# What time do you send your cockatiel to sleep and when do you wake him/her up?



## aquaabby13

Hey, I was just wondering what time do you send a cockatiel to sleep and also a time to wake it up? Please answer! I usually send it to bed at 9 or 8:30PM and uncover it's cage at about 8 or 9AM. Is this okay? Is it too late? Too early? If so, please tell me the correct time or the time that your cockatiel goes.


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## *Snowy*

I usually cover Snowy when im going to bed, around half 9 or 10, but Snowy is in the dark before i cover him up so he has a chance to sleep before i cover him.
Snowy usually wakes up around half seven or eight, and if im not up when whistles so i get up and uncover him. 
cockatiels have to get around 12 hours of sleep though.


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## clawnz

In the wild they would naturally settle at dusk and wake at first light and needless to say this will vary as the seasons change.
While I understand that a lot of birds in captivity may be kept up after dark. It could be debatable where this is good for them or not.
As for how many hours sleep they need this is also an open question.
Females do need to have 12+ shut down time a day to keep them from becoming nesty and this may not always work anyway.
And it would be the same for the males, but may not show up in their behavior, so much. 
Example here in NZ it is light by 6.30 am and I hear my birds before then and they do not shut down till around 8.30pm as it is still light then. So here in summer time (Breeding time) they are only getting 10hrs sleep.
Remember these are free roaming birds not caged so are free to sleep when they feel it is time and the same with being up in the morning.


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## hysteriauk

zippy's usual bedtime is around 8pm and he get's uncovered around 8am but am trying out some hormonal techniques to calm him down so his bed time is 6pm he does not go to sleep straight away as he likes to play with his toys for a bit . He is very good in the morning tho If I sleep in he will stay quiet until I get up .


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## ~SarahJayne~

We do 9:30 wake up, 10am open cage, 10pm back in cage, covered by 10:30. On days we both work and she has to get up earlier, she goes to bed earlier. It fits well with our schedule as her cage is in our bedroom, she seems happy and rested, and if she starts getting hormonal, we have plenty of leeway to adjust her bedtime. When winter comes around we'll shift it an hour earlier to coincide with daylight hours.


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## stevechurch2222

Snickers and Cinnamon go to bed at 8:30pm at night and they wake up around 8:30am in the morning.Snickers sings in the morning about 8:30am so then we get them up,let them eat and drink and let them out of their cage until their 8:30pm bed time.


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## vampiric_conure

My stinkers are in bed about 10-11 pm and are covered until 9-10 in the morning. Sometimes they're up earlier, sometimes later- really depends on my schedule.


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## hanna

Average time for Joe to get covered is 8:30 pm, sometimes he doesn't like it hough, hissing and carrying on, bowing down .... but he wakes US every morning about 6-6:30am. During the day he is able to have nap time too.
When we are at home his cage door is open so he can go in and out as he wants to, hang out on his tree, relax, nap, preen, play....
( Atm he's fully flighted ( no wings clipped ) but he just prefers to climb up and down his tree and cage, he doesn't fly much at all... if he does most times from my shoulder back to his "resort"  )


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## sonic123

my cockatiels when they know that the light is off in the living room they start to go to sleep and when i wake up in the morning they know its already morning


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## Seven11

I usually work until 10, so I'm home by about 10:15 I usually put Buddie to sleep around 10:30pm then head over to my girlfriends house to sleep and I'm back over to wake her up at 10:30am to spend about 4 hours with her before going back to work. (I hope this is a bad why to do it).


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## moonchild

Mine go to bed between 10 and 11, and get uncovered around 11. It's hard to be 100% consistent as I have a weird work schedule.


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## OOwl

I'm almost ashamed to admit this but my parrots keep my hours. I work from home, and I'm a night owl, so they stay up with me until at least 11pm, sometimes later. They wake up themselves around 8:30am. Now, that's not 12 hours, yet I see absolutely no signs of stress in them at all. The Galah, the Grey, and one of the Lovebirds are all ten or over ten years old, and have always lived like that. They DO take a nap mid-afternoon, so maybe that's how they cope. None pick feathers or have any behavioral problems at all. My female lovebird has only laid one egg in her entire ten years (I've had her since she was weaned) and that was five years ago. They all go to the vet for checkups and not one has ever suffered from an illness. So, while I certainly respect that which is written about parrots requiring sleep from dusk to dawn, I just am not that sure how completely accurate that is. Maybe they're more adaptable and flexible than we previously have thought.


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## moonchild

The only reason I'm trying to give mine ~12 hours is because I don't want them getting overly hormonal. When I first got Juju, I let him stay up late with me and he was probably only getting around 8 hours. And BOY was he hormonal!! I didn't realize it until I introduced Moon, and suddenly Juju chose Moon as his mate and got aggressive toward me. He was acting pretty crazy. A couple of weeks of longer nights took care of that, and he's been a relatively quiet, docile guy since.

Moon and Storm on the other hand, still seem to be somewhat hormonal even with 12 hours of sleep per night. Nothing awful, but they display and fight over Freya, the only female. While Juju doesn't care at all. So, maybe different birds require different amounts of sleep to prevent them from going into "breeding mode"? Not sure. I almost wonder if going from 12 hours of sleep to 10 or so would change anything with my guys. It would give me more time with them, which would certainly be a good thing.


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## Khani193

Our cage is in our lounge/tv room. Popeye puts himself to bed around 6:30 pm and Alpha usually joins him. Freya however I usually put in the cage and then cover it around 8:30. they seem to settle down to sleep even with the noise from the tv on. We usually head to bed around midnight, I say night-night to the birdies and usually get a sleepy chirp.
They get uncovered around 7:00am. On hot nights their cage gets rolled into the computer room which is darker and they stay there uncovered for the night.


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## Fredandiris

Lately, my birds have been going to bed at 7. It's been getting dark at 5:30 here and the sun comes up at 6 or so. The birds have been waking up at 8-9 though. 

In the spring-summer they go to bed at 8


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## dearblythe

I usually cover Sadie up at around 9:30pm and she's uncovered by 9am.


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## Nadley

On normal work days, I cover Ralph at 8:00 PM and uncover her at 8:00 AM right before I leave for work. If it's the weekend, I might put her to bed an hour or two later, but I still make sure she gets 12 hours covered. We have a good routine going. I fill the food dishes 30 minutes before covering Ralph, she goes in the cage on her own to eat, then I shut the door and when she's done eating I cover her. It's easier to get her to go in for the night when there's a meal waiting for her!


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## flippityjib

I have been trying to get them settled by 9:00 pm. I get up at 7:00 and it's still pretty dark in their room then, so I would say they don't really wake up until close to 8:00 when I have to go to work.
Right now they don't get to be out of the cage when I'm not home and right there to watch them. They are out most of any day on any day that I'm home.


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## retrochick

My cockatiels 'tell' me when it is time to go to bed, especially the youngest one! It is usually about 8pm. I uncover them between 8-9am.


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## NyckaTiel

My two usually go to bed at dark, which for this time of year is 5 or 5:30, but they are up at 5 or 5:30 as well, so always getting about 12 hours of sleep, on weekends, my days off they are never locked up, Goliath always wants to be with me, doing what ever I am doing, or eating what I am eating, LOL. Cleo usually wants to be with me for a little bit, then she is of to her apple tree on top of the cage to play, or on the play gym, or even in the cage to play with toys. I usually try to keep bed time and rise time as close to sun set and sun up as I can, but I don't open the cage for at least 20 min after I uncover them. Giving them time to wake up fully. If I don't get the cage covered by 6 they are calling me, telling me it's bedtime!


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