My 4 year old Pineapple won’t sleep now and I don’t know why?

[TiredMama5]

Hello, first time post!

Basically my pineapple green cheek concurs, name Angel turned 4 last month and everything was going good until on Tuesday May 7, he hasn’t been going to sleep and he just wanted to play with his toys which does disrupt my sleep. I do set a regular sleeping schedule for him that we go to bed at 9pm or at the latest 9:30pm and if he does try to play at night I call out to him in a even tone, not yelling, “Time to go night night” (which he knows means bedtime), and Angel would be up around 7:30am or at the latest 8 in the morning. His cage is covered and I have blinds that do make the room more dark at night but the sun does shine through during the morning. I did get him a toy that looks like a sneakers and he loved them a lot from tearing to shreds and even use them for his hormonal stimulation but when I threw them out on Tuesday and cleaned his cage from the bits he left behind then that’s when he wouldn’t go to bed, even when I played delta waves which does help him sleep, and I had to leave my room to get sleep since he wasn’t listening to me. Then come for us to go to bed on Wednesday, same thing go to the bottom of his cage and as soon as I turn off the light he starts playing I tell him “No playtime, time for night night” again doesn’t listen and won’t go to sleep. I even went to the vet to make sure he wasn’t sick or anything, cause by morning his poop is a watery green, he was drooping his wings on the opening of his cage and on my finger and apparently when he is in the living room he does take a nap. Once I got to the vet and explained everything to her the way she explained it to that Angel screwed up or chose to screw up his sleeping schedule cause she saw that he was still perching upright, still has energy and still eating and drinking so he wasn’t sick cause angel would have done the opposite of what is doing now. I don’t know I feel like I need a second opinion on this.

 

[Mizzely]

I mean, you can give the conditions for sleep but you can't force them to sleep. Can he sleep in a room away from you? I know when I have had birds in my bedroom that they react everytime they heard me shift or cough. Even in the living room, mine will occasionally wake up, get a snack or drink, mess with a toy, and then go back to sleep.

As for the poops it's hard to know from the information provided. Does he have food available at night?

 

[TiredMama5]

I mean, you can give the conditions for sleep but you can't force them to sleep. Can he sleep in a room away from you? I know when I have had birds in my bedroom that they react everytime they heard me shift or cough. Even in the living room, mine will occasionally wake up, get a snack or drink, mess with a toy, and then go back to sleep.

As for the poops it's hard to know from the information provided. Does he have food available at night?

View attachment 446392

It’s definitely the varied diet cause the food I give him has both seeds and pellets, but it’s much bigger I have a photo and this is what it looks like and I always have food available for him in his cage. Unfortunately I live in an apartment and I don’t have much room for another cage, but he does have a big bird stand in my living room he does go to. He has been trying to go onto my chest and he would try to rub himself against and make a weird chirping noise which is the same as when he would rub himself against his sneaker toy but he would be difficult when I try to get him off of me. Or he cuddles up so close to my neck he starts making the same noise and bobbing his head while cuddling

 

[Mizzely]

Morning poops are usually pretty large and wet. Conures in my experience tend to hold it all night. Sounds like he is potentially mate bonded with you. The rubbing sounds like masturbation.

Can his cage just always be in the living room, and then you move the playstand into the bedroom?

 

[April]

I highly recommend that you move either his main cage into your living room like Mizzley said or that you get him a separate smaller sleep cage. Take it from someone that in 17 years of owning birds had 6 different parrots living in my bedroom and it was horrible for all of us. It's not fair to either us or them because we can disturb their sleep by the slightest rustle of sheets as we turn over in our sleep or they can keep us awake by wanting to keep playing or moving around because for whatever reason they don't want to settle.

I had one Greenie that would go to sleep right away if it was dark but if I even had my TV at the lowest possible setting and dimmed she would shriek and make it impossible for me to enjoy it at all so that was frustrating sharing a room with her and on the other hand I had another Conure that didn't care of the TV was going but as soon as the lights went off he'd just start hard-core playing and climbing all around the cage in the pitch black and I was never able to get any sleep.

Once I had a separate sleep cage in the living room things definitely improved for both of us. Their sleep schedule really should be as precise and regular as possible so the benefits all around for him to sleep separate are high.

Not to mention it's bad for us as humans to be inhaling all their dust and dander ect as we sleep during the night. Take it from someone who after 17 years developed severe allergies to parrot dander by having them in my room every day and sleeping with that going into my lungs.

 

[Rebel]

Morning poops are usually pretty large and wet. Conures in my experience tend to hold it all night. Sounds like he is potentially mate bonded with you. The rubbing sounds like masturbation.

Can his cage just always be in the living room, and then you move the playstand into the bedroom?

Very large and wet indeed.

 

[TiredMama5]

Hey guys,

thank you so much for the advice sorry for not responding sooner my bird gave my mom a little heart attack with him hiding himself within one of my slippers that was under my bed and as my mom tried to get him out he was refusing to do so. So, I took y’all advice and I did move his cage into the living room and I moved the stand in my room. He is trying to get use to it but me and my mom are hoping that he’ll get some sleep. I did put him in the cage earlier (after the small scare) and made the room a little darker, covered up his cage to see if he’ll sleep but unfortunately he just stays quiet and won’t sleep, he did get a very small nap in for a few minutes.

 

[Mizzely]

We often won't catch them asleep because they are prey animals. That means they are hardwired to respond to sounds around them as a survival instinct. They don't sleep deeply like a dog, cat, or person does.

 

[TiredMama5]

So big update on Angel, we went to the vet for Angel’s annual check up and found out that Angel is not a male but a female and was ready to lay her first egg which explained all of her behaviors. Just a few minutes ago she laid her first egg when she felt like it so now I know what to do when she gets like this again. Here’s a pic of the egg and I didn’t know what to do with it so I placed it in the freezer cause I would feel bad to toss it.

 

[Shezbug]

Glad she is ok. What did you freeze the egg for?

 

[TiredMama5]

Glad she is ok. What did you freeze the egg for?

Out of guilt cause I had to take it away from her, but I saw that after she laid it she didn’t care for it all she did was lick at it and moved away. But now she is still hormonal and acting like she wants to lay another one but I checked her bottom and it wasn’t flexing I’ll probably buy a scale later to weigh her