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Sun Conure Bed Time?

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Sun Conure Bed Time?

Postby BridgetTracy » Sun Jul 17, 2016 1:43 am

I read somewhere that you are supposed to put your bird in its cage and let it go to sleep as the sun goes down, and wake up when it comes up. So do you have to do it at that time (because I'm kinda guilty of sleeping late :lol: ) Last night he got to bed at about 10 and woke up around 11. Is that okay?
Thanks
BridgetTracy
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Re: Sun Conure Bed Time?

Postby Navre » Sun Jul 17, 2016 5:44 am

There are two schools of thought on this. 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness is still recommended by many vets. Others make a convincing argument that a bird should be exposed to dawn and dusk and kept on a strict solar schedule.

EVERYBODY agrees that a bird cannot be kept on a human light schedule, with 16 hours of light and 8 hours of dark. Birds need more sleep than that. Your conure will also benefit from consistency. Do you plan to let him sleep until 11 am every day, forever? Or will it be 6am when the school year starts?

Whatever the schedule, make sure you are consistent and stick with it.

If a bird is on 12/12, and you want to transition to a solar schedule, or vice/versa, it seems to me that equinoxes are good times to make these adjustments. The days are 12 hours long on March 21, and Sept 21. It's a good time to make a seamless adjustment.
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Re: Sun Conure Bed Time?

Postby Wolf » Sun Jul 17, 2016 9:30 am

I thought about not replying to this for about 2 minutes. The 12/12 hours of light and dark came about from breeders trying to control the breeding cycles of their breeding stock. Or at least that is my understanding of how it came about.

A solar light schedule, well I guess we have to call it something. so that people will pay more attention to it. Have you ever looked out your window at all of the different birds and noticed that they are up and out and about very early in the mornings, like shortly after sunrise? Or have you noticed that except for owls that when it stats getting dark that the birds all disappear? That is so that they can go to sleep. Or what about chickens? We all know that they get up at dawn and roost by dark. Yet when it comes to our parrots we can't seem to apply the same schedule to their rising and sleeping, it is as if we can't see that every other species of bird around the entire world gets up at dawn and goes to sleep by the time that it is dark. They are no different than any other wild bird in this respect, yet we somehow expect them to be different.

All birds are photoperiodic and they have special light receptors in their brains that act on their internal biological clock so that they can measure the length of the days and nights from which the seasons are known and this controls their mating, molting and resting seasons. They need to be on the same light schedule that birds have evolved to use for millions of years and being deprived of this natural lighting schedule is very detrimental to their health.

Even if you do not always live with the same schedule it is not that difficult to provide it for your bird. If they are near a window that has no artificial lighting coming in the window when it is dark outside all you have to do is let them go in the room at feeding time in the evening and close the door so they have complete dark for sleeping. They will wake and sleep on their natural schedule. You could use a blackout cloth if they are in a more active area where people might be so that they can still go to sleep when they should although the noise level will have to be kept to a minimum and then when the lights go out uncover the cage. When the sun starts to rise they will wake up.
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Re: Sun Conure Bed Time?

Postby Pajarita » Sun Jul 17, 2016 10:16 am

All my birds follow a strict solar schedule. I am not one to obsess over cleanliness and go around disinfecting everything the bird is exposed to but I am a real pain in the neck about their light schedule and diet. Why? Because I want my birds to be healthy and happy, something you can't get if the bird's endocrine system is screwed up! But, leaving aside their happiness and physical wellbeing, keeping them at a human light schedule will, eventually, mean aberrant behavior ranging from screams, aggression, plucking and even self-mutilating. It doesn't happen when they are young but as the years go by and the sexual frustration sets in (some call it sexual toxicity but I think that's a bit extreme), the bird can go from a beautiful and loving companion to a feathered mess that screams and bites.
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Re: Sun Conure Bed Time?

Postby Navre » Sun Jul 17, 2016 10:37 am

I also think that solar schedule is easier on people. If you're trying to create an artificial bed time, you have to be there to cover the cage, etc. If you're trying to keep the bird on 7am to 7pm, you have to get home by 7pm in the summer, or not go out until after 7pm. If you're letting the sun do the work, you can be late, the bird will go to sleep when the sun goes down.
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Re: Sun Conure Bed Time?

Postby BridgetTracy » Sun Jul 17, 2016 4:55 pm

Thank you for all the replies! I don't plan on keeping the schedule he is on right now. My school years starts in less than a month so I can make it to where he gets to bed when the sun sets. Next summer I will try to keep that schedule too.
BridgetTracy
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Re: Sun Conure Bed Time?

Postby Pajarita » Mon Jul 18, 2016 10:03 am

The summer is easier in that the days are so long, you have plenty of time to run errands and such in the middle of the day and still spend enough time with the bird BUT, personally, I like the winter because although it is a pain with the short days (which means no company after 4 pm and no trips anywhere farther than a 2 hour drive), they are so much more mellow than during the warm weather months, there are no breeding issues, etc AND -drum roll!- I can sleep until 7 am YAAAAYYYYY!!!!
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Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
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