Reaction to covering cage at night

[sighthoundlover]

I have a 3 month old blueheaded pionus and have only had him for 5 days. Soon after I brought him home I discovered he had a nasal discharge. I took him to an avian certified vet who told me he had a respiratory infection. In addition to running tests, giving me antibiotics and nose drops to administer, and having me move him to a smaller cage, she suggested that I might cover his cage at night to make him feel secure and ensure he got a full 12 hours sleep. I covered his cage on Monday and Tuesday night, but after starting to cover his cage again tonight I decided to abandon this idea due to his reaction. Every time I started to cover his cage he started to climb all over the cage in what I thought was a rather frantic or excited state. The first two nights I covered it and he eventually settled down, but tonight - the third night - I started to feel strongly that the reaction was a stress response. I couldn't really come up with any other theory that made sense to me. It didn't really make sense to me that covering the cage would cause an excited response that was based on happiness! Would love to hear others opinions of his reaction, if other people have seen a similar reaction in their birds to covering the cage, and theories on why covering a cage would produce a stressful response.

[Michael]

Don't know in your case but when I start covering my birds' cages they start climbing to get to their favorite sleeping perch.

[cml]

Don't know in your case but when I start covering my birds' cages they start climbing to get to their favorite sleeping perch.

Same here, but justbefore covering his cage, we say "Time to sleep, good night" repeatidly and keep saying it while
covering the cage . Our littl white-fonted then does as michaels parrots, climbes to his sleeping perch and falls asleep immediatly!

[Cage Cleaner]

K

[liz]

Try covering the top and three sides with the open side to the middle of the room so he can see. It will eliminate some draft and hold his body heat in.

My tiels want to see out so that's how I do it.

[coral]

my blue headed pionus had an upper resperitory and bacterial infection when i got him. if hes stressed he'll do this little pant and wing flap. whenever i cover his cage he climbs to his perch and i cover all the sides except one so he can see me. He'll get used to it over time but id wait until hes not sick anymore