Cockatiel in a Studio

[SD1030]

Hello—

So I have an adult male cockatiel and we live in a 600 ft studio. The space is perfect for us. There’s only one big issue…
My cockatiel goes to bed at 10pm. I place his sleeping cage in a closet with the door open, just so he has a cozy place to sleep.

But when it gets to be 10pm and he is asleep, I basically feel guilty for making noise and try to stay as quiet as possible so he can sleep peacefully. This means that I rarely invite friends over to hang out at night. Or to watch a movie. I’m starting to get lonely.

Any suggestions for what to do?

 

[Zara]

Maybe you could go to your friends place?

 

[Mizzely]

My bird is in my living room and I don't make any concessions for him I am often up until 1am. Occassionally we have people over and they go home after his 8pm self appointed bedtime.

I think it all depends on the bird.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

I think he could get used to having a couple people over once in a while. Maybe just a low key gathering. I also think you can watch movies while he’s asleep, just don’t turn it up really loud. Maybe have the tv on before he goes to bed so it doesn’t disrupt him mid sleep. My birds sleep in a closet, and I have the door almost all the way closed, so that might help too.

 

[sunnysmom]

You can also try getting him a white noise machine to muffle some of the other noise.

 

[Lady Jane]

You are right to be concerned about his sleep being disturbed by human noises. Have you tried using a head set or ear buds for your devices such as Ipad or TV? Lighting can be low so you can still see and birds is is calm. For my bird years I actually turned off all devices in the living room where my birds were and went into the bedroom for evening activities. Even though I do not have birds any more I still do this.

 

[Momof3litt]

My bird is in my living room and I don't make any concessions for him I am often up until 1am. Occassionally we have people over and they go home after his 8pm self appointed bedtime.

I think it all depends on the bird.

Same here. All 3 birds live in the living room and so do the humans. I turn off the room lights around 8, cover the cage by 9 and then we go about our business for the rest of the evening - lights back on, TV, talking, whatever.

 

[SD1030]

Yes, I do have a sound machine that I use. If I'm having friends over at night, do you guys recommend that I go ahead and put him to bed and cover the cage? Or keep him awake? I just feeling guilty either way, especially if I keep him awake because he'll be tired and dozing off...

 

[Sparkles!]

I think regular normal family noise is perfectly fine for sleeping birds to be subjected to after their typical lights out time. I don’t know if I’d say loud action movies would count, or a rather vocal discord session, but in my house it’s 100% acceptable to talk on the phone or watch a sedate movie or playing a board game in the same room as the birds are.
It’s dependent on your bird’s personality. I have one conure with severe FOMO, and if anyone is up and doing something, she absolutely has to be as well and sometimes she does become a bitey grouchy crab butt the next morning if she decided to stay up late the night before.

 

[SD1030]

Yea I think mine will likely stay idle and “tough it out” and try and sleep. He won’t try and come out of his sleep cage. But something just makes me feel guilty because I know it’s interrupted sleep and not completely quiet for him. Maybe I’m just over analyzing and overthinking the issue. Perhaps my intentions are not practical and impossible to attain?

so would it be better to just put him to sleep if he’ll go with it? Or better to just have him stay awake with us, which I guess he’ll try sleeping on his own anyway.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

I would try putting him to sleep and keep his normal routine. Maybe start out more quiet, and over a several days gradually get the noise level to normal levels.

 

[Mizzely]

I think something people forget to is that the jungle or outback is NOT silent at night. While sleep is important for everyone, I would just see what your bird's personal limits are. Ripley does take a nap mid day - but he does that no matter what time it is quiet in the living room. I don't tip toe around him but I am not in there blasting death metal either. I like @Tiel Feathers 's idea of doing gradual increases to see what is comfortable for both of you.

 

[Momof3litt]

so would it be better to just put him to sleep if he’ll go with it? Or better to just have him stay awake with us, which I guess he’ll try sleeping on his own anyway.

When I have kept Argo up late for some reason, he has become a bitey little grumpy conure dude. The budgies will also "remind" us if we are late turning off their lights. Between the two, I have found it easiest to put them to bed and then continue what we are doing. Case in point - on New Years Eve the birds went to bed at 8 pm and the whole human family stayed up to midnight. We made all kinds of noise and the birds stayed quiet. They may have lost a little sleep, but not nearly as much as if we would have kept them up half the night.

 

[Shezbug]

I think something people forget to is that the jungle or outback is NOT silent at night. While sleep is important for everyone, I would just see what your bird's personal limits are. Ripley does take a nap mid day - but he does that no matter what time it is quiet in the living room. I don't tip toe around him but I am not in there blasting death metal either. I like @Tiel Feathers 's idea of doing gradual increases to see what is comfortable for both of you.

I don’t think I’ll ever buy into the thought that every night has to be 12 hrs of totally dark or silent sleep simply because that’s not what happens in nature.
I hear all sorts of outside birds being distributed late at night by all sorts of things. I’ve also seen small flocks of birds flying about in the middle of nowhere while driving home at midnight or after - there’s all sorts of late night disturbances out in the wild!
I wouldn’t suggest regular loud gatherings or brightly lit rooms but reasonable disturbances every now and then like the odd late night, visitors or emergencies I feel are no big deal and are part of life.

 

[SD1030]

Yea that makes sense. I also worry that if a visitor does walk by his cage on his or her way for he restroom, even though his cage is covered with a blanket with a night light on and the lights on in my studio, that he may experience a night fright and thrash around.
I guess we can give him warning that someone is getting close? It’s just hard when you only have 600 ft to work with, but these are just some of my worries

 

[javi]

You could change bed time to 9pm. That way he still gets a routine and dont have to worry about having company. Or you can keep the 10 bedtime and even if he is asleep move him to sleep cage. I feel the moving from one cage to another after bird fell asleep has to be less traumatic than dealing with the loud noise of a party. My tiels will have night frights which of course sets off all my birds, not fun.