Thank you. May I ask when he moults?
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Why is Ultraviolet Light so Important for Your Bird?
1. To promote vitamin D synthesis and absorption
Just as humans do, birds need vitamin D to aid in nutrient absorption and bio-assimilation.
Your pet bird has an uropygial or āpreenā gland above the base of the tail. This gland secretes oil. As your bird grooms, it spreads this oil over its feathers.
This oil contains a compound that produces vitamin D when exposed to the sunās ultraviolet rays. So as your bird grooms under an ultraviolet light source, itās actually mixing up a healthy batch of vitamin D on its feathers.
As your bird re-grooms his feathers coated in oil, he ingests the vitamin D. The vitamin D in his system will then be converted by his kidneys and liver to active vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol).
Another way your bird absorbs vitamin D is through his eyes.
The lens of the human eye is trichromatic, which means it contains cones that absorb only three color spectrums ā red, blue and green. The human lens filters out ultraviolet light.
Not so with birds. The lens of a birdās eye absorbs not only red, blue and green spectrums, but also UVA and UVB rays, making their vision pentachromatic. Your bird has better vision than you do, and he can also see more hues and colors than you. This enhanced vision helps birds locate certain food sources and even helps them select a mate.
Your birdās eye is also different from yours in that he has an additional gland around his retina called the Harderian gland.
The Harderian gland aids absorption of UV light into his retina and communicates with his pineal and pituitary glands to help regulate his birdās breathing, molting, and day/night cycles as well as his migration pattern.
Your birdās basal metabolism and overall health are in large part regulated by the pineal gland and the pituitary gland, which means the condition of the Harderian gland is also pivotal.
2. To prevent your bird from developing UV deficiency-related illnesses
A vitamin D3 deficiency frequently results in hypocalcaemia or low calcium levels. Symptoms can include:
Low egg production/hatching and poor shell quality
Bone fractures
Seizures
Shortage of vitamin D3 can also cause physical abnormalities, including a soft or overgrown beak, splayed legs, and bent keels.
The avian disease stargazing (twirling) is associated with vitamin D deficiency, as is Conure Bleeding Syndrome and increasingly, many types of cancer.
If you happen to own an African gray, you know how susceptible your bird is to hypocalcaemia. Recent research is pointing in the direction of a vitamin D deficiency rather than low calcium levels.
Since vitamin D is required for adequate calcium absorption, lack of direct sunlight or another appropriate ultraviolet light source may reduce the effectiveness of the calcium fortified pellets you feed your gray. This can result in chronically low calcium levels.
3. To improve your birdās overall well-being and quality of life
In my experience as an avian veterinary medicine (AVM) practitioner, Iāve seen exposure to ultraviolet light positively affect not only the physical health of my bird patients, but also their mental processes and emotional well-being.
Access to direct sunlight or an alternative appropriate source of UV light can improve conditions as varied as:
Destructive behavior like feather picking
A poor feather coat
Organ dysfunction
Immunologic disorders
Poor mood and temperament
Using Ultraviolet Bulbs
Except for the lucky few who live in warm, sunny climates and can have their pets outside for several hours a day, most of you will need to provide your birds with indoor UV lighting to ensure they get the exposure they need for good health.
Putting your bird in front of a window wonāt do the trick -- glass filters out the beneficial components of ultraviolet rays.
There are a number of UV bulbs for birds available on the market. You will want to buy the kind that provides both UVA and UVB rays.
And make sure youāre buying UV bulbs designed for birds. The UV spectrum in aquarium bulbs is in the blue range. If you happen to breed birds, you probably already know that blue spectrum light rays produce more female than male offspring.
So avoid aquarium or fish bulbs, and plant or grow bulbs. Stick with UV bulbs specifically marketed for birds. Place the light about 12 to 18 inches from your birdās perch.
I keep UV lights on my birds for around eight hours a day. You can go up to ten, but the minimum I recommend is four hours.
Five Key Ingredients for Your Birdās Good Health
Pure water
Clean air
A species-appropriate diet that includes lots of living foods
Coconut oil and essential fatty acids
Adequate ultraviolet light
[+]Sources and References
My avian Vet recommend 15 miniuts to 30 miniuts daily sun/shade. Watching for over heating, she asked me to walk through the sun and sit in the shade. I can see a visible difference in my parrots featheres, they are so iridescent, and glossy shinning after doing this for a month. Tho I haven't a
Achieved daily...
i have personally found led inferior as to life / brightness not as labeled costs more bulb and billAWESOME, Walt!!! Thanks so much for this info. I will make this thread a sticky, especially since lighting is coming up all the time. I will also dig around and merge other threads you've made about lighting and combine them with this one.
Thank you again!!!