I use these. It gets only a Little warmer than normal human body temp. I have two, one for the budgie cage and one for Sunny's cage. Actually, I took out the budgie-one temporarily, thanks for the reminder to put it back in! My Sunny seems to sleep next to hers most nights.
I do check it reasonably often. (My intention was to check it DAILY but i admit it do not Always do so. I have had been using these heaters so long I basically trust them. )
Basically I just place my hand against it for a little while. It should feel about like the face of someone with a fever or a high fever. I've never had it be warmer than that.
There are also heated PERCHES that exist. I would NOT recommend these. It seems they are mostly fine, but, from what I have read, IF one were defective and overheated, the birds continued sleeping on it and harmed their feet. So even though a defect may be quite rare, the risk with the heated PERCHES is too much for me.
But these snuggle heaters, IF it were to warm up too much, the bird will just move away. (Make sure the perch near the heater is situated, so that moving away is quite easy!)
Indeed, as mentioned, my Sunny usually sleeps by hers. But. if I let the room get warm in the summer, she moves away and does Not sleep near the heater. So the bird knows what temp it wants to be.
Having said all this, my Sunny is rather less-destructive than many birds. My budgies Can be destructive, but they have not shown any interest in these cords. The cords and the heater's cage attachments are all more-well-protected than most electrical cords, with a sort of wrap over the actual cord, and a sort of covered connector, all in a rather boring black color. The heater itself is a relatively smooth boring gray, again designed to be less-attractive to exploratory beaks. However, you might want to inspect and evaluate that for yourself, in terms of your own birds destructive abilities and tendencies. From Amazon it should be returnable, if examine it and feel it would not be secure enough for your bird.
