I'm not quite sure how much sleep my new Budgie needs. I've read that they need 12 hours of sleep. I've also read that one should keep the cage covered for 13 hours to make sure they get 12 hours of sleep. What do you guys do? I've been covering his cage for 13 hours, but I just want to make sure what I'm doing is right. Thanks everyone! :greenb:

The general rule about 12 hours of sleep for parrots is because most of them live nearer to the equator, where the days and nights are roughly equal. If left to their own devices, mine would wake up with the sun and go to sleep when it goes down, with naps in the early to mid afternoon. In winter they will wake up later and go to bed at 4:00 pm when it gets dark if I forget to leave the light on in their room! I hate to not see them, so I will keep them up until 8:00 pm or so, so that I can hang with them awhile after work. I normally allow mine roughly 12 - 14 hours of awake time, unless they become hormonal and interested in breeding, then I restrict their daylight hours to 10 or less. I think if your bird is awake and active most of the day, he is getting enough sleep. If he seems grumpy or out of sorts he's probably not getting enough, provided he's healthy. 10 - 12 hours of sleep is probably ideal, in my opinion.

okay, sounds like I was on the right track. Thanks for the advice Rainbow.

You really should cover them at just after dusk (all birds 'chatter' after dusk) & uncover them just after dawn which is a wild birds normal routine.

okay, maybe I'll try that. Sunrise is usually around 7:00AM and sunset around 6:00PM. This is very doable for me since I'm an early bird meself. I can't wait 'til summer in this case, so that I can have K'ulli around 'til 8:00PM.

too much light can make them moult a lot more

okay, here's an update on K'ulli (and his new friends ). I have them on the following schedule. Sunrise here is around 6:30 AM right now. I'm up pretty early, usually 5:30 or 6:00, so I putter around for a while feeding and watering the cats, having breakfast, etc. Then around 6:20 I turn on the lamp (just a nice floor lamp with a shade and two 60watt bulbs, as it gets quite bright during the day) next to their cage and about 5 minutes later I take the cover off. It's really nice because they sing with the birds getting up outside too. Sunset is around 6:30 PM. I turn off their lamp right as the sun goes down and then about 10 minutes later I cover their cage for the night. It works really well with my schedule and my little guys seem to agree with it too.

Edited March 10, 200619 yr by VroomVroom

sounds good!my avairy nbirds get let out fed watered at 7:00am and put to bed at about 6:30 to 7:00pm this when it is already dark in the summ er it will change indoor birds goet up at the same time as the others and go to bed at 9:00pm but are usaully woken upp when i go to bed for 5min wiel i get in bed