How long do you leave your IRN alone in its cage all day?

[jmlw7]

We've had Remy for almost two months now, and although she (99.9% sure it's a she ) is doing great, not a day goes by that we dont worry sick about her left home all alone while we are away working long hours. When she gets older, maybe we'll let her do as she pleases and keep her out of her cage to come/go freely all day long if we get her own birdy room/area, but for now, no can do.

Mon-Thurs:
645am - wake up and let Remy out
745am - put Remy back in cage and leave for work
730pm - get home and let Remy out
830-1100pm - Remy stays out until she puts herself to bed anywhere in this time frame

Fri, Sat, Sun:
Out all day from when we wake 900am-bedtime (unless we go away for a two days and 1 night (sat/sun), which isnt often, but so far has been 3x busy month)

The concern is ever since Remy started going to bed when the sun goes down (not all the time, but 830ish sometimes as it's almost summer here), she doesnt really spent much time outside of her cage during the weekdays. The past couple of nights, she's been so pooped she put herself to bed at 830pm and has only been outside of her cage for an hour.

We dont want her to get bored and go crazy inside her cage being left alone in there all day long. She has PLENTY of foraging activities - at least 5 hanging foraging toys, 5 foot foraging toys, some more wood, cotton, plastic, leather, etc etc material toys to chew on and play with, a big cage, great diet, etc. BUT its really just Remy all alone for about 12 hours on the worst traffic day.

So far it works, and Remy still seems super happy and loving and content, but she is a baby - only 9 months old. We dont want her to grow older being a miserably bored and lonely bird.

Another bird is out of the question right now. Any advice is welcome.

Could you all post your schedules? I'm curious to know how other IRN's do alone in their cage for long hours... we are concerned. Thanks!

[ranechild]

I am often out of the house from 8 am to 8pm... but my boyfriend usually gets home around 5...

our Quaker Parrot Camo used to spend long days alone. He does ok, but only if we leave the radio on classical music. If we forget to leave the radio on, he is mighty cranky in the evening.

Fats the IRN doesn't seem to mind the being gone all day thing. though I'm pretty sure my boyfriend is always eager to get home and play with him a little

I think your birdy is probably fine. You could put on a radio for entertainment. Use timers if you like.

[InTheAir]

Hi,

When Nele goes to work with my boyfriend he spends the work whole day in the the cage.
He plays with his foraging toys and talks until about 10:30am, has a nap until lunchtime, talks, plays, has a snack and practises acrobatics around the cage for a couple hours, has an afternoon nap, then talks or plays until home time. When he gets home he zooms around the house extra fast, then continues the talk, play, eat, nap routine until 8pm which is birdy bed time.

When I'm home during the day the routine is pretty much the same but with quite a lot of flying around, as he not in the cage for most of the day.

I suspect he sleeps more on the rare occasions he does get left at home, after he's solved all the foraging toys. He is usually asleep when we get home.

He gets up at about 7:30 am and has some breakfast, chases the goldfish from outside it's tank and some flying time before work at 8.

It did take Nele awhile to adjust to our indoor light cycle, we can't face getting up at 6am hence the 8pm bedtime.

I'm guessing you have already read up on 'day' length and it's effect on hormonal urges in ringnecks?

Regards,

Claire

[Skyes_crew]

I'm a stay at home mom...but I'm also a PTA mom, a carpool mom, and right now a summer activities mom. There are plenty of times I'm away all day. I haven't seen much of a difference in my birds behavior because if it. They are stil happy to see me, spend time flying around and playing. I don't know that birds really have a concept of time except for normal instincts like eating times, and sleeping times. During breeding season and even now, I put them to bed at 8-8:30 and leave them covered until 9am. In the winter they go to bed at 7 and wake up at 8. I try to always keep them at 12-14 hours of dark. Working for them and me

[jmlw7]

thanks for the feedback everyone, I definitely do understand that longer days do weird things to the hormonal/breeding urges, so we started closing the drapes at night and leave it closed until 9am on the weekends, and as late as we can wake on the weekdays. It seems to help a bit with sleeping, but where we are more concerned, is if Remy puts herself to bed when the sun goes down - this being an hour after we get home (and we get home at 730pm), what happens when the winter comes and the sun goes down at 4-5pm? Will she have zero cage time during the weekdays? We will still open the cage when we get home at 730pm, but if she is snuggly asleep and doesnt want to come out of her cage because it is dark, that will be her stuck in her cage all day all night long.

Thoughts?

[Skyes_crew]

Is there a way she could go to work with you a couple of days per week? You could also manipulate the lighting in the winter a bit. As the sun is going down at 4-5 have a sun lamp on a timer turn on. That's the only thing I can think of.

[jmlw7]

Is there a way she could go to work with you a couple of days per week? You could also manipulate the lighting in the winter a bit. As the sun is going down at 4-5 have a sun lamp on a timer turn on. That's the only thing I can think of.

She definitely cant go to work with either of us during the week I think in the darker seasons (late fall and winter), we may bring her entire cage to the guest bedroom and leave the cage open with the guest room door shut so she can at least be "free" all day while there is sunlight, and then when we come home, we can move her and her cage back to the living room. It's pretty bird safe in there with average height ceilings but she can at least play on top of her cage and around the room if she wants. Not sure if its the best idea so far, but we have a few months to figure it out I guess.

As for the summer long days while we are gone all day, the living room really isnt the safest place to leave her outside of her cage without supervision. There are tv cords in the corner that she doesnt go in, but still not totally safe, and a lone betta bowl on the kitchen counter covered by a strainer plate right now. She is starting to fly and landed on it yesterday by choice so there goes that idea.

Is this too paranoid of us or does anyone else leave their IRN alone outside of the cage unattended for long hours?

The only time we have ever left her home alone outside of her cage was around dinnertime for 2-3 hours because she was sleepy. We knew she would put herself to bed when we left, and when we came back she was on her sleeping perch. But during the daytime with all that energy, its probably not a good idea, right?

[MissK]

There are people who leave their birds out all the time, though I'm not one of them. On the other end of the spectrum, I have Rocky in his cage all the time I am not right there to watch him. He comes out for an hour or so a day. I'm guilty, perhaps, of being overprotective, but my bird is never going to crawl out the fan vent in the kitchen or chew through a window screen or have an unfortunate run-in with the dogs or even simply get lost in the house. As well, my possessions are protected from him, and he from them.

I'm quite mindful of the fact that nearly every object in my house has a different meaning for Rocky than it has for me. Those who have raised a puppy will understand what this means. Rocky would shred a $100 bill as readily as a scrap of newspaper, and look for another. They are virtually the same to him. My vintage Danish Modern lounge chairs, of which I am exceptionally fond, are just more blocks of wood to him. Fan housings to the exterior are nooks to explore, the electrical cord a chew toy, light bulbs an attractive mystery. I feel it's best all around for him to have supervision.

The flip side of this, of course, is that Rocky's cage must be large and entertaining enough to keep him happy inside most of the time. Fortunately my house is small and he can see or hear me almost all the time. Judging by his activity level and the lack of behaviour problems, I am confident that I am meeting at least enough of his needs to keep him content. Is it ideal? No. But it is adequate, and a vast improvement over his past, and the lives many IRNs lead.

-MissK

[Skyes_crew]

I'm with MissK on this one. My OCD and neurotic tendencies would make me go crazy with worry if I left my fids out while I was gone from the house. One time I accidentally left Skye on his gym. He had fallen asleep so I forgot he was there and we went out. I called my neighbor in a near panic and asked her to go over and put him up for me. Thankfully she's a bird person too!! In my crazy head there are just too many possible things to go wrong. I always err on the side of caution. Please don't feel bad about leaving your girl home during the day. You are providing her with a good stable loving home and from your other threads I know she's never bored. She has a big cage and she does get time out. She'll be just fine. There are days that I'm exhausted and all I have the energy for is to sit in my reading chair, which is in the bird room, and close my eyes and listen to them all chatter. They never seem mad at me and their behavior is always stable. I think we, as loving bird owners, tend to over think all the possibilities of doing things wrong. Our birds are probably laughing at us

[jmlw7]

Ok.. thank you for the suggestions. We have officially decided to leave her in the cage all day when we are at work - at least during mating season. She crawled under the couch pillow last week into the corner by the cushion so we are going to make sure she isnt looking for nesting spots and wouldnt be able to supervise her behavior if she is out of her cage all day while we are at work.

Maybe in the fall/winter with shorter daylight hours, but definitely NOT the spring and summer. Hope this is a good way to approach it.

[Jayjess2013]

Ours are out or day if we are home, at about 7:00am we uncover them and let them out to their fruits and veggies and playgym, then they go to bed when they are tired at about 8:00pm. When we are not home all day, we let them out for a while, put them back and take them out when we are home. On warm days we put them outside on the deck for the day and bring them in in the evening.

[AJPeter]

Shyes-crew thank you for this link and I found it very interesting to read about the routines other IRN's have, but l think my problem is not the routine but when l do not keep to the routine, for instance I make our dinner for us about 6 pm and Billie has her bowl and me mine but when she goes in to see what is in her bowl l slam the cage door shut and eat my dinner in peace. By 6.30 pm I have cleared every thing away and we sit and watch TV together, she either scoffs more seed or the fresh vergetables on her dinner plate, she used to dive in looking for the cheese bit but recently she seems to have gone off cheese.
At about 6.45 she sits on her sleeping perching and preens, then about 7 pm she shouts and l start the covering up proceedure, first a fleece wrapped aorund her cage held in place with clothes pegs and a heavieer fleece over the top.
I check under this to mke sure it is dark for her and she sleeps until l uncover her cage at 9 am! She is a bit like me and spends 20 minutes thinking about getting up then comes out and poops on the newspaper. Most of the time she misses the cage. (Do l poop on a newspaper? Seeing is believing!)
So no problem but yesterday l had a visitor who does not like Billie out of her cage, she was ever so pleased to see him and sang beutifully and then she was ever so quiet until he left two hours later and then l let her out. But becasue she had been cooped up all afternoon l left her door open at dinner time but when it came time to go to bed she refused to go back into her cage. Here my patience wears thin and l end up shouting "Get back into your Bxxxxx cage," But there is none so deaf as those who do not want to hear, and she kept this up until 8.30 pm when tricked her with a foot toy which she loves to mkae for her, back into her cage.
This has happened once before when l did not follow the routine. I hate the idea of performing seals and l do not want to train Billie to "Step up" when she is ready she will do it with out training. Already she fies to my head and allows me to lift her down to my shoulder while l play the organ but l think she is more intersted in my shirt buttons and managed to bite one off than in learning to play!
How safe are the smilles l heard they could be infected with a virus? I took some photos of her and she looks smashing. Even without her make up.
AJPeter

[Skyes_crew]

AJ your personality is divine...but dare I say a bit too brusque for your sweet Billie. You have to treat her like a lady try luring her back to her cage with a favorite treat when she's a bit off her schedule.

[sanjays mummi]

Sanjay has a huge cage, which he can fly around in, he comes out everyday for a couple of hours whilst I clean it, as soon as the fresh food and water goes in, so does he. If I go out, I leave the radio on for him. This suits us both. He has plenty of toys, but doesn't bother with them much.I think, if he had a smaller cage, he might feel stir crazy, and would need more outside time.

[AJPeter]

I bought a new cage from Northern Parrots it is Drake by Liberta, quite difficult to assemble but the trick is to leave everything as loose as possibe until the final screw is located. I read a review from lady who said it was ideal for her IRN but enother reiview said it was too small for two IRNs. So as l only had one IRN l bought it. I like it, it has wheels which make it very easy to move and the top opens which Billie loves, but the stainless steel pots are too small she tried to get into on to have a bath but she turned up her nose up at small white cooking pot placed in the bottom of her cage so she had to settle for a good soaking from a spray gun. I have to be careful with the spray gun that l do not get carried away and squirt water over the electical stuff which litters my flat. Afterwards she loves the hot air hair drier, when l check to see it is not too hot she gets really etchy until l turn the hot air on her again.
I had to go to church so l left the cage open including the top, the curtain was pulled back a little so she could see me comning back, I was gone about 3 hours, she was happy to see me when l got back but she had spent all morning on the top of her cage. I tried leaving a millet spray for her but she ignorred that and her seed containers too.
When it rains my roof leaks and l have to put out bowls out to catch the water, Billie does not like the plop of the water dripping but she will have to get used to that as my place is a one bedroom upstairs flat, it is not the cage that is too small for her but my flat! The good news about collecting rain water is l have some soft water to spay her when starts to moult
AJPeter

[Dixie-1]

If we are home Quinn's cage door is open and he is free to go in and out as he chooses.We are retired so he is mostly out except to sleep at night. If we leave he go's inside for his own safety and also because he is a little LOL

[Donovan]

My bird, Bell, is subject to my whims and the weather.

I get up around 5:30 am to go to work.
6:00 am I send the bird outside to a large cage where he can actually fly around a little. (his house cage is small, the outside cage is 7ft tall, 8ft long, 6ft wide).

So anyway, if I don't wake up early enough then he stays in the house all day and I leave the tv on for him on children's programming. Or I might leave him inside if i just don't feel like going to the trouble of taking him out.

He's outside for about 13 hours (4 days a week). When I come home and bring him in from outside i let him right back out of his (little) cage to roam the house and play Fetch and the Irritation Game for about 3 hours until bedtime.

Basically... it's not uncommon for him to be completely alone for 12-13 hours at a time. Even though I kinda feel bad for him during that time, it doesn't seem to have any real psychological impact on him.

[AJPeter]

What is the Irritation game?

AJpeter

[Donovan]

What is the Irritation game?

AJpeter

lol, that's when I'm done playing but he isn't

[AJPeter]

Lol can you understand what he says? I am begiinning to understand Billie so much so that l am thinking of writing a book called "Parrot Speak!"
AJPeter

[AJPeter]

Its funny peculiar how the situation changes Billie no longer goes into check her bowl at dinner time so l have to put up with her on her door leaning over my shoulder and if she thinks her share is less than 50/50 she climbs onto my shoulder!
Most of the day l potter around and l say "Stay" and she flies to me and if l say "Want to come?" She ignores me! But some days in the morning l go shopping or social activities and leave her out. She does not seem to fly around, does not knock things off shelves l try and remember to leave the radio on she seems quite happy with classical music, but there was some opera on the other day and she actually sang as well.
I think she would fly to the TV if l left that on. I know when l come back in she puts on a big display crouching down and flapping her wings and squealing with excitement. And then makes a dive for her food bowl.
But l have noticed that at dusk she seems quite frightened and agitated, l draw the curtains and she is all right then but l say to her it is too early and l only partly open them, but then when it gets darker l close the curtains completely.
I try and close the top of her cage down at 6 pm but she puts up quite a fight to keep it open charging from one side to the other with beak open ready to do battle with any finger that dares touch her cage. After making her point she lets me close the top slowly one bit at a time. Than l close the door with her in of course. And then about 7 she calls for her cage to be covered. I am sure she can tell the time as it is 7 pm every night.
In the morrnings l take off the covers and she looks like death warmed up and just as I am not human until the second cup of coffee she is not parrort until she has pooped on my carpet! Twice!!
To leave the parrot in while you are out is all a matter of style, some do some dont. Billie's previous own left her out and when she want to sleep she had to put her head under a wing. It is with what you and your parrot are comfortable.
AJPeter

[warbuckle]

Good day

I personally would not have a bird that is caged all / most of the day. My 3 flocks are out 8-10 hours weekdays, and longer if they wish on the weekends, due to my wife working early days and myself working afternoons. I do put them in the cages when I leave for work, and my wife lets them out again if they wish 4 hours later; this also protects our belongings etc from the bird and vice versa. I just do no think a bird is meant to be caged for the better part of its life. That being said, there are times with my lovebirds that I leave them in for 2-3 days, or rotate who gets out on a given days as we have 3 very aggressive females in heat who would likely have a bloodbath if all out together. I totally agree with some cage time at supper, as Ringer would land right on our plates if he could............lol


Will

[Little Buttercup]

My birds are out of the cage for 7 hours from the morning. They don't roam about the entire house, they are mostly in the bird room and if i'm in the kitchen then they are allowed there. If I won't be home for the entire day then I leave them out of the cage for the day, rather than lock them up. But they get to stay in the bird room that is actualy like a huge cage for them. I don't have any electrical wires or cables in that room, besides the flourescent light on the ceiling. Their cages are not large enough to make me comfortable leaving them entire day locked up. But i'm sure the bird room is safe and they can't get into any trouble.

Ash

[ellieelectrons]

It is good for them to let them out of their cage. At a training session I went to, the presenter, Pamela Clark recommended a minimum of 4 hours out of cage time split between morning and afternoon/evening. I aim at that but don't always get there... and of course some days they get more.

Ellie.

[AJPeter]

Large parrots would be destructive if left out on their own but our IRN? I leave Billy out all day she only spends time in her cage when it is bed time and she strings out the going to bed got as long as she can. She sleeps 13 hours a day plus cat naps of should that be parrot naps?
AJPeter

[Melika]

It is good for them to let them out of their cage. At a training session I went to, the presenter, Pamela Clark recommended a minimum of 4 hours out of cage time split between morning and afternoon/evening. I aim at that but don't always get there... and of course some days they get more.

Ellie.

Thanks for this. I'm with you, sometimes they get more time, sometimes less. I prefer not having a set schedule for my birds- and my dog. This way if something upsets the "normal", then they'll handle it well and be okay. Nobody freaks out if something changes, which is how I like it.