Artificial or Natural Lighting?

[finchick]

Hi:

Light is such a vital part of raising healthy Gouldians. My birds have access to both artificial and natural light. Because of where I am geographically located, the sun doesn't always follow my instructions, particularly when I want to trigger breeding, beyond putting pairs together, providing proper nutrition, and the ultimate hint, presenting the nestbox and nesting materials.

I would like to poll what source(s) of lighting breeders are using and, if you're able to share, what types of light fixtures and bulbs you are using. If you've experimented and can compare different lighting sources and arrangements, those lessons learned would be especially helpful.

I am always game to change my setup when someone else seems to have a better idea.

Thanks in advance! And, yes ~ this is a poll.

[Rox]

My gouldian's are outside in aviary's and I have clear sheeting on the roof. So while they get natural light, it is filtered. Also the one aviary doesn't get nearly as much light as I would like (a big tree throws a lot of shade over it) but they still breed well and are in fantastic condition. A good diet goes a long way to make up for any vitamin D deficiency which you may be worried about.

With regards to what light to use (natural, artificial, UV etc), you need to use what works best for you and your birds and what is practical. We all have different set-up's at home and only trial and error will let you know what works best for you.

[debbie276]

The only time I ever supplied artificial lighting was when the birds were in my basement with no windows. If there was a window in the room I didn't supplement their lighting, now they are all outside.
I'm surprised you are having trouble with the amount of lighting, we should have just about the same amount (I'm in NJ). I have to say I never needed to change the amount of light to get them to breed, for mine it's more about the diet and temperature.
My birds remain together year round and I only remove nest boxes to clean them then I put the boxes right back. The entire flock is in sync, molting in spring, breeding in summer till end of December then resting till spring again. Even if I buy a bird and it's in a different cycle, by the second year of being here it's will be in sync with mine.

Interesting poll, can't wait to hear what others post
good luck

[Sally]

I am constantly changing my lighting, it seems. My cages are all inside a room with two windows, but I'm told the new windows block harmful UV light, so my birds don't get any D3 benefit from that. I also like my cages to be well-lit for my own enjoyment, so I can see the birds well.

I have a light on every cage. Since I have different size cages, my light fixtures range from 4' shop lights to 2' shop lights to slim under-cabinet lights. I would love to have specialty avian bulbs in each, but that cost is prohibitive, so I use the bulbs marketed as 'sunshine' by GE or Phillips.

I was using the reptile bulbs made by Exo-terra, the 5.0 ones. At first I loved them, as my Strawberry males molted into their breeding plumage right away. Their color was brighter and more red than I had seen in the past. But eventually, I realized that they were staying in that breeding plumage, not molting into their eclipse plumage at all. Also, they started producing white feathers on their backs. Granted, some of these guys are getting old, but that doesn't totally account for the poor feather condition. I believe it is from the reptile bulbs, too much of a good thing. I have pulled all the reptile bulbs out and will have to wait and see what happens next.

I use black lights in my bird room too. I have two 4' fluorescent bulbs, each aimed to cover half the room, so that all cages are exposed to this light. I just reinstalled these, as I took a hiatus from breeding for the last year and took them down. They did result in getting more balanced clutches between males and females. I'm thinking of adding one reptile light to each of these two shop lights, so that the birds will have some UVB but not so much as when the lights were over individual cages.

I'm also playing around with moving a few cages outside each day. Of course, I can't do this with breeding birds, but I'm taking a triple stack of cages that is on wheels out on my back porch each day. Each cage has some of my older, non-breeding birds.

My belief is that you cannot beat the natural sunshine provided by Mother Nature. Even the avian bulbs are an imitation. For those lucky enough to have outside aviaries, you are providing the perfect lighting for your birds. The rest of use can only attempt to duplicate it. From what I've read, the best lighting for birds is a kelvin rating of 5000K to 5700K, with a color rating of at least 92CRI. I have always bought light fixtures and then tried to find lights for them. I think the best route is to buy the light bulbs, and then get the fixtures to fit them, since so few bulbs are made in the proper K and CRI range for our birds.

[finchick]

The sunlight cycles in NJ and around DC are very similar.

I'm trying to keep the daylight hours during the winter just a bit longer since they seem to not wait until what I consider "spring" (April to May, when the daffodils and hyacinths come up) to start nesting. It almost seems as though the birds are off by six months, not realizing that they have moved to the northern hemisphere.

Surely they can read the calendar!