Help.thing my ird isnt sleeping :S

[marvix]

hi there.. this is my first post..hope i`ll get help here.

i got this female irn like 2 weeks ago.. and things are going well i think coz it started eating of my hand and i can touch her easy , but she still get afraid of me some times.

the problem is, when ever i turn the lights off ( i have her cage in my bedroom) she would leave the bar and climb the cage up, and just hang there for the whole night, and i doubt that she can sleep that way, or i dunno..

is there any explanation for this behavior? and how i can solve it?

i have lot more questions ofc..but i want to get her sleeping first :S

thanks for the great site and forums

[julie]

my aviary birds sleep like that. my inside birds climb to the top when i start turning lights off.I think its a safety thing.

[marvix]

my aviary birds sleep like that. my inside birds climb to the top when i start turning lights off.I think its a safety thing.

thanks for that.. i feel a bit relax now..but still.. i want to know why he only climb the cage when i turn the lights off.. usually he dont move of his bar at all..only to eat

[kimmy]

all my babies did it when i first got them but they don't do it anymore lol!

[marvix]

all my babies did it when i first got them but they don't do it anymore lol!

nice to hear that too

now i have few more questions. or should i make a new post? ^^

any way. i`ll just say 1 thing. my irn now can eat of my hand while she is in her cage, after i open the cage from above side,
but when i try to get my fingers closer to her feet to get her to step up, it would freak out and jump to the cage bars :S

im sure i can get her on my fingers..its just that i need to do it in a better way i guess =\

[ellieelectrons]

There are a few ways people teach stepping up... some believe in shoving their finger into the bird's chest and more or less forcing them to step up. With my birds, I try to get them to want to step up... I do it with food and rewards.

My fav bird person (Barbara Heidenreich) suggests you start by getting your bird on a T-perch or equivalent and make it so that your hand or finger is more or less an extension of the perch. When the bird takes steps towards your hand, you reward it with it's favourite food treat (just a small amount). You keep doing this over time... and after several training sessions, you should be rewarding it for stepping onto your hand. Also, be sure to use a command such as "step up" when you want it to get onto your hand... so that it will start to learn the command and know what to do.

I hope that makes sense... I've briefly explained a reasonably long, complex process. Let me know if you have any questions.

Ellie.

[marvix]

thanks ellie.

forcing her to step up over my fingers doesn't work coz she would easily run away > but i did try the feeding thing.. mine like to eat Dates and after like 2 hours without food (i took her food out) i actually managed to get get follow my hands out of the cage for from the top side and standing on the edge. after that i started offering the date farther than she can reach and offered my fingers. she was scared, but she did it and went over my fingers , that's only happened once tho. and she wont do that any more now.

how i can keep her doing that and not just for once ?

[ellieelectrons]

Keep the treats really small. For example, with our birds, their treats are granulated nuts... so if you're using dates... cut them up really finely so they go further.

It sounds like you did really well with your first training session. Taming your bird is a gradual process... and you need to celebrate every small success.

I don't remove food from their cage but I do remove luxury foods from their regular diet. For example, I only give them bananas, nuts and the occasional tiny crumb of a cracker as reward food. You could also try scheduling their training sessions in the morning before you replenish their foods.

Also, if you have an out-of-cage play area such as a birdie gym, you could try to start teaching them some tricks like the turnaround.. it's a good one to start with because it doesn't require you to touch your bird.

Time and patience... and a small amount of smarts... and you'll get there.

Ellie.

[marvix]

hi Ellie mate. thanks for ur answers again.

well..yesterday i went farther in my training
i let her leave the cage and hang out of it, then i closed the cage, and she was trying after that to get back in, but she couldn't ofc coz no way in

any way..i started chasing her gently not far of the cage, and was doing than slowly and while talking to her, till she got calmed, and i offered my hand with a small push and she went up without offering food was so happy when that happened.and after few mints it started eating of my hand, and i even gave her a sun flower seed of my lips

but she still kinda of scared and not 100% comfortable with me yet doing that.. is this will go after doing the same thing more and more?

and yeah..her fingers nails cut throw my arm and scratch my fingers alot :S whats the easiest way to cut her nails without going to the vet ?

thanks again ellie

one more thing.. can she sleep if there is light? or she need 100% dark?

[ellieelectrons]

Congrats on your recent successes!

but she still kinda of scared and not 100% comfortable with me yet doing that.. is this will go after doing the same thing more and more?

In general, you should expect it to improve... however, sometimes you will find that something that a bird permits once... if it didn't like it, once it understands what you are trying to do, it will be more inclined to resist it in the future. This can be especially true for young birds who didn't really understand what was going on at first... it takes them a little while to process whether they liked it or not.

and yeah..her fingers nails cut throw my arm and scratch my fingers alot :S whats the easiest way to cut her nails without going to the vet ?

Personally, I would go to a vet... or a pet store that you really, really, really trust. You can do it yourself with an emery board or something.. but I wouldn't recommend it... especially if your bird isn't tame... it will make them scared of you. We boarded Janey for one night at a bird experts house and she offered to grind back her nails. She had a machine to do it. After we got her home, she couldn't grip onto her tree or perches properly for a while... so I vowed I would only let a vet do it again.

The other thing to think about is giving her enough perches that will do this naturally. Thick natural branches as perches are perfect. I recently purchased a cement swing which seems to work well. For me, I've found other things that claim to do this, just tend to serve to sharpen the claws further. I have read that some people recommend sand paper... but I don't think this is a good idea... as I've heard it can make your birds feet bleed... so I would never use this.

one more thing.. can she sleep if there is light? or she need 100% dark?

They will sleep during the day when there is light... but they like it best to sleep in the dark. We put a cover over ours... it's not completely dark in there but there are fewer distractions.

Best wishes your new addition. I hope you see continued improvement. Just remember to be patient.... and celebrate the little things.

Ellie.

[marvix]

again and again.. thanks Ellie

i hope that she`ll understand that am doing my best to make her happy soon ..only problem that i work 10 hours a aday. so after 6-7 hours sleeping i`ll leave to work for another 10 hours..so i only have like 4-5 hours to spend with her..maybe that will make it take longer to get used on me.

we dont have lot of pet shops nor vet close for me here, wish we did, things would be much easier

ok..i tried that nail board after i covered her with some cloth..she didn't get upset and i didn't hurt her at all.. all i did was moving the board few times over each nail and now i can let her stand over my arm or finger with no problem

i`ll try to find a cement swing at the pet shop and hope it will works

thanks for ur answers ellie <3