Avian lamp for sun conure?

[Skittys_Daddy]

So my cockatiel Peaches has direct access to sunlight because she is in the bedroom opposite the window where the sun shines. The bedroom is in the front of the building.

Skittles, however, is in the living room which is in the back of the building. While I do get some light in the living room, I often have to turn corner lamps on cause it gets too dark in here.

I just read about Vitamin D with birds and how they can't process it without full spectrum lighting. Is this true? If so, what remedies are available?

I don't want to go out and by a 'bird lamp' without knowing if it actually is of benefit. I have a 'mood light' that my doctor prescribed for seasonal affect - but not sure if that would work for a parrot.

Advice?

 

[Amanda_Bennett]

According to Zilla's vet (avian vet) parrots don't absorb vitamin D the same way we do (they have feathers and not much skin showing) and therefore the lamps on the market as "parrot lamps" don't do much for them except give them more light. Zilla loves hers in the winter when there is not as much daylight so I make sure it's on a few hours a day for her just because it makes her happy.

 

[Dinosrawr]

The SAD lights don't work the way parrots need them to. My boyfriend has one, and on the box it even says "99% free of UVA/UVB rays".

I live in a basement, and while we do get natural light in it, the windows themselves also block about 97% of UVA/UVB rays too unless there's a window you can open and a screen. So to get around that I actually take my birds for car rides as the side windows don't block the rays the birds need (hence why lots of truckers have one tanned arm or a half tanned face). It also makes getting sunshine for them in the winter months a lot easier, plus Avery just loves it when we drive "fast", hahaha. She perks right up! It's so cute.

We do have LOTS of threads on this topic though, so I'd give it a quick search if you'd like to research it more.

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

Well, I live in Maine, and while it's warm enough for about four months of the year to take Skittles out - for eight months it's not. Lately we are still hitting 90s here which is unusual (but not unheard of) for September in Maine.

I just don't want it to shorten his lifespan or anything. Given how 'neon' his coloring is, I would think it shouldn't be that much of an issue, right?

I just never heard of that. I always thought UV rays were dangerous.

 

[TacoNTiki]

Yes there are lots of threads on this and even if you search uv lights for birds lots will come up. I am no expert but I did look into it so I will share what little I know but please read up as well in case my info is not 100% correct.

From what I read and what our avian vet said, birds do need uv full spectrum in order to process vitamin d (and calcium too I think?). Be very careful when buying the bulb for skittles as birds need a specific "kelvin" rating. I can't remember what rating but if you search feather brite bulb their rating is the correct one. I have a feather brite and its the only one I trust because I don't want to bother with searching for any other with that rating, although I am sure there are others out there that are appropriate. There are also conflicting info out there as to how many hours in a day the light should be on them. My vet said 2 hours max a day. Also be careful the light only points down on them and not across to prevent them from "looking into the light" and causing cataracts.

The window in homes block 99% of uv rays so they need to get outdoors or have an uv light.

 

[JerseyWendy]

The following writeup is by far our most extensive one on this subject.
http://www.parrotforums.com/general-health-care/35383-lighting-information-birds.html

And here you go with more links:
http://www.parrotforums.com/questions-answers/47145-lighting.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/conures/42216-full-spectrum-lighting.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/questions-answers/37767-does-anyone-here-use-full-spectrum-lighting.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/general-health-care/33330-full-spectrum-vs-daylight-lighting.html

If you do an advanced search for "Lighting", you'll find oodles of more links.

 

[Notdumasilook]

My 2 cents here. You are feeding your son Harrisons..correct? If you look it has vitamin D3 supplemented in the feed. The natural way they get D3 is from the oils from the preening gland. Upon being exposed to sunlight it "morphs" in to d3 and subsequent preenings they get enough on their mouths to injest. Feeding him that quality pelleted diet should assure he wont have any health issues D3 wise. UV rays are filtered out. If you wanna spend the extra bucks for peace of mind you can get sun spectrum tube lights at home depot... to heck with the pet shops.. they overcharge. Seriously though, you should not have any problems. A quality pelleted diet has all the A,D3,Calciium, and phosphorus in the right ratios already. So bro.. no worries.. your feathered son is just fine as is. )

oh heck. just saw the date of this original post.. hah.. you know this already by now... SORRY..........

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

@notdumasIlook Actually, I did not know that specifically, so thank you. That was actually my primary concern - how the Harrisons would come into play. I know there is such a thing a 'vitamin A toxicity', like 'too much of a good thing'. But when I heard about the inability to process vit D etc, I worried about vitamin D toxicity.

@JerseyWendy I apologize for the duplicate post. I had not thought of doing the 'search' feature. It hadn't even crossed my mind, to be honest.

Since this was the first time I'd heard about it I figured it was a 'new' thing. In the future, I'll be sure to use that search feature.

Thanks for the links by the way. I appreciate it.

PS, I wish there was a way I could give myself "thanks" for my incredibly intelligent post. haha (I'm on a roll today! Actually, I'm in a chair but you get the gist - I hope)

 

[Notdumasilook]

My lil understanding on vitamin A is you would have to seriously over supplement it to cause a problem. D3 however is a different story...as it kinda has to balance with the calcium and phosphorus... something I assume Harrisons has already done. Most the vitamin A rich foods you find really don't have vitamin a... but a precursor.. and the bird can convert it IF needed.Hence giving them healthy snacks like carrots, greens, or sweet taters should not cause a problem. The biggest mistake we make with our lil feathered kids is give them too much fat in their diets. It doesn't have to be junk food. Things that are on the
"healthy" list that contain fats cause their lil livers to start failing, no matter what other good stuff we feed them. Amazons an conures (from what I have read) are very sensitive to fat intake. It can take place over the years and build up in the liver.. then no matter how good the rest of the diet is they can deteriorate fast. Some of us learn this lesson too late. I know now I have made mistakes. 30 years ago when I started adopting feathered kids the info was to feed them what we eat and they will do great. This is true within limits with a lot of moderation.