In praise of hospital cages

[Brette]

My mother owned budgies as a kid and when i got my first bird as a teenager she told me how to take care of sick birds. To this day I still have a little 10 dollar bird cage, and an electric heating pad that has cured many a finch.

On Friday i noticed one of my gouldians fluffed up, sleeping in the middle of the day while the others were active. I have no clue what it's problem was but I put her in the little cage with the heating pad underneath and a towel over the cage to keep it warm. From what i understand, so much of a bird's energy goes into staying warm that if they get sick, unless there is enough heat, they won't be able to put enough energy into combating illnesses. So when you jack up the heat, they are better equipped to fight whatever ails them.

It's Sunday morning and the gouldian is back in the aviary, flitting around, eating and preening her feathers. I'm sure whatever she had wasn't serious as I didn't even treat he with antibiotics but it might have become an issue had she not been placed in the hospital cage over the weekend.

[Hilary]

Very good point! I have clamp-on lights that I will attach to any cage with a fluffed bird - they can move up close to the heat if they need it, and usually do.

[Brette]

I have clamp-on lights that I will attach to any cage with a fluffed bird

How many watts will work for this?

[Hilary]

I just use a 60 watt bulb. Obviously you still need a hospital cage if you want to isolate and/or medicate, but if you just want to provide the extra heat the clamp-on light is handy.

[ac12]

@Brette
you have a couple options
#1 - a 50 watt infrared lamp. Commonly used as a heat lamp for reptiles. In the reptile section of PetSmart.
#2 - a 50 watt reflector bulb. I recommend a reflector bulb because you don't need the energy from the bulb wasted on heating the the reflector/shade of your lamp. This bulb is a lot easier to find at places like Home Depot or even Target, than a 50w IR lamp.

The reason I say a 50 watt lamp is you will put the bulb into a reflector/lamp assembly and have it close to the cage. At that short distance, 50 watts generates enough heat, as long as you have relatively still air. Just make sure that the bird can also get away from the lamp if it feels it does not need the heat.

If you have an outside cage, or moving air, then you probably want to get a higher wattage lamp, maybe 100 watts.

[Sally]

Isn't it wonderful what a little heat can do? That is the first step anyone should take when they suspect a bird is not feeling well, and often that keeps it from becoming a problem. I do like Hilary and use the clamp-on lamps--the bird will usually sit right under or next to it right away. And a hospital cage is a must when you have to do more than just supply some heat.

[L in Ontario]

I too use clamp-on lights. Nothing beats them for ease to placing where you want them - on top or on the side of a cage near a perch with either a ceramic heatlamp or red light for low light warmth.

[finchbob]

I use a clamp on ceramic infrared heat bulb 40 watts, designed for reptiles. Is 40 watts enough? I have it right up against the cage, the light is 3-4 inches from the nearest perch.

It's a fairly small room I keep my birds in, the entire room temp goes up from about 66 degrees to 72 degrees when I leave the 40 watt heatlamp on.

[ac12]

Bob
I think the 40w is just fine.
I only use 50w cuz that is the smallest IR lamp that I could find. And I could not find the 40w ceramic IR heaters when I needed one. With the 50w IR lamp right next to the hospital cage, I measured temp approaching 100F, inside the cage near the lamp. The main thing is that they can go close or far from the heater to get the amount of heat that they need.

The good thing about the ceramic IR heaters is there is no light. The IR lamps generate a lot of visible red light. I guess that functions as a night light.

[Hilary]

That's what I don't like about my clamp lights with regular bulbs (I only have one with a ceramic bulb) - I have to make a decision whether to leave them on at night (possibly disrupting sleep), or turn them off and they lose the extra heat overnight.

[finchbob]

Oh, mine doesn't light up, it just generates heat.