Do I Need to Cover Cages at Night?

[hfinney]

Hello! Do I need to cover my birds’ cages at night? My birds are all in my office, and I do cover my canary to control the amount of light/dark each day. But what about my other birds (societies, grey singer, firefinches, and a saffron finch)?

I am up in my office around 5:00 a.m. most mornings, but the sun doesn’t actually come up until after 6:00 a.m. Is it ok to wake the birds up that early? I don’t want to cover all the cages unless I need to for their own well-being.

Thanks, y'all!

[Icearstorm]

hfinney

So long as the birds are getting enough sleep, there's little need to cover the other cages. When does the sun set where you are?

I don't cover my birds' cages, and currently have their lights on from around 7:00 to 17:00, which gives them some time to find a roosting perch before the sun sets. The birds are in my room, and I go to bed after the birds have been sleeping for a few hours. They don't seem bothered by minor disturbances, though I do talk when I first enter the room so they don't freak out.

In summer, they get 12-14 hours of light.

[hfinney]

The sun sets around 5:15 , and it starts getting light around 6:15-6:30 in the mornings. But I’m in the office around 5:15 most mornings.

[Icearstorm]

hfinney

12 hours of good sleep should be plenty for them, so it sounds like the finches will be fine without the cage covers.

[Dave]

I've always thought that birds should get the same day length as the area they evolved in. So for Canaries, I use the day length of Arrecife, Canary Islands. https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/spain/arrecife

I don't know of research on this topic. It just seems reasonable that a few million years of evolution resulted in some connection between the birds and the length of daylight.

I do know that scientists find, more and more, that biorhythms are important, even at the cellular level.