My baby hates being in the cage ...

[Doostur]

My baby is 3 months old. He seems to hate being in his/her cage. As soon as I go anywhere near the cage door he is there waiting, and when it opens he shoots for the top with no stopping him. He's got a large cage (30x24x30) with plenty of toys. I am home most the day so when I get up I usually open the door for him and he sits out pretty much all day and put him inside at around 9. When inside he'll usually climb around the cage all noisey and bite the cage making loud noises. He usually settles down within 5-10 minutes and sits on the same perch and rarely move, for the most part ignoring his toys.

 

My question is, am I spoiling him by having him out of the cage so much? Should I keep him in more? How long should I let him out for?<br><br>Post edited by: Doostur, at: 2008/09/09 19:10

[nims]

Its fine that he's out most of the day but Im sure there will come a day when you will not be home and he will have to be in the cage all day. I think you shoud play with him when he is in the cage and play with the toys with him (sometimes you have to teach them).

 

Good Luck

 

Nims

[di2008]

monty is 6 months old and seems the same, alough he has to go in his cage around 2pm until 5pm as i go to work and he waits for my hubby to get home. i have never seen him playing with any of his cage toys but if take them out and hang the on his java trees then he will play.. and i also find myself feeling guilty when i have to put him in his cage when i have to pop to the shops,so then i rush back and dont do any browsing or window shopping any more. is it normal i wonder to feel this way with a new baby grey or should i just go shopping and take as long as i want:unsure: i know he has food and water and will be fine.... my cage is a large one too dustor (36x28x66)

[danmcq]

Lots of out of cage time is fine as others have said. Many Greys or other Parrots for that matter would rather be out, than in.

 

Our Grey is out on weekends, holidays or vacation days when we're home from 6am until we go to bed. Workdays, he's in the cage from 630 am until 4 or 5 pm.

 

They learn and adjust to our schedules fairly well. The key is consistency when possible.

[Big_Squishy]

I would agree, that lots of out of cage time is ok, I do think that if you know you are going to have days where you will be away from home for extended periods of time that you allow your companion to get use to that.

Everything I read and all that I have seen in my own CAG sugest that our companions are creatures of habit. Most take change poorly unless it is slowly brought about.

 

With BoBo he is normally brough out of his cage after my Wife to Be gets home from taking my son to school. We will not leave him out of his cage unattended. he returns to the cage when she leaves to pick my son up from school and will stay there until I get home so for about 3 hours or so. As soon as I get home and shower I bring BoBo out and we spend some time playing.

Weekends if we are able to sleep-in BoBo will end up in his cage until after breakfast is cooked and then brought out to eat with us. He really enjoys that time and I think it is helping to get him to vocalize more, he gets very excited and seems to try to invent new whistles to get our attention so we will bring him out and give him our food.

 

When we bought BoBo we did everything in one day. I BoBo, his cage, food , toys the whole nine yeards. I believe I spent about $200.00 on just the toys.

 

We could not get BoBo to touch a single one of them. I felt like I picked all of the wrong stuff. However, after some advice from the wonderful people here. I began to just carry around one of the toys and play with it. I fiddled with it while I was holding BoBo but never let him touch it. After that he would do everything he could to try to get the toy. It has worked for almost all of them. Keep trying and do not do over get down because what you thought should work didn't. I bet with time most anything you do repeatedly will be acceptable to your bird.

 

Sorry to sit here and babble.

 

V/r

 

JC

[BMustee]

Elmo is out pretty much the whole time I am home, but he does go into his cage when I am not. From what my stepmom says it is VERY rare to hear him do anything while I'm at work but normally about 15 minutes till I normally get home she will start clanking around in the cage and start talking. She tells me she would never guess that their was a full sized parrot in the house the entire day. When I'm home she will spnd a little time in the cage and that is when she goes nuts over her toys. She just learned how to hang upside-down from her crazy links chain...sooo funny!

 

So, it seems pretty normal that some greys use their cage time as their quiet time and will act like perch potatos when in it.<br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2008/09/19 18:20

[Doostur]

Yea, mine ignores its toys until there is someone home. He will then go crazy and start swining around - making noise. Same thing when I put him in the cage at night.

[Patsy]

My baby is a bit older - almost 4 months. However, I was fortunate enough to play with Darcy during his weaning- he was out of his box and on the floor exporing all the foot toys. He really enjoys toys now and plays with them in his cage and on his playstand. However, now that he likes being up high, he rarely wants to play on the floor with foot toys, so I have to work with Darcy on that as I want to introduce some educational toys to him.

 

Maybe you can try some foot toys with your baby and see how he likes that. I started out with some very small bagels and toys meant for smaller birds.

[Doostur]

Mine always went for the high ground. I took all height advantages away. He has been much more playfull and interactive since then.

[Lyric]

Your bird is still very young and learning about the world around him, you and how to interact with you and the world. It is normal for him to want to be with you all the time and not in the cage. Don't let it make you feel bad about putting him in there though- everyone needs a break from their bird from time to time. Eventually he will understand that there are just times when he has to be inside the cage. Also, it may take time for him to learn how to play with toys but eventually he will figure this out as well. Let him see you touching and exploring his toys and it will peak his interest in them.

[Tycos_mom]

My birds are out from 9 am til 8 pm 7 day a week I have no problems with this as I only work three days a week from 5pm til 11pm so by the time I leave for work my daughter is home from school. at bed time my birs all go into their cages by themselves so all she has todo is close their doors and cover them up. smaller birds I usually put in their cages before I leave for work as they are younger and not as easy to put to bed. But both Tyco and Fergie are a bit older now Tyco is 5 yrs old and Fergie is 11 yrs old and all you have todo with them is say come on its bedtime in your house you go and both of them will climb own from where ever they are and get into their cages. They are very well trained that way. Hope fully in time all my birds wil be as cooprative as they are. Its all in the way you teach them. They have lots of out of cage time but they also spend time in their cages they go in and out when they want to. I noticed lately Fergie spends most of her time in her cage.Fergie is a Yellow crowned Amazon she is going through a extreamly heavy molt the worst I've ever seen in all the years I've had her so she is very uncomfortable and not very social right now I feel so bad for her it hurts to touch her so I just let her be poor baby. she loses about 10 feathers everyday she has so many pins all over her I can't wait til she done and gets back to her normal lovey self again I really miss the cuddles.

[Tycos_mom]

My birds are out from 9 am til 8 pm 7 day a week I have no problems with this as I only work three days a week from 5pm til 11pm so by the time I leave for work my daughter is home from school. at bed time my birs all go into their cages by themselves so all she has todo is close their doors and cover them up. smaller birds I usually put in their cages before I leave for work as they are younger and not as easy to put to bed. But both Tyco and Fergie are a bit older now Tyco is 5 yrs old and Fergie is 11 yrs old and all you have todo with them is say come on its bedtime in your house you go and both of them will climb own from where ever they are and get into their cages. They are very well trained that way. Hope fully in time all my birds wil be as cooprative as they are. Its all in the way you teach them. They have lots of out of cage time but they also spend time in their cages they go in and out when they want to. I noticed lately Fergie spends most of her time in her cage.Fergie is a Yellow crowned Amazon she is going through a extreamly heavy molt the worst I've ever seen in all the years I've had her so she is very uncomfortable and not very social right now I feel so bad for her it hurts to touch her so I just let her be poor baby. she loses about 10 feathers everyday she has so many pins all over her I can't wait til she done and gets back to her normal lovey self again I really miss the cuddles.