Squiggling

[Deleted]

Marianne Marlow has mentioned her younger birds fussing around a lot over sleeping spots at bedtime.

I have found that if I half cover the cage to get my three to start settling for bed then they'll often settle to start with because it's gotten darker, but if I leave them too long then they adjust and go back to business as normal.

However, even if they're all settled on perches when I fully cover them up, and have even been fluffed comfortably in the same positions for a good 10 minutes, I cover them up and within a couple of minutes bedlam breaks loose as someone decides that they actually want to sleep somewhere else!

Every. Single. Night.

I just leave them to it now or else I can be back and forth fiddling with the cover for ages until they choose a spot properly.
Just wondered if anyone else has had similar experiences?

[jellybean]

Yes @sillycat84, the same as you, Every. Single. Night 😂

I leave a corner of the cover up to let them settle, sometimes one is on and the other off the sleeping swing that they share,feeding or messing about, I go check them 5 minutes later and the one who was messing about is now on the sleeping perch and the other one is off.

Some nights are better than others, but I can he back and forth 4/5 times before they settle down.

[Deleted]

Glad it's not just me, jellybean! I was beginning to think that Yuki was broken!

[samwiseg]

I think most who have multiples have this issue @sillycat84!

I think I recall Shirls saying about her lot "creating" before bed!!!

[blueelephant]

I can only imagine the squiggling fiasco if Barney was a multiple. I turned the light off last night, came back five minutes later and he was upside down hanging from the ceiling curling his head back, looking somewhat like a banana, miles from the nearest perch. He was dead still and looked kind of freaked out so I put my hand in and he stepped down onto it and gratefully jumped off onto a perch.

It's just as well he has noone to argue with over where to roost.

[blue48]

My two settle very quickly at night. I know I talked on here about buying or making a trolley to wheel them into another room at night but that didn't happen. At around 7 o'clock I cover the cage, turn the main light off and just put a sidelamp on. I turn the TV volume down and after a few moments of gentle chirping, which is really quite sweet, they both become quiet. Then I don't think they move much because in the morning there are two little piles of poop where they have slept.

[blueelephant]

Jan 20, 2021 18:22:59 GMT blue48 said:

My two settle very quickly at night. I know I talked on here about buying or making a trolley to wheel them into another room at night but that didn't happen. At around 7 o'clock I cover the cage, turn the main light off and just put a sidelamp on. I turn the TV volume down and after a few moments of gentle chirping, which is really quite sweet, they both become quiet. Then I don't think they move much because in the morning there are two little piles of poop where they have slept.

What beautifully behaved little budgies!  We get the little very cute chirps. But like I say they are often executed while upside down.

[Deleted]

That is very cute! Alas we don't have a dimmer or a lamp.

Usually it's Yuki, who also tends to be the one to have night frights.

[Marianne Marlow]

My 4 "new ones" have been with me a year now and still every night they squiggle and jump about.

It's mostly Daisy biting at the others, she's a horror!

[samwiseg]

The hens do seem to be the ones causing most aggravation at times it would seem Marianne Marlow!

[blue48]

That might explain my well behaved boys

[Shirls]

Yes mine used to do that, (a different mix of birdies), but I only have one hen now and she only squiggles when she wants one of the swings that one of the boys are on, usually Buddy Boy, he was the latest new addition and she just hasn't taken to him at all!! So wherever he sits of a night, she hurls him off making a racket at the same time!

[Deleted]

Yuki does make me wonder if he's part hen at times, but he might also just be young.

Although Indie is the jealous one. If Yuki starts getting flirty with Munchy and beak bops him (to which the response is usually an irritated 'go away' kind of beak bop) Indie will swoop over and chase Munchy away.

[Morgan]

My buds do exactly the same! Some more than others - mainly the girls. Sometimes Soul will put himself in whichever cage is empty, recently the smaller blue one (he’s the oldest, and an old soul for sure, but not yet 3 years even), I think just to avoid the bustle, xD Sometimes Xephy will join him, but if they are with the rest at bedtime even they will be a bit pushy to their preferred roost that night. And it often changes.

I just got rid of the couch I had in the bird room and put in a massive cage (I think 3’.5Wx3’Dx4’H approx. as usable space) with swinging doors (instead of the terrible guillotine on my others that I have to tie open!) and they’re all sleeping together tonight! I usually have to divide them four into one and four into the other of my two original cages, first come first served for dinner lol. I wonder if I have enough cages... 🤔 lol

I think the extra space (and maybe a bit of uncertainty still over the newness of it) made them settle more quickly tonight. I hope it lasts!

I don’t think space would be any issue for your three buds though in their palace :3

[Hezz]

My boys have never argued over where they perched. A hen makes all the difference, and not in a good way!