Macaw homes only - how many hours a day is your macaw in / out of the cage?

[SeverelySweet]

I love that he explores now, though! What a wonderful life you've given him, all because you took a chance on an unwanted bird in a pet shop. You are fantastic!

Awww, thank you!

I love that he explores, too! Its taken almost 2 long years, alot of hard work, and alot of tears to get to this point....and I honestly never thought I'd be rescuing furniture, lol.

 

[JLcribber]

@Bokkapooh and @JLcribber I had a question for the both of you since my visit to Washington. Do you adjust the bed time for your birds in the winter with the changing if the sunset since it's so early in the afternoon or just continue to keep them on the same schedule even with it being so dark out at 350 in the afternoon?

I don't. I control their dark period with a blackout room. Their sleep period requirements don't change. The biggest problem we have is daylight savings time when they change the time. Screws everybody up for about a week. Birds have an uncanny accurate internal clock.

 

[Bokkapooh]

@Bokkapooh and @JLcribber I had a question for the both of you since my visit to Washington. Do you adjust the bed time for your birds in the winter with the changing if the sunset since it's so early in the afternoon or just continue to keep them on the same schedule even with it being so dark out at 350 in the afternoon?

John, is actually not in WA, but Alberta CA, wherever that may be. I just know its up north. I think they are dark earlier but, because of all the SNOW on the ground its like daylight at night

Come winter (late fall really), my birds adjust themselves to the daylight themselves. They WANT to go to bed at 7pm. 630PM and now 6pm. A few times they wanted to go to bed at 5:30PM and well I let them. They let me know this by screaming and if I do not attend to them, they will begin to fight eachother or claw their way back into their cages (I shut and lock cages when they are out) and it becomes a nightmare

However, I get my birds up around 4AM so they do not have more than 12 hours of complete darkness. Although its only for an hour and a half and then the lights turn off again at 5:30 and they rest/snooze/nap/play in the dark until the sun is naturally up, whenever that may be. Probably...7:30 or 8AM? I dont know.

This schedule has worked for me since I was 12 when I only had sparrows, finches and budgies.

Summer time is when things get tricky as its daylight out until 9pm and the birds want to be UP. And then daylight again at 5AM and the birds are up. Its hard to keep things dark, even with those dark curtains I use in the summer to try and get my birds to be at 8PM. They get aggressive if they do not get their sleep.

 

[JLcribber]

I also use a lot of bright daylight temperature lighting to compensate for the lack of daylight in the winter. Basically I artificially control their photoperiod.

 

[metalstitcher]

I wondered about that after visiting my parents two weeks ago and remember how late the sun sets in the summer when I was in northern Utah with my in-laws it wouldn't get dark until 9 or 930. Thank you for the input I was very curious about this.

 

[SeverelySweet]

Ugh...Syd keeps wanting his bedtime earlier and earlier! If I can push him past 5pm, it's a miracle...and he's a brat if I get him up before 9am! He doesn't care if it's still light outside...5pm comes, and he's all all out being covered up and in bed.

Unless he's destroying the cabinet...then he's ok with 5:05pm lol

 

[issajoy]

Over the course of the day Ollie's probably out for about 3 hours with me, during breakfast prep before I go to work, (I work 8-5) when I get home from work, and after dinner. My girlfriend works retail so her schedule is all over the place, Ollie usually gets another hour or two with her over the course of the day.

Weekends she's out with me as long as I'm not cooking or cleaning. She's always content in her cage and has lots of toys and things to keep her entertained. If I'm home but can't have her out, I put on Sesame Street for her (she gets very excited for Big Bird )

 

[Teala]

When I just had one, she was out whenever we were home. Now that we have two they're probably out 70% of the time when we're home only because they don't have food/water dishes on their stands, so I need to give them time to eat/drink. Most days either my boyfriend or I are home so it's usually 6-7 hours out daily.