Unusual budgie's behavior
Hi everyone, I’m hoping someone can help me understand my budgie’s recent behavior.
I have a female budgie who is about a year old. I also have a male budgie. They spend the day together, but I separate them into different cages at night.
Over the past few weeks, my female has started acting very strangely at bedtime. I cover both cages as usual, and they normally go to sleep on their swings. However, instead of settling down, she clings to the side of the cage (like in the photo). She can stay there for hours.
I usually uncover a corner of the cage and gently encourage her to move. Sometimes she eventually goes back to her usual sleeping spot, but other nights she stays restless for most of the night.
I know that getting 10–12 hours of uninterrupted sleep is very important for budgies, especially females, to help prevent hormonal behavior, so I'm quite worried.
The strange thing is that during the day she behaves completely normally. She's active, eats well, interacts with my other budgie, and I haven't noticed any other changes.
What could be causing this? Could she suddenly dislike having the cage covered? I've always covered both cages to give them a dark, quiet environment for sleeping, and this has never been a problem before.
Has anyone experienced something similar or have any ideas what might be going on? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!