Sun conure, four. She has a fabric sleep hut and most nights she lies down in it, and three or four times now I have found her flat on her back in there with her feet in the air. The first time I genuinely thought she had died.
She wakes up perfectly normally, climbs out, eats, shouts at me. Is this a thing some of them just do, and is the hut encouraging it?
Some of them just do, and a hut is exactly where it happens. Plenty of conure owners report their birds lying down or rolling over when they are very relaxed and snuggled into something. Waking alert, climbing normally, eating and shouting at you is the whole reassurance.
The hut is a separate conversation though, and it is not about the sleeping position. Many avian vets and experienced keepers are wary of fabric huts and tents.
Wary because of the threads, or something else?
Both. Loose threads get chewed and swallowed, which is the acute risk, and a dark enclosed space encourages hormonal nesting behaviour, which is the slow one. Check it often for wear and have the conversation with your vet rather than taking a forum's word for it.
Also check her perch diameter. A perch the wrong size for her feet makes lying down more appealing than it should be.
The version that is mine rather than yours: lying down on the cage floor rather than in a hut, not being able to perch or falling off, fluffed and sleepy and less responsive, tail bobbing or effort in the breathing, eating less, droppings changing.
And the one people miss, suddenly starting to lie down when she never did before. Yours has done it for a while in a hut and wakes up fine, which is a different picture entirely.
@threads_chewed · 2w ago
Mine does a thing she clearly finds funny where she flops over sideways while I am scratching her head. Certain individuals are simply floppy and like lying down, and it has nothing to do with being unwell.
The context is what carries it: in a hut or during play, with normal droppings and normal appetite, waking up and perching easily.
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