baby grey solar schedule

[Girliebird]

hi, just reading some of the other posts. i was under the impression from the parrot wizard book that a bird should be covered for as close to twelve hours per night as you can manage with your lifestyle, time spent with bird etc to avoid hormonal behaviour and that allowing the bird to experience the natural daylight hours increased hormonal problems. i have a cockatiel who is neither covered nor caged at night but is no trouble as her broodiness is barely evident. however, i have a baby female CAG who i am caging at night and covering to facilitate a good sleep . Which is best for hormone management ? Cover or not cover ?

[Wolf]

This is not even going to be an issue for a couple of years when the bird begins to approach puberty.
But to answer your question the best thing is for the bird to be exposed to the exact same lighting as the birds living outside your house have. This means exposure to the predawn twilight period on through dawn and sunrise and then to be exposed to the late afternoon and early evening twilight period called dusk on through sunset and full dark, by which time the bird should be asleep.
It also means that your bird should be fed a low protein diet as food is the second major factor in controlling hormones in the bird, the first is light which signals when to begin hormone production. Protein in the diet is required to manufacture the hormones.