Danger of lights at night

[nerdybird]

Yes, I am trying to get the right lighting for them, as discussed on the Full Spectrum lighting topic. Do you leave these types of lights on all day, or only for a few hours?

I am looking for a sunlight supplement as well as better quality lights I can use as my main source of indoor light, I'm just not sure if they will be the same thng.

[Wolf]

I turn mine on as soon as I can see the sun above the horizon and then turn it off in late afternoon when the light just starts to dim. If you want to go by the times of sunrise and sunset then turn the light on about an hour after sunrise and turn it off about an hour before sunset.
These light work fine as lights for you as well but your bird needs to receive the twilight periods of dawn and dusk without the interference of any other light source and then needs to go to sleep in full dark at the end of the dusk period.
As long as he is in the dark to sleep without being bother by the light, full spectrum light is a wonderful light for you to use for yourself.
Does this clarify this enough to be useful to you? If not, let me know and I will try to be more clear.

[nerdybird]

I think so... so the full spectrum light is ok for the birds' main light source throughout the day? I've seen other places say to only use them for 3 hours or so, but that may have been the ones meant for reptiles.

[Wolf]

My light is kept about 3 feet from the cages and you did say that natural light was difficult to get in your apartment. A bird sees so much more than we do and does require good light for flight. They see into the UV light spectrum and when they have adequate light they see things and colors that we can only imagine. Next to a bird we are practically color blind, but a bird that does not have full spectrum lights to see by when indoors is very limited as it can only see a fraction of what it would normally see.
The full spectrum lights that are made for reptiles are of the wrong temperature and the wrong color and they can very easily burn the birds skin right through its feathers, and I am speaking of burns down to the bone in just minutes and they can also cause the bird to go blind. That is why you want to use a low wattage bulb or tube with a CRI of 94+ with a K Temp between 5000 and 5500. These are the only ones that are safe for your birds use and keep them at least 3 feet from the bird.

[liz]

The thread on full spectrum lighting has a web address with instructions for how to use the light.
Wolf had to talk me through it.

[Pajarita]

They also sell twilight lights, they are expensive and, to be honest, I haven't done any real research about them but if you have no real access to dawn and dusk, you can try them. But, in reality, even when the sun is not shining straight through the window, the birds know when it's dusk and dawn because they can see the change in the colors so, as long as the window is not covered by blinds or draperies, it should be enough.