artificial lights and vitamin drops

[coral]

i live in ohio and as you probably know its not the sunniest place, my vet told me to use an artificial light so marty doesnt become vitamin D deficient. i do use one but i was curious if any of you guys use them? do you use vitamin drops in their water or food?

[captwest]

I'm not a vet, and i don't pretend to known more than a vet,My advice , and check with your vet,is a good pellet diet and 2 hrs a week of sunshine. Just my 2 cents worth, Richard PS do you have an avian vet ? seems a bit "old school " to me.In all fairness i;m not up your fids and maybe someone else can give better advice.

[Nevermore]

I live in Ontario, and take my boy to an Avian vet. She has not suggested a UV light. I would be hesitant as well, because of the risk of your burn burning itself on the light.

Is your bird cage by the window?

[entrancedbymyGCC]

You do want UV exposure either from the sun or a bulb. Some say 5-10 mins daily of sunlight is sufficient, but it must be direct sunlight, glass will filter out the UV (and most of the IR for that matter) so being by the window does not count, unless it is open.

You'll need a true full-spectrum bulb, NOT a daylight-balanced bulb, meant for use with birds. The true full-spectrum bulbs have special coatings that emit the UV light. Unfortunately, those coatings wear pretty quickly so you also have to replace the bulbs every 6 months and they aren't cheap. I posted some info about one of the brands available here: . You do need to place the bulb near the cage, but not in it, and you don't want the bird to be able to make contact directly with the bulb. They don't run particularly hot, but you definitely don't want them chomping on it.

It is generally not recommended to use vitamin drops unless a vet recommends it. Put in the water, they can cause the water to get contaminated more quickly than normal, so you'd have to change it several times a day. A good pellet should contain most of the ingestible vitamins that drops would provide anyway.

[coral]

i have my uv light hanging about his cage he doesnt pay any attention to it, his cage is not by the window because its winter and its a bit drafty near it so i dont like his cage by it. i didnt know that about the vitamin drops ill stop using them then, thank you for the advice