Take out or leave in Happy Hut?

[atison]

Ok, our new birdie has taken a real liking to his happy hut. We are pleased that he has a safe place he can hide in, but now he spends most of his time in it (at least when we are home).

The breeder told us to not leave the happy hut in there all the time, so we are thinking of pulling it out. Yesterday, when we got home, instead of his usual chirping at us, he was content on playing inside his happy hut. Bitting the edges, sticking his tail out, and just rummaging around in it.

I opened the cage door for a bit, and he wouldn't even come out of the happy hut to inspect the outside, which he has done before without hesitation.

Is it right to take the happy hut out, and only put it in occasionally?

[Elle]

What most people who use a happy hut on this site do is remove it in the morning and give it back at night. Your lovebird is still young but as it matures, itmay see the happy hut as nesting territory and if you have a female, it may induce nesting and laying behavior.

I would recommend to remove it in the morning. If you feed your bird in the morning, I would suggest to remvove it at that time and put it back at bed time. Or when you try to put your bird back into the cage. I know you have issues at this time returning it to the cage so that may be a good incentive.

[Janie]

Ditto to Elle! :) Two of my boys use a cozy/happy hut but I don't put it in till 8:00 p.m. and it comes out first thing in the morning.

[atison]

So, you take them out, even if they are still huddled cozy inside them?

He already doesn't like hands in the cage at this time, is it still ok to take it out in the morning and put back in the evening?

It will be easy to do in the evening as that is when we let him out of the cage, but in the morning, he will be in the cage and not like us fiddling around in there (for the time being, but hopefully he will get used to our hands being in there).

[Janie]

I do take them out, even if my lovies are still in them. They come out with the cozy and one of them, Big Boi, will stay in it even when I put it on the shelf where I keep them during the day. :D My lovies are all very tame so it's not an issue but I realize that is not your situation. One of them hops in his cozy the minute I put it in and waits for me to reach in and pet him. He turns his little head from side to side to get the full effects of the petting. But, you are building trust with your bird now and I know you don't want to scare him or make him angry. Can you distract him/her in some way (maybe a tiny bit of millet spray?) that would get him out of the cozy before you remove it? I really do think you'll get to the taming process faster if you get that cozy out of the cage during the day. Some members here have hens and can't use cozies at all because they do get very territorial and nesty with a cozy in their cage.

[Bella]

I can't give any of my hens a cozy.

The 2 girls who share a cage get along fine, but with a cozy it is a nightmare. They fight over it, and if I give them one each, they still fight over the same one.

I can't give Miss Lemon a cozy as she will either shred it to bits or start laying eggs.

Legolas has a cozy at all times. He loves it.

[Susan27]

All my pairs are different. Kiko and Touki can't have one, makes them want to nest. They have a coconut hut, that they both squeeze into at night and sleep.

Everyone else has a cozy tent, which I leave in all the time. Some take naps in there during the day, or perch on top of them. My current nesting pair actually ripped theirs apart. I just recently put a different materialed one in their cage, but they are spending the majority of their time in their nestbox.

It's all about observation, how they interact with their cozy. Most of mine don't shred theirs, if they do I inspect it daily. None of mine spend all day in them either.

If I were in your situation, I would take the cozy out during the day and put it back at night.

Good luck

[emmab]

mine have one in the cage but treat it like a huge blue monster that is to be avoided at all costs! LOL

I even put millet in to entice them but no luck LOL

[Buy A Paper Doll]

OK I admit it, I'm just a big old softy. I let Melody keep her cozy/happy hut day and night, until she was close to 4 months old. She was so young when I got her, I wanted her to have something to snuggle with and hide.

Now, as an adult I can't give her a cozy during the day or she gets seriously nesty, shredding everything in sight, including the wooden blocks on her swing. Crazy bird.

The only reason I took away Milo's cozy during the day was because Melody moved in with him.

[graushill]

I also just offer cozies at night just before bedtime. I used to leave Pidget's cozy in all day (he was a single male then) but I had already started to take it out during the day even before my hen Piccolo moved in with him. In his case, he didn't get nesty but I think he slept during the day too much and thus was not tired at all at night which as you can imagine was not ideal :roll:. If my birds don't leave their cozies in the morning before I have to leave for work, I will take it out. I usually unhook it and then put it in front of one of their perches so that they can climb out. I can't say they love it when I do that but they don't seem to pout afterwards either :) .

Gloria

[mangotiki]

Well, Oliver has just become way too nasty/nesty and I just removed her cozy (as she was trying to remove my fingers!)

She is sitting there scolding me and is severely put out. But first she attacked, mutilated and tipped over a food dish on the bottom of the cage (the dish is her regular whipping boy when she is annoyed, :rofl: ). The dish is almost as big as she is but she still gets air when she tries to throw it during her tantrums!

Traci

[wilkiecoco]

traci,

i don't mean to laugh, but that is hysterical. i have one very tame male, so i get a kick out of reading about hens and their tantrums. i am just picturing that food dish flying through the air :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[mangotiki]

You should see her when she wants millet. I make her come down to the door way and take it out of my fingers. I am trying to get her to step onto my arm to take it, and she will, but she has to run back into the cage, attack the dish, come back to my arm and try to bite a hole through my sleeve first before she will step out with one foot to take the millet. Then she lets the millet know how mad she is (seed flying everywhere), runs back in to re-attack the food dish, and does the whole thing over again.:rofl:

And when I shut the door and put the millet away, she screams lovebird profanities at me.

All this from a baby I finished handfeeding that was so tame. My daughter specifically asked for a male (hence the name Oliver) to avoid this exact problem!!!

She is definitely a psycho-hen female :rofl: and we love her for it.

Traci

[Dettelyn]

Has anyone had this happen? >: My six year old male "Baby" thinks his Happy Hut is his girlfriend. I won't describe what he does but when he is finished he goes to his food bowl and eats, gets a drink of water then returns to the top of the Hut and regurgitates and "talks" to it. :omg: I just adobted him a few months ago so I took him to the vet for a checkup and mentioned this peculiar behavior and the vet said this was fairly normal at his age and not to discourage him by taking the hut away because it is better he does this than to pluck his feathers out.

He is very lovable and loves to get out of the cage and socialize. I have to have several huts so one is always clean to replace the soiled one. :confused:

[michael]

Your vet is correct in that your lovebirds behavior is normal. Whether or not eliminating the amorous happy hut leads to feather abusive behavior, I honestly can find no evidence to support that claim. Nor can I find evidence to the contrary. What I do know, is objects such as happy huts, bird buddies, and the like, can make for one very hormonal lovebird. And lovebirds that are hormonal often tend to be a might bit less sociable than those who's time is spent catering to the unmentionable. .. Somehow, i'm thinking the worst that could happen if you were to remove the happy hut, is your lovie will find some other object of affection, one of which could be you. On the other hand, if despite the happy hut he still accepts you as part of the flock, then I would just as soon let him have at it. .. Better the happy hut, than you. ...........:)

[thebubbleking]

I have two males who use thier hut for self gratification other then extra cleaning i just let them do thier thing, better the hut then my head etc lol