Sleep Needs

[AndreaFahy]

I will admit that my personal flock couldn't possibly receive adequate sleep from the layout of our home and my late hours. Interestingly we have never had any issues! We even have a moluccan cockatoo now who "has to go to sleep at 6:00" according to her last family and she does just fine. I know they DO NEED the sleep, but I wonder why it has never been an issue in my home...??

What can the rest of you share about your parrots sleep needs and behavior?

We currently have 5 pairs of parrotlets in our personal flock, plus a few other species.

Also, of relevance, they do nap a lot during the day; even if I am home all day they will nap.

[Sally]

Chipper asks to go to sleep at about 8:15 every night. She gets over 12 hours of sleep. Is is really important for her. She is much happier and I think she is healthier with sleep. Just like us, they need plenty. She sleeps like this, between the cage and her toy balls. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Sally11/sleeptag400.jpg

[musicjan]

Andrea, I can only share my personal experience with you. Bitsy has a good cage, great food, lots of personal interaction with 2 adults. We have noticed that unless he gets 12 hours of sleep (covered in a very quiet place), he bites us and does his little parrotlet screech. We have even resorted to a "sleep cage" in a large closet, because his cage being covered in our fairly quiet family room wasn't enough sleep for him. I can't explain the difference between your situation and ours, but I can say that, for Bitsy, sleep is a must! You're lucky that it's "not an issue" in your home. We have to expend a bit of extra energy making Bitsy's sleep situation work. Best of luck!

[lily]

My bird also gets at least 12 hours of sleep in a dark and quiet place. If she is disturbed, if the neighbors are noisy, if she is molting, or if she had a big day, I give her more, up to 13. If she were involved in an accident or had been severely stressed, I would not hesitate to give her even more sleep. When she was getting ten plus hours of sleep, she napped during the day and was crabby, nippy, bored, and screamed a lot.

[marjet]

Our Bibi here, gets her cage covered at about 8.30 in the evening en gets it uncovered at about 7.30 in the morning. So she sleeps about 10 hours and seems to get enough that way. If she is a bit out of sorts, it is most of the time because she went late to bed (that is I covered her cage later than usual) the evening before. Most of the evenings, when I am a bit later than 8.30 she comes out of her cage and starts calling me. When we cover her we hear some babbling en then it is quiet. Her cage stays in the livingroom.

[birdiemom]

Paulie must have at least 12 hrs to be his sweet self. If not he is just a little demon. He will be much more likely to lunge at us and bite hard. And scream!!
On the mornings I have to go to work early and he can't sleep late I just put him "nite nite" earlier. So we really work at giving him his 12 to 13 hours. He even talks more when he's rested!

[Pado]

I give mine 12 hours sleep as I was told this was best for them so until I hear otherwise that’s what they’ll get :D I put mine in a sleeping cage in the guest room - I close the blinds and draw the drapes for darkness. I close the blinds first so there is still some light in the room, this gives them time to go to roost and then I go back into the room in about 5 or so minutes to draw the drapes to make the room dark. They get up again between 7am and 7:30am.

Its like putting your kids to bed, I like not having to deal with them after 7pm :p :D

[Kumiko]

O! Gosh, Kiwi for some reason hits the hay around 9 at night and wakes up 8 or 9 in the morning. He never does bite. He is a sweet bird. He gets about 11 to 12 hours of sleep, but soemtimes when I sleep in, he goes off to bed until I get up around 11pm. He is mostly up when i am up.