Artifical light?

[lainmai]

I'm currently living in student residence (3 bedroom apartment in a townhouse complex style residence) and was stuck on the 1st floor....pretty much we're in the basement. My little window doesn't give much light so currently I have two lamps to provide light while I am at work, one which has a 26w 'Repti Glo' 5.0 UVB Exo Terra florescent bulb to provide full spectrum light. My question is this - I need to get a second one for my Senegal when I get him.

Should I opt to pick up this: http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/compact_top.php

I've checked all the major pet stores as well as a few places in Toronto which tailor more to birds but have not yet found anything designed specifically for birds. My concern would be the heat they can give off.

Does anyone have experience with providing lighting or advice?

[ptuga72]

Hello! My local bird rescue had an avian lighting class not too long ago is this is what I learned:

Birds need a lot more light than humans to see well. And, humans are very bad at determining the amount of light that is in a room. To see in color the room must be lit to at least 400 lux, which is approximately how much light it is outside during sunrise. The brightest room in the average american house is the kitchen. Kitchens are typically lit only to 300 lux so you can see where a bird may have problems seeing well in our homes.

When thinking about indoor lighting one must consider: Brightness, Concentration, Color Rendering Index (CRI), Temperature (as in light out put, not how hot it actually gets), and placement.

Brightness: ideally the room would be lit to 1000-1500 lux if possible, and 400 lux at the very least. This is so birds can see in color and clearly.

Concentration: mostly diffused light is best as it mimics the suns natural light scattering. but, some focused, brightly lit areas are ok

CRI: this index tells us how closely a bulb resembles the spectrum of light the sun gives off. You want 93 CRI or above, 95 CRI is ideal

Temperature: actually refers to how cool (red) or how warm (blue) light is. Too red and birds go all hormonal, too blue and you may have a stressed bird. You're going to want to look for a bulb with a 5000K temp, with the temp not going above 5700K.

Placement: You're going to want to mimic the sun, meaning above cage level and off-set, without it being directly over your bird's head. It is also good to remember that light diffuses exponentially the farther away you get from the source, BUT the closer you get to the light source the less stable the illumination becomes. This means don't put the light 6inches from the bird and not farther than 3-4 feet. Also it is good to remember that you should have a spot in your cage where your bird can remove himself from the light. I put a towel over half of my fids cages.

We also learned about UV rays and current avian lights available on the market:
Birds see close infared and low UVA lighting, which is slightly beyond our own visible light spectrum. But, just because they see lower energy UVA doesn't mean we stick them under a UV light bulb and call it a day. UVB light is almost unnecessary and when you get into higher concentrations of it it can cause eye, skin and feather problems, because like us, birds get "sunburned" too. A simple fluorescent blacklight will do the trick. Also, keeping a bird under any UV light of any kind all day, every day can cause problems, it is best to keep the blacklight on a timer (many of those I talk to do 2 hours when the sun would normally be the brightest, like noon). And a note on "avian lights": most are just repackaged reptile lights, which should not be used for a bird. Many can (and have) injure birds and are not the right temperature (meaning color) for our birds. I don't know about around the world, but in California, reptile bulbs and avian specialty bulbs should be avoided until better technology is introduced.

Here is the list of lights that where given to me at the class:
-Philips TL-950 are an excellent choice of bulb, but are the long tube fluorescent kind, and require a special light fixture. They come in 3 different sizes
-Solux brand halogens to concentrate light in key areas, these provide very bright, very focused light and tend to run VERY hot. so care should be used when a bird could have access to it. Also requires a special light fixture
-Fluorescent blacklight tube for UV supplementation, uses same fixture as the TL-950
-CFLs are the squiglly bulbs that are found everywhere. These can provide full-spectrum light, however because of their shape, will develop hot spots where the light is not full spectrum and resembles incandescent bulbs. This can happen quickly and will need to be changed at least every 6 months. does not provide UV supplementation

I got all my info off of the class materials and the website they listed as a reference listed is Patrick Thrush's avian lighting site: http://users.mis.net/~pthrush/lighting/

These guidelines where given to me as a general recommendation for most birds. Specific kinds of birds may be more or less accommodating to lighting situations outside of these guidelines

to put it all into perspective, we have ordered 3 light fixtures for our bird room. 2 will be the 4 foot fluorescent tube fixture for the TL-950 bulbs, which will be placed where the wall meets the ceiling on opposite sides of the bird room. The third will be a 2 or 3 foot fluorescent lighting fixture for a fluorescent blacklight which will be on a timer (on at noon and off at 2pm). This one will be placed on the wall between/joining the other two.

hope this helps!

[pchela]

Wow. Awesome information ptuga! I can see that you are going to be a valuable addition to the forum! Thanks for sharing.

[lainmai]

Great info but I can't change the fixtures in the dorm to accommodate the long tube style.
Guess I'm stuck sing the compact florescent and maybe even picking up a reptile or aquatic canopy top to put a small florescent light in =(

[ptuga72]

Great info but I can't change the fixtures in the dorm to accommodate the long tube style.
Guess I'm stuck sing the compact florescent and maybe even picking up a reptile or aquatic canopy top to put a small florescent light in =(

The CFLs are (imo) still a good choice! You might want one per bird so that their food dishes are illuminated well, and try to replace every 3-6 months. For UV supplementation you could just take your bird outside (in a cage or harness) for a little bit. I don't know if there is a place to roll the cage out to, but with a good harness and some training, you may even be able to take your bird for a walk! We have this set up right now as I am waiting on the parts I need to completely re-do the bird's room.
at least you're thinking about it! many don't realize how important light is for our birds. After we changed our lighting, our fids were eating better (they "taste" with their eyes) and Jake stopped trying to make my hand his girlfriend (we used incandescent bulbs-too red and dim).

[lainmai]

I have full intnetions on halter training my Sennie but I'm still concerned about light during the day since I'm in what would be considered a basement apartment. Its taken me a few months to figure out what to do for my 'Lets (breeder birds) as they don't have a source of natural light in my room. I'm pretty sure my next trip to the pet store I'll pick up another Exo-Terra Repti Glow for my 'Lets...I just need to find a cheap lamp on kijiji first since I don't have any more "free" ones around my room I can use.

Thanks for the info though, once I'm no longer living the life of a student (again) and have my own place outside of the dorm I'm looking to have a bird room and will pick up some good lighting for them to have on top of natural light =)

....as for putting the cages outside it *IS* doable on my days off from work if it isn't raining but I don't trust the other students in the buildings to leave them alone! I've already had a folding chair trashed and my BBQ tank left open. I'd hate to see what "pranks" they would pull with my babies!

[ptuga72]

....as for putting the cages outside it *IS* doable on my days off from work if it isn't raining but I don't trust the other students in the buildings to leave them alone! I've already had a folding chair trashed and my BBQ tank left open. I'd hate to see what "pranks" they would pull with my babies!

I hear ya, I graduated last year and hope to get into a grad school soon. College kids can be a handful to say the least.

[Michael]

I use several lamps with 100 watt incandecent (but soon will try halogen) full spectrum bulbs. These lamps are on timers and run on a 9AM-9PM cycle and the birds are covered for the rest of the night. Although my shades are all closed, a good deal of light still leaks in on top of that.

I take my Senegal Parrot outside several days a week so she can get some real sunlight.