What is your Routine?

[sphinxface]

I know our little babies thrive on a very strict routine, but when it comes to me and routines I'm really in trouble!

I was thinking, and thought maybe it would help if I heard other peoples routines? I wanna hear everything, EVERY little single thing you do for your bird on a weekly basis, even when maybe sometimes the routines don't apply, like maybe you're not home at a certain time on Sundays so birdie doesn't get his veggies??

Maybe you aren't a strict routine person either, did some people change for their bird like I'm trying to do? Does being hap hazard with the routine ever work out okay, or does it ever turn the bird into a wee beastie?

Hopefully this isn't too much to ask for :)

[Jally]

Our routine is: In the AM I let Peanut out first and we wake up the other birds by uncovering them and folding up their blankies...Peanut has to help :) Then we refill seed cups, all the while Peanut is helping himself to whatever his little beak can grab. Then everyone gets veggies, fruit and bread. Then Peanut gets to play and the budgies get flight time.

If they don't get veggies in the AM then they get it in the PM but, they don't eat them as well if they don't get them in the AM.

They don't get uncovered until about 8:30-9:00 although they've been up since 7:30 or so. By this time Peanut is not a happy camper LOL Peanut's bedtime routine is to crawl into my shirt at about 7:45-8:00 and I rock him to sleep. But, he has to pop back out every so often to make sure that everyone (the budgies) is where they're suppose to be LOL During the weekend, Peanut and I sleep on the recliner until my hubby wakes me up to send me to bed LOL And during the week, my bedtime in 9PM so Peanut has to go into his cage early :( I soooooo love our snuggle time!

[beckyg]

My routine varies. I get up around 7:30am uncover her cage and get ready. While I am getting ready it gives her ample time to wake up and get ready to go to her day cage. When she is ready she chirps at me(if I try before then she will just sit on her perch and stare at me) and I go take her from one cage to the other and open the curtain so she can see out the window. I then give her fresh water and some cocketiel blends that I mix together. I turn on the radio so she can rock to the oldies and I leave for work around 8:30am or so. I don't get home until about 4:30-5pm so I am not quite sure what she does while I am away.

When I get home I take the dogs out and change into something that won't matter if it is pooped on :D. I get some fresh veggies and put them in her bowl. After a while I open her cage door, Sometimes she comes straight to me, sometimes she will climb over her cage onto the window seal and chirp out the window. At some point in the evening she does come to me and spends the rest of the night crawling around on me or on my shoulder asleep. At whatever point I decide to go to bed I put her to bed.

The weekends are different and I usually get up a little later (as late a she will let me :D). She spends more time out of her cage depending on whether I am home or not.

I have read that it is good to change things up on your birdie because it helps them deal with change better. I don't know this for sure and I am no expert by any means, but Luna is okay as long as she gets her Becky time and her sleep time. (of course I am only going by 5 mths of experience)

[Janie]

The only two things that I try to do at the same time every day, no matter what, it uncovering Oliver and opening his cage by 7:00 to 7:30 every morning and putting all three to bed by 8:00 to 8:30 every night. If I'm out of town and my son is in charge he sets his alarm to be sure that Oliver is uncovered and let out (the other two are caged together and not covered at night) and if he can't be there to put Oliver to bed, he gets the cage ready, leaves the door open and Oliver puts himself to bed. :) The other two are locked up if my son has to leave. Oliver is never locked up except at night. The other two have a lot of out of cage time during the day, probably 8 hours, but if I'm gone, I like to know they are in their cages.

I offer birdie bread every day to every 2 or 3 days, depending on what's going on. Same with veggies in the early evening, sometimes every evening and sometimes 2 or 3 times a week. I find that my birds are far more excited about the fresh foods and eat more if they don't get them every single day.

I definitely have changed my routine to accommodate my birds but sometimes other "stuff" gets in the way and that throws their routine a little off schedule. It doesn't seem to bother them at all but then again I've had Oliver for 4 1/2 years and Big Boi and Shy for 2 1/2 so they are all three pretty secure in their home and know that some days they'll get more attention than others. From Thanksgiving till New Year's they got a lot less attention with all that was going on. They all seemed fine with that.

[Wheeliegirl]

On weekdays Peachie is up when my alarm goes off. She imitates the sound of my alarm clock very well. :-)

I uncover her around 6:30 AM. She starts calling to get out immediately, and says "peek-a-boo" repeatedly until I uncover her. It's so cute! I go make my coffee, feed the kitty and give her fresh water. After my coffee is ready I get Peachie out of her cage.

Then we go to the bedroom where she helps me put on my make-up and make sure that hubby gets up by whistling and chirping loudly and occasionally jumping on the bed and biting toes. She makes sure the cat stays off the bed as well.

One of Peachie's favorite parts of the morning is sitting on the cord of my hair dryer. She loves to bounce up and down and makes a cute whistle :whistle: like she is saying "wheeew!". When I stop she tells me to keep going by moving her body up and down. :clap While she is with me in the bedroom she has a treat of some millet spray.

Around 7:45 it's back to her cage, and I make myself some breakfast, lunch and prepare her veggies by steaming some broccoli, corn or cutting up sugar snap peas and sometimes an apple. She's not real big on veggies and fruits. I don't even think she eats them. I think she flings them around her cage.

Then I get dressed and says goodbye for the day.

When I come home in the evening, the kitty MUST have her attention first by jumping into my lap and getting a good scratch. Then it's over to Peachie's cage to let her out. We watch "People's Court" for a little bit, then go to the kitchen to make dinner, where Peachie tries to jump into the silverware drawer, or climb into the canned foods cabinet.

We eat, then, it if is close to 8 PM I put her bed in the cage and she goes back to bed. If it is earlier by the time I finish my dinner, she goes back to her cage for a snack, and then climbs around the top of her cage, hangs out with me at my computer or she patrols the house. At 8 PM it's time for bed and her blanket goes over the cage.

[thebubbleking]

When i wake up at 8am the lovies get the door opened and they play for an hour while i get ready.

When i take my lunch at 230pm they come out and get treats and fruits and play for an hour. Then i put them away and head back to work.

When i finish at 5pm they come out and play and get in trouble till about 9pm then its back into thier 4 foot by 5 foot cage to sleep lol.

The execption being thursdays and weekends the cage door opens at 8am and stays open till 9pm:)

Thats the main routine but lots of the little things change such as what i give them for snacks what toys and games we play etc.

They dont seem to mind change but they definatly have a internal body clock because if i am so much as 5 minutes late to lunch or getting home they raise heck with thier noise and tossing of dishes and toys, If i am running late i know i will hear them from the elevator one floor below mine lol

[lemonypickett]

Holly - I love the People's Court!

[Buy A Paper Doll]

Our daily routine varies, but birdy bedtime is at the same time every day. Sometimes if Milo's falling asleep on my arm, or if I have to go out, I'll put them in their sleeping cage a little early, but they're always in bed by 8 o'clock.

I uncover them at 7:30am every day, and they get about 30 minutes to finish waking up before I let them out. They play on the counter while I clean food and water dishes, and prep some veggies for their breakfast. They continue to play while I pack my lunch and clean up the kitchen. Then birds go to their cage and I go to work.

When I get home, they come out for another 30 minutes or so while I do stuff around the house, then back in their cage for a drink and a snack. Repeat until about 7:30, then they come out one last time to hang out with me help me get their food and water dishes cleaned and filled in their night cage. And then it's birdy bedtime all over again. :)

[FabFeatheredFour]

I get off work at 7am, get home around 7:30.

As soon as I walk in the door, I leash the dogs and take them for a walk around the neighborhood, then come back home.

Feed the dogs, cats, and ferrets while talking to the birds and letting them wake up and stretch and yawn

Feed the ferrets, let them out, clean their water dishes and let them out to run around.

Scoop cat and ferret litter boxes

Go BACK to the kitchen (about 8:30-9am now) take out today's fruits and veggies, typically spinach, corn, cooked beans, pasta, bread, pear, apple, broccoli, romaine, pomogranite seeds, etc. Chop some and then take the rest and put them in the low speed chopper that pretty much minces it.

Go say hi to the macaws and give scratches, scoop up Milo and let her ride around on my shoulder while I gather food and water bowls

Wash out bowls, fill with fresh water and nuts, pellets and seeds and replace, then was out the veggie bowls and give the macaws their chopped veggies and fruits.

Get the bowls out of the lovebird's cages in my room, fill with water and seed/pellet mix and fill their veggie's bowl with the minced veggies. Replace paper.

Take a gallon of water out of the fridge and the rest of the minced veggies out to the kennel where the other 7 lovebirds live, and rinse out their bowls, fill with water, seed/pellet mix, and give them their veggies. Replace their paper, check cuttlebones and mineral blocks, check nesting boxes, watch everyone for a couple minutes and make sure no one is acting strange. Give them a good misting (every other day)

Come BACK inside and do the dishes, sit down on the couch and play with Milo and Maui (macaws) for a while, eat my breakfast, then take them both with me so we can take a shower

Feed mamma dog lunch and while she is eating weigh her puppies, measure and do their mental stimulation exercises

Put everyone back up for naps... and go to bed :) At about 1-2 pm lol

Wake up at 7:30, repeat morning routine minus fresh veggies (just seed/pellet) play with the dogs, cook and eat dinner, clean Milo and Maui's corner

Leave for work at 10:30


lather, Rinse, Repeat! Every single day!! :roll:

[michael]

Oh. uh, hmmm,..Wonder if there's enough Vbulletin pages here?:wink: Well, fortunately I understood before getting goofy there wasn't much room for contingency when it came to caring for parrots. All I can say is self employment has its benefits and Goof's likely the biggest one! Well, so our daily routine :roll:. Goofy usually wakes up about 7-8am. I always take him out for about 2-4 hours except on mondays. Monday I don't get home until about 3pm from setting up auctions. I leave about 9pm sunday evening and uncover his cage in the dark before I leave so that he wakes up with the sunrise. The rest of the week is fairly consistent. He's out every morning anywhere between 7-11, then off I go to the offices to do homework, schedulings, events, blah blah blah. Most the time my office is really my truck or van. Good thing I'm wireless because sometimes I take Goof with me on warmer days and surely he'd be chewing the wires:mad: .. I can travel home anytime during the day so I make it a point to drop in and let him out for a half hour or so and get his bath time in. From morning till night, everytime he's out we're always trying something new with foods. Sometimes if I act excited enough he'll even try to eat stuff he didn't like the first time around:rotfl. I know thats sneaky, but it works. Even though lovie dovey is what we both like the most, food and toys are made to be special events with loads of praise whenever he eats and plays with his toys. Heck, I even praise him when he poops too >o. Ok, so by the time 4pm rolls around I'm back home until 10-12pm. As soon as I come in at 4 out he comes again and if we're lucky we get to watch Judge Judy and get some serious scritches in :). Afterwards we fly around and do chores, paperwork, and whatever else we can get our beaks into. Sometimes he'll play with friends or visitors that stop by while I make dinner. Then its more food fights, poop flinging, cage cleaning, and chasing each other around the house sort of stuff. Finally he's happily off to bed between 7-8pm and then I leave to go work with friends/ developers or in the music studio until about 4am. Really, I think he's got a much better routine than I do! I will say his day seems to work by his own internal alarm/schedule. When he wakes up you'll know it, and when he's ready for bed you better get him in his cage or you'll really know it! Another thing, he does step up whenever I ask him too unless I give him medicine or a dunk bath (he hates those). We do in fact change our routines quite often though, not far from the usual ones but enough to make things interesting. Honestly, I don't think its necessary to be ridgid as long as you get the basics down like waking up, bedtime, and some meals. The rest you can add or subtract depending on your birds individual personality............Oh, in case anyone's wondering, I sleep an average of 3-4 hours a night. In between I also care for one disabled person (my wife). Used to be two but Ma passed 3 years ago so thats what gives me the extra time for Goof. Then again, he might just have fit in anyways :D.

[Anneka]

I always enjoy reading about other people's daily routines.

I don't work right now so each day is different. However, my fids' bed time is around 8 pm. But there are days when I am still busy doing housework and the fids don't fall asleep until 9 or 10, but that does not happen often.

Sometime during the day the lovie gets to play with my albino budgie for a few hrs. They are in love with each other :) but are not housed together.

Late at night, I usually have the lovie with me while watching TV (I only watch Animal Planet and occasionally the Weather Channel, LOL). I spread a towel on my lap and give him a few foot toys, which he loves to play with. But if it is really late, he soon climbs up and falls asleep next to my neck. His beak has to be touching my neck or he gets very restless. If I sleep with him, he rests his beak against my lower lip. :)
If he can't find my lip in the dark, he gets restless :) and then I start giggling, so instead of falling asleep, he turns into a dental floss!

After reading your daily routines, I can't help but ask the following:

How do you manage to find time for all your pets/fids if you work, have several pets at home, clean, cook, run errands, and do the housework?

Michael, bless your heart for taking care of your disabled wife. You said you were also taking care of your Mom. This is not easy, sometimes very mentally exhausting.
But please take care of yourself. 3-4 hrs of sleep EVERY night is a very dangerous thing for your health :(

Spinxface, I am sorry but I probably did not answer your question too well, but since I have not been working for over 2 yrs now, I don't have a set daily routine, or at least I don't think I have one.

[Kristina]

On work days, I get up between 5:45 and 6:00. A lot of our day depends on my husband's work schedule. Some days, he has to be at work at 4:45 AM and other days, he doesn't have to be there until 10 or 11 AM.

If it's an early, I still try to get up at the same time. LOL. This usually doesn't happen. I usually press snooze 2-3 times and get up around 6:20. I try to be quiet so I don't wake Fenway, but he seems to know when it's me and not my husband. My husband is sometimes in the kitchen with me when I get my coffee and says Fenway only tweets when I get sugar for my coffee. LOL.

I wait until he tweets to uncover his cage. This is usually around 6:30. I wake the human child up at 7 for school and hop in the shower. And get in the shower. On early husband work days, I can't be at work for an hour later than "late" husband work days. Some days, I am able to take Fenway out for some kisses, but most times, I just leave him in for the morning.

While I'm getting ready for work, the human child talks to Fenway and listens to Fenway ring his bell over and over (he has a toy with a large bell and LOVES this bell).

On late husband work days, I leave for work around 7:25. On early husband work days, I leave for work around 8:20-8:25. Before I leave, I make sure Fen has clean water and food. I'm pretty sure he naps and rings his bell while we're gone. LOL.

On early husband work days, my husband gets home around 12-12:30. He will sit and talk to Fen for a little while and then go about his business. My husband doesn't normally take him out of his cage because he is afraid of Fenway biting. LOL. My husband is 6'5" and afraid of something that stands less than 5 inches high.

I get home from work around 3:30. I greet all the animals, as the ones that run loose seem to wait at the door for my arrival. If I do not greet the dog first, she follows me around, woofing and probably saying, "UMM! I am the most important thing here, Mom! I don't care if you have to go pee. I will break down this bathroom door!" At this point, Fenway is usually screeching for me to come greet him and take him out. I let the dog out and take Fen out of his cage.

3-5 is out of cage time, usually. During this time, I pick up the house, vacuum, do dishes, etc. Sometimes, I slack and just get on the computer. LOL. Since it's been nice out, I have been gardening, but with a recent case of mysterious poison ivy, gardening has been put on hold. LOL. If it's nice enough outside, Fenway goes in his travel cage and gets to come out (this has really only happened once, I don't like to take him out unless I'm hot outside).

I start making dinner around 5, which means Fen goes back in his. During his out of cage time, he gets his veggies and Beak Appetit. They go in his cage with him when he goes back in.

After dinner, he comes back out to do more household chores or to go upstairs so I can get on the computer. I also change his newspaper, water and food. Computer time with him has become scarce because of his newfound love of attacking my hands. He even clicks at them. He pretty much stays out of the cage until about 8, unless he bites really hard and continuously, then he gets put in early (which BTW, he argues about with loud, "I DON'T LIKE THIS" screeches. Around 8:30, I partially cover his cage to let him know it's close to bedtime. He gets in his tent (so cute, LOL) and I'll cover his cage up fully.

On my days off, he's normally out of his cage for the majority of the day unless I'm running errands.

[Christian]

Estrella is uncovered on the mornings that I work (M-Thurs) at around 8:30. I get home at 1:30-1:45 and we have lunch together. I change his food and water after we eat together. He is usually out of his cage until 3:00 (on Tues and Wed) at which point I have to get ready for class. I get home around 7 and he's out until 9-9:30. I change his food and water before he goes to bed a second time. On the days that I don't have class he is out with me from 3:00-9:00. And on weekends we wake up around 10 (he won't let me sleep longer than 9:45 usually :))
Of course being a college student in Graduate school, my schedule does tend to vary but I try to keep him on a pretty stable routine. He wants, and demands lots of mommy time and I always feel like a horrible mother if I don't spend at least 4 hours a day with him. We also tend to travel about once every 2-3 months so he gets lots of variation in his routine during those times. I think its probably good for him to realize that mommy can't always be there, so that he doesn't develop behavioral problems.