Birds and Drafts

[Icearstorm]

I constantly hear how birds should never be exposed to drafts, but have found little evidence to support this. Of course exposing an endotherm to a draft at near-freezing temperatures is not a wonderful idea, but I'm wondering about drafts at room temperature. My flight is too large to cover, so I have been sleeping without the fan most of the time (ugh, it's too hot), but have used it recently with no problem. It is 80°F with high humidity. So has this "birds and drafts" thing been blown out of proportion, or are my birds just hardy?

[Babs _Owner]

Icearstorm

I run my ceiling fan in the living room all the time in the summer and keep my house at 70 degrees. The fan is right over the flights. I haven't had any problems.

At 80 degrees I would say they probably welcome the breeze.

[Icearstorm]

Babs

That's good to know. I find it odd that whenever I see finch books they say to keep the birds out of drafts, but other animal care books never mention it..?

[lovezebs]

Icearstorm

I think they mean 'cold drafts'.

I think it all has to do with common sense.
I mean, I'm not going to leave the bird room window open when there are Canadian winter breezes blowing.

[GouldianGuy]

Ya draft = cold/fast moving air

[Stuart whiting]

I constantly hear how birds should never be exposed to drafts, but have found little evidence to support this. Of course exposing an endotherm to a draft at near-freezing temperatures is not a wonderful idea, but I'm wondering about drafts at room temperature. My flight is too large to cover, so I have been sleeping without the fan most of the time (ugh, it's too hot), but have used it recently with no problem. It is 80°F with high humidity. So has this "birds and drafts" thing been blown out of proportion, or are my birds just hardy?

Being honest and to be fair about this my freind it really is basic common sence,

Never ever blow drafts out of proportion, I simply can't emphasise this enough as this is really serious, constant drafts can be a killer to birds

However a ceiling fan is completely different, a ceiling fan throws out a constant breeze at a controlled setting that is dispursed around the whole entire room.......it is not a draft, there's a big difference

The use of yer ceiling fan at a normal speed and obviously not on a ridiculously fast speed should be perfectly OK for yer birds

[Dave]

Birds aren't humans and furthermore have feathers. I'm not so sure that if we're chilly or we feel a draft that the bird does as well.

An old pigeon keeper told me that there should be enough air moving through to gradually dissipate the smoke from a cigar. The point being some air flow is required or humidity will build up and diseases can get started that way.

Birds live outdoors and that is certainly a drafty place. Birds just move into the bushes to avoid wind.

In a cage, your bird can't always escape the 'weather'. Having night nests and artificial foliage or the like gives your bird a chance to find a comfortable spot. Box cages (all sides closed except the front) do the same. A cage with four wire sides and a wire top must be an uncomfortable (and scary) place for a bird.

[Icearstorm]

Babs, lovezebs, GouldianGuy, Stuart whiting, Dave

Thank you for your feedback! I'm glad I can sleep comfortably now without worrying that all my birds will suddenly drop dead.

[zebsoc]

Long ago I had 2 zebra finches. I lived in an area where 70s was the norm for summer.
We had some 80s weather and I was worried the birds would get too hot since I only knew that birds couldn't sweat and could die from heat. I hadn't heard about drafts (before Internet).
So I turned on a very small fan on high and directed it at their cage. The female became ill and didn't recocer. The male was fine.
So direct strong drafts do worry me when I turn fans on for my birds. I try to aim more fownward or to just a corner so thry can be there or not. And esp try to be careful after they bathe.
But fans in their. Area as long as not directly at them I haven't so far ever had a problem.

[Stuart whiting]

Long ago I had 2 zebra finches. I lived in an area where 70s was the norm for summer.
We had some 80s weather and I was worried the birds would get too hot since I only knew that birds couldn't sweat and could die from heat. I hadn't heard about drafts (before Internet).
So I turned on a very small fan on high and directed it at their cage. The female became ill and didn't recocer. The male was fine.
So direct strong drafts do worry me when I turn fans on for my birds. I try to aim more fownward or to just a corner so thry can be there or not. And esp try to be careful after they bathe.
But fans in their. Area as long as not directly at them I haven't so far ever had a problem.

Believe me cold constant drafts can actually kill any bird as I learnt this the hard way 20 - 30 years ago to my cost,

With the use of fans in the room during hot weather is absolutely fine and no problem atall but this should be basic common sense in not to point fans closely and directly at any birds,

Try being on a train like we had back in the eighties and early nineties and then putting year head out of the window like many of us did in our younger years as kids, you'll find that it's damm difficult to breathe

This could be the same for small birds and could be really uncomfortable and even fatal for em being directly positioned in front of fans, it's an absolute NO NO,

However ceiling fans and with birds over the other side of a room should be ok