FINCHforum

I often hear of people using heat emitters on here for sick birds. I'd like to purchase one and have it one hand "in case". Lady Gouldian has them for sale and I plan to purchase one. My question is which wattage to get. It comes in 60, 100, and 150 watts. I have shaft tail finches.

Thanks!

If your using it in a small hospital cage I would get the lowest wattage, a bigger enclosure higher wattage.

I have both 60w and 100w ceramic heat emitters, and as Debbie said, the 60w is plenty for a hospital cage. I like these for sick birds, because they don't give out any light, letting the bird rest at night.

I use the 60 watt and it seems to be great. It puts out a lot of heat. I use it in a large cage just to provide a warm area due to the cold Colorado winters. I can't imagine needing a larger one. The birds like to sleep under it which is great since it's too expensive to run the furnace to keep the house at 70 all night.

I also bought a reflector that is made for the lamp. It has a ceramic base which is really important since the base gets extremely hot.

Thank you for your advice everyone.
I'm curious as to what the reflector does?

I use mine for my geckos and a hospital cage for the birds. The reflector concentrates the heat downward and in a particular area. It is very important to use the reflectors with the ceramic base otherwise you risk a fire (should say that on the heater package).

The reflector collects the heat and radiates it outward. It reflects the heat instead of the light when using heat bulbs.

Personally I have found low wattage light bulbs better use for sick birds simply because sick birds need to eat and drink (medicated water) more and will not do so in the dark. Sick birds will sleep in the daylight hours. In fact that is usually an early warning that something is wrong with our bird...we notice it's head tucked and sleeping when other birds are active even though it is daytime with plenty of light.
I have observed birds eat and drink throughout the night when they have light...they also will sleep more than normal simply because they are sick. The long hours of night time darkness for a sick or starving finch can actually be counterprocutive to them. They may keep warm but they won't actively eat and drink to keep up their strength.
If you are simply trying to add heat to a cool area that houses healthy birds then no added light is necessary.

Great advice from Candace. May I add from personal experience, I bought a new bulb and had to run it outdoors for quite a while to get the smell out. Then i didn't use it for two months. When i wanted to use it again on a cold day, the smell was there again. For sick birds, you won't have time to mess with that.

I use a 50w infra red bulb.

I just installed a 65w reflector flood on my male gouldian cage.
Some of the gouldians immediately went under it and bent their necks and started "sunning," similar the pix below. Guess they wanted to be warm.

I tried the red IR lamps in my hospital cage, but they are not invisible. I was surprised that they emit a LOT of visible red light. But, apparently not enough to keep the birds from sleeping. Also the IR lamps at the pet shop are about $10 each, and they don't last all that long, about the same as a regular light bulb. I've already gone thru 2 of them. Regular reflector flood lamps are cheaper, but then you are back to a white light. The ceramic heaters would last longer, giving you more for your $.

Thank you for your thoughts on this.
Those birds sunning are SO CUTE!

ac12 wrote:I just installed a 65w reflector flood on my male gouldian cage.
Some of the gouldians immediately went under it and bent their necks and started "sunning," similar the pix below. Guess they wanted to be warm.

I tried the red IR lamps in my hospital cage, but they are not invisible. I was surprised that they emit a LOT of visible red light. But, apparently not enough to keep the birds from sleeping. Also the IR lamps at the pet shop are about $10 each, and they don't last all that long, about the same as a regular light bulb. I've already gone thru 2 of them. Regular reflector flood lamps are cheaper, but then you are back to a white light. The ceramic heaters would last longer, giving you more for your $.

The hagen exoterra bulbs last a very long time. All other brands do have a short life.
Also Infrared bulbs can only be screwed into a ceramic holder. The bulb won't last for 2 minutes in a plastic one.

There are 2 different IR "bulbs"
- There is the one that uses a ceramic element (and thus emits no visible light). And this is the one that probably gets HOT.
- And one that looks like a red reflector lamp (which does emit visible light, at least the ones that I have seen). This is the one that I usually see at the pet shops and that I have.