# Bedtime routine



## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

I was wondering if anyone has a bedtime routine for their tiels?

This is Spike's bedtime routine  
1. I wipe down his grate and change his paper towel liner that is on top of a newspaper layer.

2. I change his water, there is nothing worse than taking a sip of stale water in the middle of the night 

3. At 9:00pm I turn on his night light and give him until 9:30pm to eat his night time snack.

4. At 9:30 I ask him if he wants to go to bed :wacko:  and then I say good night and I cover him up with his white cover but not all the way. He has the sides open a bit to come down off of his sleeping perch and peek out if he wants too. I then put on his mosquitoe net. Yes mosquitoe net as sometimes a mosquitoe will get inside and Iam over protective :blush: and worry about west nile and canary pox and who knows what else. Who wants a mosquitoe bite anyway.

5. I turn out the room light and type on the computer by the light of my computer screen 

He gets uncovered at 10:00am in the morning


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

Mine's changed a bit! I start after I've watched my TV shows which is 7:30pm..

1. Take out each tray from the 3 cages, give them a good scrub, dry them and put paper towels on them.

2. Scrub the bottom grates in each cage, dry them.

3. Put everything back into the cage once dry/finished.

4. Get food and water dishes out of each cage and wash them.

5. Put fresh food and water in dishes.. put it back in cages.

6. Bed time, which is about 8pm sometimes I'll let them have until 8:30.

7. Give Shiro his lamp, cover the sides and back of cage.

8. Cover the other 2 cages (the girls cage and the 2 boys' cage)

ETA: Uncovered at 9:30am-10:00am.


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## ReniLyn (Mar 30, 2009)

We have one routine for the parents and one for the grandpa:

Parents:

At 7:30 (give or take a few moments) everyone comes out to get flight time or (in the case of my mama bird) sitting on the fold out door time if they like. That lasts until about 9pm. At 9, we wrangle (more on the wrangle thing later lol) them up and put them in their cage. As I need another hour or so of "daylight" to give them, I come back down at 10pm to turn off their light and cover them up. By then not only are the tiels in bed, but so is my husband 

Grandpa:

Grandpa comes out at 7:30 with everyone else for flight time. He flies for the first 5 minutes or so and then goes to **** off the papa bird. Once he has successfully completed this, he preens on top of their cage until 9pm, then I start the "wrangling" process. Where I spend the next 15 minutes trying to get:

a) the papa bird into the cage. He cannot seem to fathom that the door that he came out of in the first place-is the one he needs to go back in. So one of two things happen. We either coax him to fly around the room until he lands on the floor and allows us to "take him" to the door. Or, we sit and laugh while he ponders the top, sides and back (NEVER THE FRONT) of the cage. Eventually he will fly around (yet again) until he lands on the floor and we take him back in through the door.

b) Grandpa. Well about this time Grandpa has grown tired of our games and wants to hop onto a perch (he will not step up onto anything else at night... just a plain ole wood perch) and snuggle on my chest while I take him upstairs for bed. He then gets covered and is probably snoring before I walk out of the room.

I'm not sure, but I'm fairly positive that they all laugh their lil feathered hinds off when we walk out of the room after all this clownery!


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## atvchick95 (Sep 17, 2007)

8 pm last time changing of food and water for the night
that takes til 8:30 

9 pm lights out in the bird room, conures /budgie in quarantine get covered and lights out 
love birds in my room and my sons room covered and lights out in my sons room, big light out in my room (lamp still on - i still have to be able to see ya know lol) 

10:30 - Quakers in living room are put in their cages and put to bed and covered for the night 

I am not sure why they get special privileges and get to stay up past 9 and no one else does - That's the room my boyfriend spends all his time in So they're his "responsibility" I just have to clean the cages 

but i make sure all the other birds are in bed at 9 

bird room birds are up by 7 am , birds in my room are up by 8 -when i open my door back up and they can hear the other birds chirping - so i uncover them, get the babies out and feed them, put them back, uncover Sheba (my dog) Yes her crate gets covered when she goes to bed as well. take her out to go potty. bring her back in and change the food and water of all the birds for the morning


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## ReniLyn (Mar 30, 2009)

Oh and since everyone here is a nighttime cleaner, I suppose I should mention I do that in the morning lol


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## Guest (Apr 30, 2009)

hmm im a bit different

here at about sunset the wild birds get exited outside and my ones here get excited by the wild ones we start our bed time 

first they have thier steamed rice and once they are finished with that they all get on top of the cage for the ride to the bedroom

once in there i re open the cage and they crawl on in and race to the seed containers for a last snack

i have some old sheets and a old blanket cut and sewn so they are cage covers and i put the sheet over first then the blanket

in winter we have a babies electric blanket under the cage to keep them warm

( Air temp inside is 71 tops when it was 54 outside i've tested)

they almost always go to bed without any coaxing

they are used to it and happy to have a nice sleep

then at dawn we all get up and have breakfast

chicken and eshka get 1/4 slice of dry wholegrain toast between them and some fruit and wild grass seed or similar depending on the season while i try to have my breakfast but most days they end up joining me for my breakfast then returning to thier own once mine is gone

after breakfast we clean the cage and have a shower if "we " are wishing othewise i have a shower and they just watch but often they'll jump to a shoulder so i can put my arm out through the shower spray and they can walk the arm until they are done 

then we vacum the floor where breakfast was and they ride the vacum cleaner hose and we are ready for a full day of cockatiel mischeif

and when sunset comes we start the whole thing again

the only time they have not wanted to go to bed was when there was thunder and lightning everywhere and then they would not leave my shoulders but snooxed there until the storm passed then went to bed making happy noises

i've found if they have a full nights sleep they are happy chirpy and full of beans but get sullen and easy to upset if shortchanged on sleep

i had to get them up at 2 am recently to attend ANZAC Day here and they where not happy when i woke them or when i got home about 3 pm but they where ok the next day.. Sleep is important for your birds i think

cheers

jack


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## ReniLyn (Mar 30, 2009)

Jack404 said:


> hmm im a bit different
> 
> here at about sunset the wild birds get exited outside and my ones here get excited by the wild ones we start our bed time
> 
> ...


You are just too sweet Jack


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## skylerevers (Jan 18, 2009)

Around 7:30 Louie and I have a snack in the living room together and watch television, he usually munches on either millet or if what I'm eating seems interesting he'll eat that  

8:30 I put him ontop of his cage while I clean it, give fresh seeds and water. 

9:00 He comes into my parents room and says goodnight to them, he usually runs all over their king-sized bed and gives my mother kissies, heh.

9:30 he's in his cage, covered up and night light on.

Then around 10-11AM he's uncovered and eats his breakfast


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## olive juice (Mar 30, 2009)

It depends on if I'm working or not. My shifts are 3pm to 11pm so clearly that interrupts the evening/night routine.

If I DON'T have work..
1. At 7:00, I take out their fresh food (which I put in a couple hours earlier) and dump it.
2. At 7:30, I put Halley's seed dish back in (little bit of seed, the rest is pellets), which he promptly pounces on and eats until about 8. (Echo's seed dish doesn't leave her cage, at least not yet anyway.)
3. I wipe down the grates/sides of the cages, change the paper, and clean out the water dishes and give them fresh water.
4. 9:00. I cover them both. Echo's cage is in my roommate's room, and he turns the light off then and either watches TV or is on his computer until he goes to sleep. Halley's cage in the living room, and similar deal if I'm in here watching TV or on my computer.

They're usually uncovered by 10 - 11 am.

If I'm at work, my roommate does the nightly feeding routine and covers them, and when I come home I'll lift their covers to say goodnight. Sometimes I clean their grates but I hate disturbing them so usually I leave it for the morning. I give them fresh water if my roommate didn't though.

Annnd they're up much earlier (and they get their breakfast of fresh food earlier too) during school. Usually 8-9 AM, depending on when I have class.


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