sunlight ?

[bigbird519]

so i am aware that the sun is very important for the bird. my ? is this. in the winter months when the temp drops way to cold for the bird, what then? i am waiting on a harness for mojo and i am going to have quite a few outings in the spring and summer months. but what do we do in the winter? is sitting in the window enough? i can make the sun available in the living area, but is the rays that come through the glass door going to be enough for him? or should i use some kind of supplemental lights?

Dave, your responses so far in all posts that i have read have been highley informative. that being said, i expect you to respond to this post lol. thanks in advance!

[JillyBeanz]

Sunlight in certain parts of the world (especially here in the UK) is hard to come by! We have to resort to supplementation and UV lighting! Here's Dave's very useful information on vitamins derived from sunlight:

http://www.greyforums.net/forums/health-room/157511-uvb-lightingits-importance.html

Hope it helps!

[danmcq]

The "Avian Lighting systems" do 2 things.

1. They produce UVB, which causes the production of vitamin D3.

2. They also produce a low level of UVA, which "Lights up" they world. Birds also see the UVA spectrum, that humans can not. It gives them more natural information about their environment visually that their optics and brains were made to process.

It can also be used for determining "Bad" fruit for example by fluorescing the mold and other spots that we cannot see until it is very severe.

I run dual tube, fluorescent fixtures over my parrots cages that I built myself and ordered special tubes that produce all the important light components and levels of UVA and UVB. They are also "Electronic" ballasts so there no "Flicker" like a standard fluorescent fixture comes with and irritates us and even more so birds, that see at much higher frames rates than we do. It would look like a strobe light to a bird.

You can buy good fluorescent lights as Dave has in his "Sticky" that will work well for you.

I run mine 12 hours a day.

Note: It is a good idea to replace bulbs yearly. The UVA and UVB weaken as they are used.<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2010/02/24 20:48

[Dave007]

bigbird519

Let me add something to what you need to know. It's not absolutely impportant that your bird get natural sunlight. Within the last 25 yrs glass manufacturers took away all of the ingredients from their window glass which if left in the glass would seriously burn people. It's what was taken away that contained the D3. At least 95% of grey owners don't have access to that type of sunlight. If those 95% of people have generally healthy birds that are fed a variety of decent foods, they'll be no problems. In the wild, birds have access to it but only remain in direct sunlight for short periods of time during the day. Most grey owners don't take their birds outside for a variety of reasons. So, I wouldn't worry about so much about natural sunlight so much especially if you live in an area that's very cold during certain parts of the year.

[bigbird519]

thanks for the link to daves thread! and thanks for the responses. i spoke with my vet, and we are going to install some lights above the cage a.s.a.p.