It's Winter here in Toronto Canada. It gets dark early in the evening about 4:30 to 5 pm. My birds climb up high on their swings & chat/complain LOUDLY, rocking back & forth while staring at me. THEY WANT TO GO TO SLEEP !

They want a blanket over their cage & want to sleep. If I don't do this for them ... they really complain & make a fuss. They have taught me & trained me to notice them well.

 

I suppose it helps them to rest more, as they were molting during the last few months. I hear that sleep & darkness helped them get better faster. So ... I let them have this quiet time.

 

I also notice that they didn't want to get up until 8 am or later the next morning. They waited until the light was just right. Even though I put lights on in their room for them. They have their own rules & likes & dislikes with the weather & light.

 

How do your birds fare with the time change & light change of the seasons where you are ? Do you notice the difference when Spring comes & its lighter earlier & stays light longer ? I'm curious to see how others notice what their birds want & how they show you ?

 

Please let me know if you notice any changes during the seasons like I have.

 

I have talked to people who tell me they don't cover their birds till 10 pm at night as they are still active & playing & talking. I think that's great & yet strange, noticing the way my birds live.

 

Thanks.

I don't notice a change in my birds with the seasons... The light changes and they go by the lights.... Sun up, birds up... Sun down, birds down so it does become earlier or later especially now with daylight savings, but still the same rules

Well the budgies are down here in the loungeroom, so even during winter we have lights on and they'll stay up until we put them to bed. The tiels get the bedroom light on also if it's dark and they're in their cage before it's bed time. I put all my guys to bed about 9:30pm - 10pm. At about this time they've all started calming down and some of them come over to sit quietly and chatter to me.

My flock's the same as Libby's. They're outside in the avairy so it's up and down with the sun. They seem to be quite happy to adjust to the seasons as needed. I used to put a tarpoline cover over the front of the avairy in winter but have stopped doing it now. I found it covered only half of it, and they all used to sleep in the uncovered bit so I didn't see the point of it.

Thanks for the responses. I understand the sun up bird up & sun down bird down rule. Makes more sense if your birds are in an outside aviary. But inside ... ?

 

I really am surprised that your birds will stay up late Bea.

 

10 pm would never work in this house. I start getting told off much earlier then that.

 

My birds have me trained the way they like.

:ygbudgie: I don't get home from work until 1700 or later so when I come in the door, the budgies strike up the band and the lovebirds and tiels start hollering to get let out so it's a very noisy time, dark or not. They don't like me getting up at 0530 as it's dark and will sing a little song but are dozing again by the time I leave the house just before 0700. It get's light just before 0800 now and they don't mind waking up a bit earlier in the spring and summer. We go to bed between 2130 and 2200 but nobody really asks me to go to bed, they just get quiet and everybody goes back into their cages, party time is over with. (And then the hamster and hedgehog come alive and start running on their wheels, even though they have supposedly "silent spinners", I close my bedroom door and I don't think it bothers the birds).

Edited January 27, 200817 yr by Phoebe

l usually will put them to bed around 9pm - 11pm at night

Merlin is covered around 7=8pm he goes to bed the same time the kids too (Laughing out loud) and then in the morning I uncover him around 7AM when I go in my office before the kids wake up for school.

This gets more interesting with all the replys.

 

As I see it ... I am OWNED by my 2 birds.

 

They make the rules here. I have to do what they want ... or there is no peace in the household.

 

Maybe I am a budgie push over. Hmmm ..... I feel such a fool.

(Laughing out loud) I am owned my my 2 kids too but they can't do whatever they want , we have to have rules here for the kids, the birds, the dogs, the cats or it would be chaotic.

 

I saw that you asked specific questions too as the days get longer you will find that the birds do start calling for spring weather and perk up. I get a magazine that talks about wild bird and in the end of January and February the chick-a-dees and other birds that stay for the winter start to chatter more. I personally noticed that when I let my dogs out. It is natures' way of saying warm weather is on the way. The birds will start to mate in the end of Feb and March per the newsletter and build nests. I find it amazing how nature controls the cycles of different animals. Even the skunks are going to start appearing after the winter hibernation here in Feb. I love this magazine it is geared to where I live which is Ohio, USA and it talks about what to expect over the next 4 weeks of February and then the next issues talks about March etc...and what to look for.

 

When spring comes I found my budgie (s) to become "more stinky" or hormonal to help reduce this behavior covering them up a bit earlier and keeping them covered a bit later will help curb the hormonal stage which will be coming up for us in the winter areas.

 

Interesting stuff for sure.

Edited January 28, 200817 yr by Elly

WOW ! Sounds like a great magazine to check out Elly.

 

Since this will be the 1st Spring I have had these 2 birds ... it will be interesting to see them perk up with the light change. I'm sure they will be up later on when its light, as they were this summer when I first got them.

 

It seems sad that they get so quiet & almost moody with Winter even though they are house birds & there is artificial light to stimulate them.

 

It's interesting to see that they ignore the fake light & play by natures rules.

 

Nature always rules.

:ygbudgie: Interesting about your budgies NickNack, it's 2130 here, the snow is coming down and everybody is still rocking and a rolling (but winding down). Like I say, I am away all day so this is their time to let loose!

Merlin was cranky a when winter really first starts then he started molting so that didn't help. He is now done with his molt and flirty as ever (Laughing out loud). Many animals work on nature's sunlight. I know that shedding with dogs works the same way it is not the heat but the daylight hours that increase and decrease shedding. I remember watching a T.V. special on that years ago.

I've noticed that the light is earlier in the morning here & it doesn't grow dark as fast as it was previous. The birds are up earlier & more active.

 

Thank god that last molt seems to have passed.

 

But they still want to sleep & be quiet as soon as its dark here. 5:30pm.

 

But I suppose its okay ... they've been awake since 7:30am & playing & busy all day.

 

Like I said ... they OWN me. I am their Budgie Master.