Lighting?

[Nerien]

We have a number of fluorescent lights that take a standard 18" T8 bulb, got them at Lowe's, some say grow light, others just regular lighting. But they are not quite bright enough to count as daylight bulbs, but the best we could do within the budget. We did take the plastic cover off the bulbs, and the fxtures are right above the cages, just far enough to prevent getting pecked. In the pet store, I saw their rack of fluorescent bulbs for aquariums, and the packaging says they fit standard fluorescent fixtures, AND gives the K (Kelvin) ratings. I know I've seen on here that 5000K is necessary to simulate sunlight. In the store, they had the 4200K version and then the 18,000K version, which I bet would knock the feathers right off the birds. But, there is also a 6500K version that I see online:
http://usa.hagen.com/Aquatic/Lighting/F ... ulbs/A1633

Am I correct in assuming this would be a good light to put over my bird cages? Would it be too bright? Is it missing something in terms of wavelengths or anything? Since we already have a number of fixtures, changing bulbs is not that expensive.

[finchmix22]

You can purchase Zoomed avian lights and other UVA/UVB lighting for those type of fixtures. Zoomed makes them specially for reptiles and birds.

[Nerien]

So that would be the
Tropic Sun® 5500K Daylight http://www.zoomed.com/db/products/Entry ... luZyI7fQ==
or the Ultra Sun® Trichromatic Super Daylight http://www.zoomed.com/db/products/Entry ... luZyI7fQ==
that would fit our fixtures. Is the 5500K enough, or is there an advantage to the 6500K one?

The listings for this bulb warn of mercury content, where the Hagen bulb does not. Are they just not putting that fact out where it might scare off people, or is their formulation different, truly without mercury, and does that affect the quality of the light significantly?

[finchmix22]

I'm not sure about that questions, but Zoomed has a customer number for questions and they've been helpful in the past.

[Tammy]

I use the zoomed tropical , green box 5.0 I think. my birds seem to do fine with it. good luck. tammy

[debbie276]

Here's a couple articles about lighting for you birds:
http://www.drellenrudolph.com/marteen/lighting.html
http://www.naturallighting.com/cart/sto ... sc_page=56
http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww42ev.htm
http://wildliferehabber.com/rehab-data/ ... ting-birds

For a fluorescent lamp to be properly termed full spectrum it must have a CRI (color rendition index) of greater than 90, and a Color Temperature of greater than 5000K.

When first using full spectrum, the amount of light produced may not seem “enough" to you when applied as directed. Beware comparing this illumination to what would be expected from a standard flourescent tube. We humans do not see as well into the blue and violet range as we possibly could, or nearly as well as our birds can. Because full spectrum lighting has a well distributed blue output, it appears as an "optical illusion" to us of decreased brightness when using these tubes. You will note however that colors are more vivid, visual acuity is increased, and eye fatigue reduced.

Be aware that your bird sees this environment much brighter than you do.

[Nerien]

Thanks for the info, this is great!

You wouldn't happen to have any info on LED lighting, would you? Whatever I can find doesn't give actual number data on the quality of the light, they talk in colors and photosynthesis only, one site did give color wavelength info but said that plants only use visible light wavelengths and anything else was a waste, find that a touch hard to believe, especially as they also said plants did use green light (NOPE! Not really!). Would be nice if there were LED lights that were suitable.

We got this little LED Gro Lite, it's about 24 bulbs in the head, on a stake that you stick in the pot. Puts out this very weird purple light that hardly seems to add any light to the room, so I guess they went for the blue and red ends of the spectrum. When I first plugged it in to test it, I was next to the bird cages, and when I turned the light towards the cages, they FLED like I was dumping acid on them, and stayed at the far end of the cages just watching, for as long as I had the light on, all 14 budgies, all 4 parrotlets, all 8 zebras, sitting quietly and clumped together in their respective cages. Light and plant are now in another part of the room. Never seen the birds respond like that to anything before.

[Lisa]

When first using full spectrum, the amount of light produced may not seem “enough" to you when applied as directed. Beware comparing this illumination to what would be expected from a standard flourescent tube. We humans do not see as well into the blue and violet range as we possibly could, or nearly as well as our birds can. Because full spectrum lighting has a well distributed blue output, it appears as an "optical illusion" to us of decreased brightness when using these tubes. You will note however that colors are more vivid, visual acuity is increased, and eye fatigue reduced.

Be aware that your bird sees this environment much brighter than you do.

I purchased some full spectrum lighting from a specialty lighting house and believe me, I spent an arm and a leg on it! The difference is amazing though - the light is so clear and the colors immediately pop and are so vivid. The birds immediately were drawn to it and seemed to enjoy it. It had another side effect in that suddenly it was as if Barry White, champagne and romantic candle lighting was set out as many birds INSTANTLY started courting others LOL. With that said, unfortunately, I do not have the funds to do ALL of my breeding cages with this lighting. There's about 10 of them that have this, the rest have regular fluorescent lighting (has more of a yellowish tone to it). My aviaries have full spectrum lighting as I had a $600 grow cart (for plants) that came with 5 foot fixtures with full spectrum lighting. I disassembled the carts and took the fixtures, installing on the aviaries. What a tremendous difference!!

they FLED like I was dumping acid on them,

then the 18,000K version, which I bet would knock the feathers right off the birds

Ruth, you crack me up! So many of your posts have me laughing out loud. LOL!

[debbie276]

From what I've read regardless of what they try to sell you there are no suitable LED lights only fluorescent. Though it has been a while since I looked into lighting.

[Nerien]

Saw in one of those articles that the guy added a big blacklight, which is nearUV wavelengths, in his bird room, and that did the trick for compensating for the deficiencies of the artificial lighting. That would be an intriguing idea if my cages weren't in my living room. I can just see my teen rolling his eyes at me and telling me he could no longer have any friends over to the house....

[jniner]

I went to a local lighting store and asked them for a 4' fluorescent bulb, 5000K with as high to 100 CRI as possible - I got one with 98 CRI. The bulbs cost about $11 each (I used to be able to get them for $5 each when I started but I guess everything goes up!). That is WAY cheaper than the bulbs you buy specifically for birds or reptiles in the pet stores. Worth a look...
Jeannine

[debbie276]

I believe Robert Black does that and from what he says just one in the room visible to all birds is all you need.

[mayble]

I can just see my teen rolling his eyes at me and telling me he could no longer have any friends over to the house....

Just put up some blacklight posters and tell him it's retro-cool.

[Nerien]

Do they still make blacklight posters? Whoa.