indoor heating problem

[rebeccaturpeinen]

it is getting colder outside now and i found out i have a problem... we mainly use a wood stove for indoor heating, this is in the livingroom, where Joeys cage is and where he is outside of his cage in the evenings.

i am not worried about him flying to the stove as he has never shown intereset in this and he has lots of other places he prefers to land plus he doesnt fly much to begin with.

my problem is that when i let him out of his cage i have to close all doors to the livingroom to seperate him from the dogs but then it gets really warm in the room as it is hard to control how much heat a wood stove gives. (and opening a window seems like a silly thing to do ) how worried should i be when it gets really warm in the room? his out time as been limited now because i am ofcourse worried so i tend to put him back after a little while so i can open the doors again and let some air in.... any suggestions? (besides ofcourse getting rid of my dogs )

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I am not an expert, but my impression is that temperature swings are a bigger problem than a constant temperature a bit out of the comfort range. Most parrots are from rather warm climates, so getting up into the 80s or even low 90s °F probably isn't a big deal, but if it is rising rapidly to that and then diving back down into the 60s, it may be more of a concern.

I've only ever depended on a woodstove for heat once, and it was really hard to get some consistency.

Despite not having a tendency to land on the stove, it may still be a risk, it only takes once... is there any chance the bird could be in a different location that is both easier to isolate from the rest of the house, and that could possibly be kept at a more stable temperature using a small electric heater for supplemental heat?

Actually, I think other concerns with woodstoves are that wood smoke can be really very harmful, so the stove has to be very well maintained, and aside from the heat rising, improper ventilation with a woodstove can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning, so you may want to have a CO detector in the living room.

[Mr.Darcy]

I agree with entranced. I think the smoke might be an issue.....

[rebeccaturpeinen]

thanks for your replies!!
unfortunatly we can not just move him to another room, his cage is too big and doesnt fit through the doors. also, this is the biggest room in the house wich means he can fly around. our offices are too small and the kitchen holds too many other dangers. also if we would take his cage apart and move him into another room he would be isolated from us pretty much and that would definitly make him sad (and yell)

this heating thing is just a temporary problem, we will be moving to a different house in the end of november (wich ofcourse raises a hole bunch of different questions for me.... ) and there we will not have a woodstove. the woodstove we have here is a closed one so we do not have smoke in the house and it was cleaned about two weeks ago so there shouldnt be any risk of it getting shut. the stove is never on if we arent at home.

i guess we just have to be very careful for the next month and really plan when we use the stove so it has time to cool down before Joey is out. its gonna be nice to move so we dont have this problem anymore.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Yeah, a proper woodstove SHOULDN'T allow smoke to enter the house, but if somethign goes wrong with it, it can happen. And open fireplace would be worse in that respect by far, even with a good chimney.

thanks for your replies!!
the stove is never on if we aren't at home.

Hmm... I still think the temperature variations are the biggest concern. How cold does it get when the stove is off? You may still want a small electric heater near the cage, even if you are moving soon.

[rebeccaturpeinen]

we do have a small electric stove in case of emergencies but we do not trust that one to have on when we aint home... good thing is my husband is unemployed (yeah, great , but fits in this situation) so he is home during the day. he can feel when it gets too cold and have a small fire. the house is ok isolated so it never gets too cold inside.

im hoping that winter will wait a little while... till december would be good

[entrancedbymyGCC]

That's not so long, so hopefully it will! BUt in your part of the world I thought winter was early and often!