My 4 years old sun conure has his own bed for bed time he likes to lay down and be covered with a really small and light blanket thats almost like a face cloth and he’s been like this ever since we got him when he was 3 months old, but recently the last 3 days he starts regurgitation every time i put him to sleep , he wakes up does it while he’s sleeping about 2-3 times a night. what do you think the cause of this
Thank you
Hi,
What the bird is doing is perfectly normal, but you are causing him to be hormonal because you are treating him like a human baby. I know it’s easy to spoil a pet bird, but they are not human, or children or mammals. A bird has no need for a bed and should never be given one. In the wild, birds do not sleep in a bed. They use a nest once a year during breeding season. A nest is a tool to contain the eggs and chicks. It isn’t something they sleep in except when the hen is incubating chicks. With many species, the male sleeps on a branch nearby, keeping an eye on her. By putting your conure in a bed, you are mimicking a nest, and now that your bird is sexually mature, he is exhibiting hormonal behavior. It’s not healthy for him because the constant regurgitation can cause nutritional deficiencies, and other health issues can result from him having the urge to mate, but not having a mate. Please remove the bed and let him sleep on a perch like a bird. They tend to prefer a high perch for sleeping. You can cover the cage at night. But no more bed and blanket – this is truly unhealthy for him both physically & mentally. He may like it, but our pet birds like a lot of things that aren’t good for them. It’s up to us as responsible bird owners to provide what they need, and not let them have something that is bad for them just because they like it. Hormones are such an issue with pet birds that we devote our weekly webinars in March to hormone topics. You might want to check them out starting next week.
https://lafeber.com/pet-birds/category/webinar/
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
