Are lights on each cage a s mportant to Zebs and

Fancie Flight · Post by **Fancie Flight** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 6:16 pm

Societies and Cordon Blues?? Especially if they are non breeding? I assume they wouldnt need the special lights then???

lia-w · Post by **lia-w** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 6:58 pm

Personally, I believe lights are crucial 24/7(a daily cycle) because FULL SPECTRUM lighting provide the Vitamin D the birds need to convert calcium, which is crucial all the time.

Plus...humans get depressed when there is not enough sun, why shouldn't finches

FeatherHarp · Post by **FeatherHarp** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:07 pm

Lia-W...Thats good to know and it makes sense to try to keep the birds on a natural schedule like Mother Nature does.

Fancie Flight · Post by **Fancie Flight** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:22 pm

Awesome, I always give them light just wasnt sure if it was really necessary or not, Now I will be sure to keep them lite.
Thanks

Post by **Sally** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:34 am

All my cages have full-spectrum lights on them. It is necessary for their health, I believe, and the bonus is that their colors show up so much more with light shining down on them. I have them on timers, so I don't have to run around turning them all on.

Fancie Flight · Post by **Fancie Flight** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:11 am

Mine are also on timers. on and off on there own, lol along with the radio, lol
I have mine set to gradually turn off not all at once. Radio goes first so they know lights are soon to follow,
Course the room is 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the house with all those lights, lol

FeatherHarp · Post by **FeatherHarp** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:23 am

I never thought of using timers.....will have to check into that. I guess I am the human auto-timer right now.

plantsandbirds · Post by **plantsandbirds** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 9:20 am

heh heh - I'm the human auto-timer of my cage lights too!

I have full spectrum lights on the big flight cages. I've been very grateful to the information I've received on this forum and the finchinfo site because so many of the better finch keeping practices that others have here have rubbed off on me.

I like to think that I will try to provide what will make my birds happy and healthy.

Fancie Flight · Post by **Fancie Flight** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:53 pm

I think happy healthy birds are what we all strive for. And I dont hink I will EVER stop learning,
And someone always has a trick i never thought of or something, lol

FeatherHarp · Post by **FeatherHarp** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:28 pm

Plantsandbirds.....what type of timers do you use? I know my Hubby uses them for heating our cars in the winter but they are not very reliable. So was just wondering what brand you use?

Fancie Flight · Post by **Fancie Flight** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 8:21 pm

If ya dont mind I can answer this, lol YOU CAN but the cheap 5.00 timers at say walmart they do work ok but only 1 thing plugs into them, and they are kinda iffy, I have 1 goes on but not off, what a pain,

Soo i went to a hardware store and you can buy them at lowes home depot or any other its a timer that can actually plug 6 items into it, and it sVERY reliable, they are rather latger and have a cover so nothing gets into them,

They are actually sold ALOT for Christmas folks setting up all the dif lights outside,

the ones I bought were about 30.00 each but on sale I paid 19.00 each and they can actually be set to come on and off twice a day i only do once,

Post by **Sally** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 8:54 pm

At Lowe's one time they had timers on the clearance table - $1 each, and these are heavy duty timers that will take a 3-prong plug! They have the little colored tabs you use to turn on and off, but they came with multiple tabs, so you could actually have many on/off times. I just use on in a.m. and off p.m., of course. They only have one plug for each timer, so I use one of those grounded cords with a strip on them, so I plug a bank of lights into the strip, then plug each strip into a timer.

Post by **Hilary** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:42 pm

I have extension cords (3 sockets each) plugged into each timer. Hope I'm not going to burn the house down.....

Fancie Flight · Post by **Fancie Flight** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 4:02 am

LOL you should see under my fish tanks if thats not ignited yet Im bettin your safe, lol

FeatherHarp · Post by **FeatherHarp** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:13 am

Thanks everybody for the suggestions....it sure helps to hear how others do their lighting systems.

Since Hubby is an Electrical Engineer I may end up with something way more elaborate than I really need...lol!