Bedtime Struggles- need help!

[DuckyLou]

Hi Conure family!

I am in need of some advice and support. My little girl Duck is a pineapple conure. She just turned a year old on July 9, so she’s almost a year and 2 months.

each night I put her to bed in a separate night time cage that’s more travel size cage than her full daytime cage. She has food and water in her nighttime cage and I have a cover but only cover three sides of the cage.

for the past few weeks whenever I go to put her to bed she gets nippy and trying to bite my fingers or hand as I’m putting her in her cage. Once I close it she crawls up to her usual corner and I close the door to the room and I usually hear her call out for a few minutes and then she settles right down and goes to bed. But the nipping as I’m trying to put her to bed has become a bit more aggressive.

admittedly she has not been getting 10-12 hours of sleep a night, closer to 8-9, so is this behavior a mix of hormones and perhaps being over tired? I’m thinking my next step is to really get her to bed sooner.

please send me your thoughts and ideas? I’m feeling like a bad bird mom trying to put her to bed

thanks all!

 

[Zara]

 

[Craftydan]

Hi Conure family!

I am in need of some advice and support. My little girl Duck is a pineapple conure. She just turned a year old on July 9, so she’s almost a year and 2 months.

each night I put her to bed in a separate night time cage that’s more travel size cage than her full daytime cage. She has food and water in her nighttime cage and I have a cover but only cover three sides of the cage.

for the past few weeks whenever I go to put her to bed she gets nippy and trying to bite my fingers or hand as I’m putting her in her cage. Once I close it she crawls up to her usual corner and I close the door to the room and I usually hear her call out for a few minutes and then she settles right down and goes to bed. But the nipping as I’m trying to put her to bed has become a bit more aggressive.

admittedly she has not been getting 10-12 hours of sleep a night, closer to 8-9, so is this behavior a mix of hormones and perhaps being over tired? I’m thinking my next step is to really get her to bed sooner.

please send me your thoughts and ideas? I’m feeling like a bad bird mom trying to put her to bed

thanks all!

Hey DuckieLou!

Can't say this is a silver bullet for you, but one of the things that smooths the whole ritual with little Essie was to add in a dimming alarm clock. It's really designed as a "sunrise wakeup" alarm, but had a "go to sleep" mode where it dims a fairly bright light over 10-60 minutes (depending on the setting). When bedtime comes around, we take her to her room, say goodnight, turn on the dimming light and the overheads go off. She'll occasionally (~10% of the time, and usually when she's had a late afternoon nap) fly to the top of the cage and play for a few moments with us before going in, but she'll go in without much fuss, and play/snack/chill in a quietly dimming room over the next 40 minutes, eventually putting herself to sleep when it gets dark enough.

Giving her the autonomy of going to sleep when she chooses (coupled with using the natural "sunset" lighting to encourage the choice) has helped tremendously with her.

That being said, Essie gets about 11-12 hrs a night, leaning toward 11. Yeah, getting her to bed a little earlier will probably help too, but expect it to be a battle until the new rhythm is set.

 

[sunnysmom]

I'm really big on a bedtime routine. Same time every night- or as close as you can. I also try to let my birds put themselves in for bedtime. I know that doesn't work for all birds. But a special bedtime treat often helps. Then I sit with them for awhile. I just don't cover them and leave. We sing songs, etc. Usually, they all start beak grinding etc. Also, I think it helps a lot to get them into their cages before they get tired. So for instance, if you want your bird to go to bed around 8:30, you start the bedtime routine around 8.

 

[tattoosiva]

My four get nippy when we deviate from their bedtime schedule and routine. When they are tired, they get nippy and bitey. They also like the "cheerful" it's time for bed routine, we make a big deal of filling their only at bedtime treats bowl and the "it's time for the big sweeties bedtime" pep talk/attention.

We try to make bedtime a fun but necessary part of the night.

 

[Wardy]

I had to deal with the same with my Pineapple was a nightmare had the routine down to a t but would bite me all the same.
I know leave a couple of sunflower seeds on her platform perch get her to step up take her over to her cage show her the seeds and she go's in for them.
No nipping anymore.

 

[DuckyLou]

Thank you so much everyone for your tips and tricks, I am definitely going to try these out coupled with getting her to be a bit earlier! you guys are the best!

 

[DuckyLou]

Hi all! I wanted to give a quick update because all the replies were so helpful! It’s only night 1 trying a different routine, but it went really well! The room that has her sleep cage has a dimmer light so we went up to that room and I dimmed the light to half and started gently singing to her and she hung out on my shoulder and I kept singing and would go and dim the light a bit more at a time, until finally she was actually asking to go into her cage! Not one nip and I closed the cage door and kept singing for a bit longer and she went up to her corner where she sleeps and she only called out for maybe a minute. Success!