when I'm home.

 

[Mizzely]

My two generally are pretty independent. I let them out of their cages and they are free most of the day. They can choose to be with me or not. They really only request about an hour a day of my direct attention. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I let them make the call whenever possible!

 

[Ribbit21]

Out of cage time varies based on how busy I am. I'm getting into a busy time of the year business-wise, so everyone gets a little less out time. As far as one-on-one time I leave it up to the bird. The Quakers are very independent and prefer to go off and play together. Josie is pretty much the same. She will stop in and visit with me for a few minutes and then fly off to go destroy something else. Marshall wants direct attention and shoulder time for the majority of the time. I don't keep track of any times since it varies everyday. I let them out when I can and they come to me when they want one-on-one attention.

 

[webchirp]

I wish mine could roam if I weren't home but as I work and commute, they only get about 3-4 hours out per day. I am usually rotating between sets of them. Rocco does not like anyone except Jewel so when I sit on his side, he and Jewel will sit with me but Rocco isn't much of a snuggler. He wants you to talk to him and converse. Bebe and Zia can sit with the others but not together. So if I am snuggling Bebe, Zia has to sit out of reach but close. If I am snuggling Zia, Bebe has to play elsewhere. But the majority of them time, they are all flying to and from me. Zephyr might zip in for some scritches but not for long. Hachi is really the only one that I hang onto unless she is on her atom. Just so that she isn't bothered by the others. But yes, we are more of a flock than a lot of one on one. Although Giggie gets an hour all to herself. She won't snuggle with me in the birdroom.

 

[Ankou]

If I'm home, Peanut is out of her cage (in our bedroom/computer room.) The cage door is open though, and she is free to fly back whenever she wants, which she sometimes will but then has to call for help because she's only clever enough to navigate the open door one way.
Weekends this is 9 am to 8 pm, all day. Weekdays are quite a bit worse, usually only 4 to 8 pm.

I split my time between her and the dogs, they are kept completely separate and they have the run of the rest of the house. My time spent in each group's space is about 50-50, though that time also includes any house or class work I need to do.
All of them choose when they want direct attention except for the dog's walk that's always after lunch, otherwise they come to me as they want.

How much 1:1 attention Peanut wants really depends on her mood, some days she may be feeling very active and playful and really only come to me for 20 minutes of cuddles or play and spend the rest of the time with her toys... besides using me as a bridge/napkin. Other days she is just feeling very needy and it's a bit of work to encourage her to do something other than cuddle for four hours straight.

The dogs are usually less needy, they both want attention in the morning and evening and both get attention via brushing in the afternoon whether they want it or not! Bear wants some attention throughout the day but Shadow basically wants to be left alone most of the time.

 

[cassiesdad]

There are 8 birds and 3 humans here.If you discount the budgies-who really don't want much human interaction- 5 birds. Milton demands human interaction most of the day. It doesn't matter who he gets it from, but his first preference is me. Titan, the IRN, feels the same way,but my brother-in-law is his perferred person.
The tiels ask for interaction on their own terms-and again, it doesn't matter which human supplies the interaction.
It would be hard to quantify how much time I spend on any one bird- except for Milty. He actually gets most of my attention during the day. If he sees me interact with another bird,he gets antsy, so if I do play with another bird, it's out of his ever watching sight...

 

[CStone]

My birds' cage door is open whenever someone is in the living room, which is pretty much all the time. They spend a lot of time on their playground which is on my desk so we interact on and off all day, whenever they want. They also have training sessions and regular bath times which probably adds up to a half an hour.

I am fortunate to have a cat that doesn't have much interest in the birds. She doesn't seem to think they're worth the effort. Although, I never trust her in the room alone with the birds out. They do go in the cage when I shower or have to leave for some reason.

I think the amount of human interaction and out of cage time a bird needs depends on whether the bird has bird company and how much space, and activities within that space, there is available to him.