Hormones??

[Wolf]

Well the manufacturer wants you to believe that they help the bird to produce vitamin D-3, and I wanted to believe that too, but then I saw that a study was done on whether they did in fact help the bird to produce this vitamin and the results were that they did not. I had even saved the study as a link, but my computer died and I had to buy a new one and have not been able to replace the information that I had on it. Boo- hoo ! Oh well stuff happens.

Still there is a very good reason for continuing to use full spectrum lighting and it does not have to be placed so close to the bird for it to have the effect and that reason is eyesight. A parrot sees into the ultra violet and because these wavelengths of light are invisible to us we cant see what the bird sees. I do know that if the bird can have the full spectrum of light to see b then it sees colors that we don't, next to a parrot, we are color blind. Vision is important especially when you fly so I am sure that the lights help them in this respect. I can't say what all they see, but good lighting is always a benefit to anyone that needs to see.

[marie83]

Of course Wolf. Completely forgot about that part & it's obvious now you have said it. Lol.

[Pajarita]

Actually, the full spectrum lights with UVA and UVB output do help the birds produce some Vit D3 but the thing is that it ends up been so very little that is no good. I also had a link to a study and I also lost it when my computer died on me (this is the second time it happens and one would think that I would learn to back these things up by now, right?!) but, if I remember correctly, whereas a human (there are no studies on birds) needs a minimum of 20 minutes a day of sun exposure, 8 hours of FSL exposure provided the equivalent of 2 minutes of sunlight.

So, when they say that it helps produce vit D3, they are not really telling a lie - it's just that they are not telling you the whole truth. I personally think that it's very irresponsible of the manufacturers to misinform people on this detail because there are lots of people that think that using a FSL is enough when, in reality, it's not.