Blue Crowned Conure and New Pet Kitties

Hi I just rescued 2 cats, a mother and her 6 month daughter. I'm trying to find a way to not allow them to bother my blue crowned conure while he's sleep at night.
My conure is in a large California cage which is covered at night and the cage sits against 2 walls. They haven't shown interest in him yet, but I don't want them to scare him while we are all sleeping. These cats spend the whole day in our finished basement sleeping and don't "come alive" until around 10:00 at night! We want them to eventually live upstairs with us all the time but my parrot's safety comes first! Do you think my parrot would be safe at night, or can you suggest something else I can do? I love these kitties and I want them to fully be part of our family, not spend their lives downstairs all the time. Of course, when my parrot is out of his cage the kitties would be downstairs, but I want them with us the rest of the time..
Tina

Give them a chance, let them stay out one night and see how they do. In my experience, most cats have no interest in the larger birds when they're caged (small birds flit and flutter more enticingly). And conures tend to be somewhat bossy and may even threaten the cats (my mom's Quaker does this; it's so funny!) so that will further discourage them from trying anything. Of course keep an eye on things---even a small scratch or contact with a cat's saliva can give a bird a life-threatening infection---but my guess is that they'll ignore the bird.

Thanks.... The problem is that it's hard to keep an eye on them when we are all asleep. :-(

I think the ideal situation would be to have the bird in a separate room. Those cages are large, sturdy, and heavy, but they don't prevent curious paws and claws from sneaking in for a peek. It only takes a second for a bird to get a scratch, or a cat to get bitten (and react to it). Even the laziest and most laid back cats can become stealthy and hunterly in a matter of seconds. Cat saliva carries pasteurella, which is toxic to birds, so even if I wanted to, I would never let my birds in a position to preen or interact with my cats, which means keeping the cats a certain distance away from the cages when they are granted entry into the bird room. A cat bite would be a death sentence to a bird.

If I'm not around to directly supervise the cats (meaning completely undistracted, no looking away at phones or computer screens, no bathroom or food runs), the cats are not allowed in the bird room and they're shut out. Especially with the nocturnal nature of cats, I would never, ever leave a bird and cat unsupervised together at night. The activity will keep the bird awake, and any ruffles or beeps coming from the cage will surely attract the cats' attention. If there's any better time for cats to explore and get into new things (that they probably shouldn't anyway), it's night time.

You can follow the steps in this page to teach your cats to be indifferent of the conure so you have less work to keep a hawk eye's watch on the cats when they're in the same room, but overall I just wouldn't let it happen unsupervised:

http://www.rationalparrot.com/zoosafety.html

I agree with pinkdagger r. It  seems to me it would be natural instinct. Considering the food chain and birds being cat's prey. If your 2 cats were kittens and raised with your conure maybe it would work. But since that is not the case I would never leave the cats and bird together unattended.

Thank you all for your replies. My little rescue kitties will have to spend most of their day's living in their "private apartment " I have made for them. I love my bird also and I don't ever want to put his life in danger!
I go through pangs of guilt sometimes feeling bad that they can't fully experience life with a family but at least they aren't living on their own outside, trying to survive on their own.