To cover or not to cover?

[Von L]

Hi all. I'm new here and was hoping to get some advise. I haven't had a bird since I was a teen and had a Cockatiel, but I just bought a Mustached Parakeet in August. He's just a baby, hatched April 30th, and he is doing wonderfully at bonding with the entire family, especially my husband and I. We keep his cage open whenever we are around, and interact with him throughout the day, so he is very secure and comfortable about his place in the family 'flock'. In the evening he will settle himself to roost on a perch, and is not troubled even if there is still activity in the room. He doesn't even get upset when I close up the cage because he has learned that it is open for him most of the time. Recently, however, when I cover the cage for the night he will immediatly go down to the bottom of the cage to try to peek out from under the cover, and will still be there in the morning when I remove the cover. He never complains about the cover, but I didn't know if it was good for him to be staying in the bottom of the cage instead of on a perch. The cage has a wire bottom with a slide-out drawer for cleaning, so he is not sitting is any messes, but on the other hand, the only reason I cover the cage is to be sure he does not get chilled at night. Would it be better to leave him uncovered so that he will stay on a perch, or continue to cover and let him sleep on the floor of the cage?
Thanks for your help!
Yvonne

[Magnum]

Hi Yvonne and Welcome! I don't cover either one of my birds, In fact, Luther did the same thing to me, that you bird did to you. Luther was covered in his previous home, so I just figured he wanted it that way. After he warmed up to us and was stepping up good, he started peeking through the slit in the cover, and he too would sleep there all night. I stopped cover him all together since I don't have drafts to worry about. He has a Happy Hut he goes into if he wants privacy. ;)

Glad you joined. There are many members here with birds, so I hope you enjoy it here as much as we do.:D

[Squawksx3]

Hi Yvonne and welcome :)

Congratulations on your new baby!. We cover our birds at night only because they're use to it and it makes them feel more secure. Birds cant see very good at night and feel more vunerable... but I know alot of people that do not cover cages at night. If your baby would rather not be covered, I wouldnt cover the cage. Did the people (breeder/pet store) cover the cage before you brought him home?. He may not be use to it. I wouldnt worry about him getting a chill at night, birds can handle the cold better than heat. I've had breeders and other bird owners tell me that they have outside birds and the birds will take baths when there's frost on the ground. If your bird is inside he should be fine as long as there isnt a drastic climate change. You could always hang a happy hut in the cage and he can snuggle with it if he gets chilly :D . Good luck. Mustached Parakeet's are so beautiful!.

[Squawksx3]

LMBO Mag... I was delayed when writing this post and ya beat me to it :eek: .... Like how I threw the happy hut in there? hahahahahhha.... we think too much alike and its getting scary :p

[SweetPea]

Hiya!

I have four birds, and I cover 3 of them up only at times. Since they are in my bedroom and I'm an insomnic, I cover them when I'm in the room late. However, whenever I cover up my little conure, he whines and does what your parakeet does...

My other two lovies could care less if I covered them or not; they'll sleep through anything. However, if they see me up, they're more likely to wake up and start playing...which results in some cranky birds the next day.

My macaw is another room of the house on the first floor, so he doesn't get covered.

[dlaura]

Hi Yvonne and welcome,
Like Sweetpea, we have a macaw and do not cover him at night. It is so hard to get a cover up there and over the cage - and when we would the macaw would just take it down anyway. His cage is against the wall in FR and one side of it is next to the entertainment center so he has a place he can get in a corner and be shielded from any drafts or to get a bit of privacy. Our other three we did cover, and at first we had similar problems as you have mentioned. I just lowerd the cover down so the bird couldn't peek out of the bottom and placed a towel on top of cage to cover gap that caused in the top being covered. All of our birds are in our family room - so even if they aren't out at the time they are still involved in whatever we are doing. Our goffin needs more sleep then the others so by covering her I am sure she gets it and as she is a nervous bird it gives her a more secure feeling at night. The GC & keet we cover also for sleep time, security feeling and just a cozier, warmer cage area during the night - especially during winter.

As I am sure you are gathering, it is kind a matter of preference for both you & your bird.

Keep us updated as to what you eventually find works for you.

[Von L]

Thanks eveyone for your input. I think that since Squirt is the only bird in the home, and he doesn't seem to have any problems settling down even if there is still some activity in the room, that I will try leaving him uncovered and see if he is happy with it. Morning and evening noise don't even seem to be a problem with him, so that's not a reason to cover either. He is remarkably quiet compared to what I expected. His morning and evening chattering is usually "baby talk" or practice speach, not screaming. He is already almost understandable on "hello" and I think "step up" too. I'm so excited...he is only 5 months old and my understanding is that most talkers don't really start until they are around a year old. Is that correct? As far as other noise, the only time he seems to give a sentinal call is if everyone has left the room. I know that alot of experts say to ignore screaming, but I know he is just trying to locate his "flock", so I have been calling back to him saying "hello" and "hey baby" so he knows where I am. I have stopped picking him up until he quiets though, don't want to incourage the screaching. ;)

BTW - I got Squirt from a pet store, and as I suspect is the case in all the best bird/people relationships, he picked me. I had gone in to buy some aquarium supplies and stopped by his display cage to look at him. He seemed interested in me so I started talking to him and put my fingers by the bars. He was really fiesty and grabbed at my fingers, but he seemed more playful than mean, and he made me laugh. (One of his favorite things to do now is to "roughhouse" with daddy's fingers-but he doesn't bite them.) The real clincher though was when I walked away from his cage. He went up to the bars and just started this plantive calling. I'm all the way down this aisle, and he's pressed up against the bars calling, and it was like "hey, come back!" So don't ya know, I came home with a bird that day! LOL

[Von L]

Oops, I forgot to ask what a 'happy-hut" is. I don't currently have any sort of covered area in Squirt's cage, so I suspect this might be something I need to get if I am going to leave him uncovered at night. We live in Texas, so the air conditioner still kicks on during the night, and when it does there is a bit of a draft by the cage.

[dlaura]

Hi again,
Just wanted to say great!!!! ...........to you responding to your birds calls trying to locate you. If you ran back to the room all the time then he would expect this all the time. However a reply call is a great thing!

Thought of another suggestion -- our goffin's cage is very close to our window unit AC so when we have it on (which will not be much longer) I just put a towel or small blanket over the side which faces the AC. That protects Angel from the biggest part of the air flow.

[SweetPea]

Hiya!

A happy hut is simply a little tent like structure made of fabric that you hang inside the cage:

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=84552444177 6719&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302023691&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023691&bmUID=1127666926409

When you use one of these, you have to be careful to check the threads and what not in case it gets lose and catches little birdies toes and such.

I don't use them for my lovies, and I think they're both females, so I dont want to encourage any egg laying.

[Nothingface]

My parakeet when I first got him would always jump onto the bars on the side of the cage and stayed there all night one time.

I guess its just a process of easy him in.

Now when I cover him up, he goes onto his swing perch and sleeps on that.

[Von L]

Guess what everyone! I didn't cover Squirt's cage last night, and while anyone was around he stayed on a perch to sleep, but when I got up this morning he was back in the corner under the feeding dish. LOL As soon as he saw someone was up he moved back to a perch and did a little more sleeping, but I'm betting he spent most of the night in the corner. :rolleyes: I've been doing tons of research and learning tons about birds in general, but I haven't been able to find much on the Mustached Parakeet. I did find out that they are cavity breeders though, so maybe Squirt sees the corner as a safe little cubby to tuck away in for the night. Does that sound right to everyone? I think that as long as there is no reason to be concerned about him sleeping on the floor of the cage, I will continue to cover it since that is what he is used to. Is there anyone out there who has experience with Mustached Parakeets? I would love to talk to someone who knows more about them than I have been able to find.

Thanks all for your advise.

Yvonne

[krazy4birds]

I just happened to notice this post Yvonne, sorry I missed it before. When we had Buddy she slept in a happy hut. It looks like a mini tent that hangs from the cage in a very soft material and she loved it. In fact she went through 2 while I had her. Lakia has not used hers but I do put a cloth over the corner of one end and it tends to make her feel more at ease. I am pretty sure she will evenyually use the happy hut. How are things going:) ?

[KWdodger]

how is your baby doing? WOAH! Happy Huts are the best! I had love birds and parakeets. They LOVE their Happy Huts. I have a monkey now and he even loves his Happy Hut. If I could get into a Happy Hut I would! Good luck with that and dont worry... Bird ared awesome. They need to be free. Same as a monkey. There are have great people out there though that see that animals have rights too.

[Von L]

Since there didn't seem to be any problem with Squirt sleeping on the bottom of the cage, I stopped worring about it, and everything as been going fine. Squirt usually puts himself to bed about 8pm, but we don't cover him until about 10pm, which is when he moves from the perch to the bottom of the cage. I think he likes to be able to see out and watch for us in the morning, but one of the reasons I decided to keep covering him was that he will stay quiet and continue to rest in the morning when his cover is on, even though he knows people are up, and you can hear him rustling around. If I don't cover him, he starts getting active as soon as we are up, and he wouldn't even come close to getting the 12 hours rest he needs :( . He hasn't shown any interest in having a place to hide, but I think I will still get him a Happy Hut and see what he does with it. ;)

KWdodger - I posted some new pictures of Squirt in the "Seeking Mustached Parakeet info" thread so that they would be easy to compare to his earlier pics. Thanks for asking about him, he is doing great and has been a joy!

Yvonne

[kirbylord_X]

I had a happy hut for my indian ring neck, Kuba. He went in it once, i think, then decided to shred the holding ropes and was done with it. XD. SO much for happy hut. I cover him every night and he is perfectly fine with it. I never know if he's alseep though, but i think he falls asleep pretty quickly because things go quiet in a short amout of time after he cleans the inside top of his beak. (makes a slight grinding noise.) at least that's what it seems he's doing.

[Von L]

Well, I finally got Squirt a Happy Hut, and he has had it for a little over a week now. I have put treats in it a few times to incourage him to go inside, and Squirt doesn't seem scared of it in any way, but he mostly treats it as another toy :p . He peeks in it a lot to see if there are any treats, and occasionally walks through for a closer inspection, but mostly he climbs around on the outside...lol. Oh well...:D

Yvonne

[jojoalexis]

My Mom's canary is like that - I wonder if you gave him a platform where he could nest higher up if he would still go to the bottom of the cage?

[Von L]

jojoalexis,

I don't know...maybe I will add a shelf sometime in the future just to change things up in his cage ;) , but since I have a grate in the bottom of the cage that keeps him from getting dirty, and he seems happy with his routine, I don't worry about it any more...lol. It's been so great to have someplace to come and talk about him and ask questions though...thanks guys!!! :)

Yvonne

[dlaura]

Well at least you got Squirt a Happy Hut and maybe he will use it when it gets a little colder out. I picked up one of those bananna shaped little snuggly things that they are supposed to snuggle up against for warmth. Well I just went towards my too's cage in order to hang it across on the window and she jumped to the bottom of the cage in fear. I have to hang new toys and such in the room for a few days to a week and let her see them there before I dare put them in her cage. This may take even longer. LOL Guess they don't understand we are spoiling them. he he he

[Von L]

LOL...I know what you mean dlaura. Squirt is pretty easy-going and doesn't get freaked out when I change things in his cage as long as he sees me do it, but once I hung a new toy when he was out of the room to "surprise" him. :p I sure learned my lesson, you'd have thougt I put a snake in the cage...lol. I had to put Squirt on my shoulder and reach in the cage to "beat up" the toy for a couple of minutes before he decided to check it out for himself. :D Now I make sure he's with me when I make any changes.

Yvonne

[jojoalexis]

I have to agree, great place to come to talke, to learn, to share :D we are lucky pet mommies and daddies!