Can you keep budgies in the bedroom?

The suitable location for budgies depends on several factors, but keeping them in the bedroom can be discouraged in the vast majority of cases.

The natural sleeping behavior of budgies is very different from the sleeping habits of us humans. A shared bedroom would put the animals under stress and can also deprive humans of needed sleep.

We explain why budgies should not be kept in the bedroom and what their natural sleeping behavior is so you can find the best location for your pet’s cage.

Why should budgies not be kept in the bedroom?

The bedroom is an unsuitable location for budgies, because they have special requirements for their night’s rest.

A budgie needs at least 10 hours of sleep.

Already with the duration of sleep the first problems occur, because most people sleep on average only 7 or 8 hours. This would wake your budgies too early and they can suffer from illnesses or show behavioral problems due to the stress and lack of rest.

In addition, budgies can suffer from the so-called night panic (this is what you can do about it) and thus be very noisy at night, which in turn would disturb your sleep.

Since the bedroom is not a suitable place for budgies, they cannot pursue their natural needs and behaviors. The birds usually suffer from sleep deprivation and thus tend to behave restlessly and also find it difficult to rest at night.

However, even their active behavior during the day is an argument against the bedroom as a cage location. This is because birds should be allowed a few hours of free flight during the day, while still needing to be supervised so that no animal gets injured or tangled or trapped anywhere.

Since most people spend time in the bedroom only in the evening and at night, this is not a suitable place for free flight.

Particulate matter, which is dispersed in the air by the birds’ feathers, can also play an important role in the location. In budgies, the fine dust given off when the wings are flapped is much less than in other species (such as cockatiels) but even this can lead to respiratory stress, as you would be exposing yourself to the fine dust in the air for several hours while sleeping.

Most of the time, the fine dust from the feathers only causes a problem if you have pre-existing conditions such as allergies and asthma, but breathing in the dust for very long periods of time should still be avoided, especially if you have multiple birds.

The natural sleeping behavior of budgies

To better understand why the bedroom is not a suitable place for the birds and to find a better location, it is first important to know the natural sleeping behavior of budgies.

Budgies need to sleep at least 10 hours during the night.

This is due to the environmental conditions in their native Australia, there a night lasts between 10 and 14 hours. The entire organism of budgies is therefore designed for a long period of sleep, which they also need as pets in our living rooms.

If the sleep is missing for a long time, the sensitive budgies quickly become ill and show abnormal behavior.

This also includes that the birds no longer come to rest at night and flutter restlessly in the cage or even make themselves heard. There are many things that can disturb the peace of budgies, for example, if suddenly at night light is switched on, which the animals do not like at all.

Our tip: put the animals in a room where no one is at night.

Your sleep can also suffer considerably with budgies in the bedroom, because during sleep budgies are often not completely silent.

During a normal sleep, it often happens that the animals dream and make soft whistling sounds, puff themselves up or even clean their seat neighbor while half asleep.

Another phenomenon is night panic, which occurs in some animals. Here the birds wake up in the night, probably awakened by a noise or by a conspecific, and are briefly disoriented and confused. To prevent the budgie from hurting itself in such a situation, it should not be completely dark in its room; after all, even a night in Australia is lit by stars and the moon.

A quiet dimmed night light simulates the natural living conditions at night and helps the birds to orient themselves.

The routine of budgies

In the wild, an evening routine can be observed in large flocks of budgies, which has a great influence on the sleeping behavior of the animals.

Already during the twilight the budgerigars go to the feeding places and hit themselves once more the burrow full, before they retreat to their sleeping places in the trees and the slopes of the mountains.

Individuals look for a suitable roosting spot, usually perched on a branch or hanging from a cliff edge, close to their preferred mate. If they remain undisturbed, the budgies will not leave their places until the sun rises, which is in about 10 to 14 hours.

In our households, budgies should also be given a similar routine that helps them rest better. Without it, they can be very restless in the evening and have trouble falling asleep, which is bad for you and your birds.
Tips for more peace and quiet in the budgies’ room.

When disturbed, budgies usually become very restless at night and can also be very noisy. To avoid this, you should pay attention to a few things.

For example, the cage must provide enough sleeping opportunities in the form of sturdy branches, swings and bars, that each bird finds a place and there is no quarrel among the animals.

As already mentioned, it should also not be completely dark in the room of the birds, but especially in the summer, when it remains light for a long time, you should darken the windows. Otherwise, the incoming light would confuse the sleeping rhythm of your budgies and shorten it unnaturally.

Covering with a cloth is now seen among experts rather critical, because the risk of injury by tangling with the claws in the cloth is high and a cloth makes it unnaturally dark for the bird.

Our tip for you is to choose a room for the bird cage where you like to be during the day to observe the free flight of the animals, and which can be darkened in the evening and where there is no disturbance. This includes headlights from cars, which can fall through a window onto the bird cage and wake the animals.

In addition, you should offer the food from noon only in the cage, so that the budgies can eat in the evening again in the cage. This way, the birds will look for their sleeping place in the cage and also come to rest faster, as this is like the natural routine of the birds.

So let’s recap:

Enough sleeping possibilities in the cage
The sleeping place should not be completely dark at night
Do NOT cover the cage with a cloth
Make sure that your budgies eat again before sleeping