Rainbow, Myrtle & Cockatiels

[liz]

No light at night. They are in a room in the front part of the house. There are no lights on in that part. It is so dark that I had to put in motion activated night lights so I won't kill myself if I have to go in one of those rooms. I am very strict with they light schedule.

December has always been mating time for the cockatiels. Even when I just had 4 they got amorous at that time of year and if I did not stop them they would try to nest in January. Another thing that has been odd when they did nest it would be just one pair and the other pare just waited to help with the babies. The one time they both nested was awful and hilarious at the same time. They kept stealing each others eggs. After a while both pair abandoned their nests.

I feed them softened grain and veggies for breakfast and give them enough that their are leftovers. They really enjoy it and sometimes don't even eat much of their seeds in the evening.
They are not getting that much protein with this way of feeding.

One of the cockatiels is loosing some feather around it's eyes. I would not think anything about it but none of the others are doing it. The Tiel is active, eats well and perches with the others at night. Does anyone know why one out of so many is doing this?

Rambo, the pedestrian. was all over the house in NC but has been staying in one room here. I thought it was because he had his own window so I just went in to visit him a lot. I really missed him being under my feet. And he was not getting the hand outs and constant contact that he did before. I did not want to move his cage so I set up another one against the dining room table opposite Myrtle. I set it up the same way I always do in 3 layered sections. Top is cardboard boxes. The second level is a feeding station and the bottom has all his foot toys. He took to it right away. I gave him an "airy" cardboard box on the top in case he has to duck in if Myrtle decides to swoop him. My old Rambo is back. He tries to keep up with the conversations (Aunt B spends most of her day in the dining room). He climbs up and down the side of the cage and is starting to move around the house and even follow me from room to room. I feel so much better now and I know he does.

Myrtles love of my son has made her a real pain in the butt for him. He can't step in the door before she lands on him. He can't stand it when she screams and has to push her off. It turns into a situations that he is always throwing her off and telling her no. She has really started to annoy him. I was very surprised then that, while we were doing our running together we got on the subject of Amazon age and that I will go before them, he told me not to worry about Myrtle that he would take her and care for her. Surprise I didn't see that coming. I feel better that I no longer have to worry about them.

Well, I just dumped a lot of info. I hope you all have suggestion and continue to give me input for my babies.

[Pajarita]

Well, you posted on another thread that you are turning off their full spectrum lights at 5pm and I am doing it between 3 and 3:30 pm (depending on how bright the day is) this time of the year so your birds are getting an artificially long day, Liz, as well as an artificially long season (a 2 hour difference means about a 3 month difference in real season time because the rule of thumb is 20 minutes every 2 weeks or so). They are also not getting the benefit of dusk so, although you are turning on the 'stop watch' at the right time, you are not really turning it off. That's why they are producing sexual hormones in December.

You should also check the Ktemp on your full spectrum because, this time of the year and for species as opportunistic as cockatiels are, you should be using nothing higher than 5000 -which is not easy to find with good CRI.

[liz]

Thank you both. Okay, their light will go off at 4 pm today and reduce back to 3 pm. It turns on at 9 am. Is that okay?

[Wolf]

What time does the sun rise where you are? I am sure that you have noticed that it get light and dark differently in flatland than it does in the mountains. I know that where I am that 10 am is good at this time of year for turning on the full spectrum light.

[liz]

7 am is dawn here. I don't turn on their light and feed them until 9 am. It does not get dark until about 6 pm. In the Philippines it was 6 to 6 with no dawn or dusk. It was like a light switch.

Should I go to 10 am now?

[Pajarita]

It's not a matter of time by the clock, it's a matter of the amount of light on the sky. When the sky is completely lit and you see the sunrays shining a good bit into the room, you turn on the overhead lights. And, when you see the sun halfway down to the horizon, you turn them off.

The thing with full spectrum lights is that they reproduce noon light so you need to turn it off and give the birds a 'lesser' light for a while BEFORE dusk even starts. I should actually turn off the lights at 3 pm every day but, as the days are so short here in the Northeast, I stretch them a bit by doing it at 3:30 and giving them a shorter dusk.

So, don't go by the clock, just keep on looking at the sky and you will know -after a while, it becomes second nature and your brain develops a clock of its own because I can be anywhere (somebody else's home, a store, driving on the road, etc) and my brain seems to be constantly registering the amount of light, calculating how long it will take me to get back and whether I will make in in time for the parrots not to miss their dusk and an alarm goes off when it's time to get back (I drive my husband crazy with this )

[Wolf]

I don't know, I have always used the sun and/ or the amount of light for time keeping and mostly relate that to events that should be occurring at that time, I have to look at a clock for what time it is. Even as I am this way there are other people that never develop this type of time sense they rely on clocks, so I do try to understand and work with people who have to use clock time. But you are right about how it works for me too when it comes to things that I need to do for my animals, which is now my primary use for time other than cooking.

[Pajarita]

I think that we all start with doing these things by the clock and, as we keep on doing them month after month, year after year, they become second nature... it's kind of like cooking, at the beginning, we all use measurements and the clock but as the years go by, we no longer use recipes but cook by 'the seat of our pants'

[Wolf]

Mostly true, Pajarita, but not always. I worked for years with people that never got past the clock stage even though they would have been much better if they had developed this sense of timing. Some just don't make it there. I am actually just the opposite and have difficulties with working with clock time. I also have difficulties with remembering dates, days of the week as far as saying this is Thursday or Friday, but I know what and when something is supposed to happen.
I always know feeding times, or how long to cook something, I wake up when I want to, I may not remember the day of the week or the month, but I always know when to hunt for what foods I know animal or plant, I know the timing of the seasons, planting times for what we grow. While training race horses I knew when the horse was working at the appropriate speeds which is measured by stopwatches unless you are doing the riding, then you have to feel it.

[liz]

Wolf, you are so far ahead of me. I wake up at 5 am whether I want to or not. Everything else has to go by the clock. I pushed it to 10 am today but got a lot of complaints. The sun is still up and coming through their window at 3 pm so I will turn it off then.
Pajarita, give me a heads up when you change your times.