Liz, Some Q's about your bird room

mike · Post by **mike** » Fri May 29, 2009 9:23 pm

I could have asked this via PM but I thought there might be some info others might want to read.

L in Ontario wrote:

The stands you are using for the cages don't look like the ones that come with the "4 cages plus stand". Are these different?

I notice you have lamps on every cage. Is that because you have the birds in a cooler area or because you are giving them extra heat? My room doesn't drop lower than 18'C but is usually at least 21'C.

Does having all of those lamps run your electricity bill way up? My mother still comments about how her electricity bill had dropped to 1/3 after I moved out (from the 8 gecko heat lamps. It was even worse with the marine tank: 1000+ watts of lighting for 10 hours a day plus the pumps and stuff!)

Finch Fry · Post by **Finch Fry** » Fri May 29, 2009 9:34 pm

You can buy stands for these flight cages from many places. You can also build your own. I have been building my own stands for my finches. I too am modeling my finch room after Liz... just ask her, i pm her all the time asking her questions.

As for the lights, you need to provide them with sunshine or real light that has the UVA or UVB ( i forget which is the important one) so the finches can convert the oils on their body to Vit. D3 which is necessary for proper health.

Its pretty important to supliment finches with sunlight if they are indoor kept.

As for Temp, 72-78 F is just fine for finches. 18C is MUCH too cold for these finches however. I would suggest 21 C minimum

mike · Post by **mike** » Fri May 29, 2009 10:15 pm

Finch Fry wrote: As for the lights, you need to provide them with sunshine or real light that has the UVA or UVB ( i forget which is the important one) so the finches can convert the oils on their body to Vit. D3 which is necessary for proper health.

It's funny how we take things for granted. I have UV lamps over the cages (and one cage in a window although that doesn't matter much) but since I never pay attention to the lights, I forget they are there. I've had a lot on my mind about lighting lately, but without going into the boring details, seeing Liz's setup made me think they were heat lamps.

Finch Fry · Post by **Finch Fry** » Sat May 30, 2009 12:33 am

Lighting, personal opinion here, is the most important thing you can give your finches, aside from food.

You can buy clamp on lamps like this for 8-9 dollars at walmart. I have one for each of my cages. Then I went to home depot and bought 15W high efficiency sunshine light bulbs. They are ridiculously bright with a 850 lumens output and put out minimal heat. They are high efficiency at 15W but i think are equiv to 75W light bulb outputs. I was able to get a 4 pack of these for 8 dollars. For me, 10 dollars per cage to give appropriate life need to my finch is a no brainer.

And yes, i am one step closer to being a Liz copy cat as a bird room... cept my bird room is also my kitchen. HAHA

mike · Post by **mike** » Sat May 30, 2009 6:13 am

Finch Fry wrote:Then I went to home depot and bought 15W high efficiency sunshine light bulbs.

Do these produce UVB or are you supplementing with other UV bulbs?

L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Sat May 30, 2009 7:35 pm

Hi Mike and Chris,

Those white stands are not the ones that come with the cages from Elite pets. These are 2-tiered ones I ordered from Fairest Finches in the US along with 1 white cage (not shown in the pic). The stands from Elite Pets are at the other end of the birdroom - not in my pics here.

Re the lights - I put them on despite my birds having large windows nearby as I'd read / heard that glass or plastic basically eliminates ANY of the sun's UV's coming through windows. These are all clamplights I bought at Canadian Tire and they all have the mini-spiral low-wattage (15W) "Daylight" bulbs in them. One has a ceramic heatlamp in it and another has a red-glow spotlight in it; both of which serve as heatlamps when one or more birds / babies is under the weather. No it hasn't raised the electricity bill hardly at all in the past year and a half. The lights are all on timers (also from CT). The temp in my birdroom varies from 18 - 21C also. These "daylight" lights do not emit any heat at all. I can remove a bulb with my fingers within 5 - 10 seconds of turning it off. The second reason I have a light on each cage is that the colour in that part of the birdroom (blue) seems to absorb any light coming in the window. It's not real bright in there even when the sun is shining brightly.

Hope that helps.

mike · Post by **mike** » Sat May 30, 2009 9:11 pm

L in Ontario wrote:These are all clamplights I bought at Canadian Tire ...

I had a milk crate full of these lamps and I sold the lot for $10. It's one of those things you knew was stupid when you did it but don't realise the full impact until you need them again. Now I have to fork over $10 each for new lamps.

poohbear · Post by **poohbear** » Sun May 31, 2009 3:14 pm

Finch Fry wrote:

As for Temp, 72-78 F is just fine for finches. 18C is MUCH too cold for these finches however. I would suggest 21 C minimum

Sorry ...but I've kept and bred gouldians and others for many years at 15C with no problems.The important thing is to keep new birds at the temperature they are used to with their last owner.

L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Sun May 31, 2009 3:44 pm

I've heard/read that if you keep Gouldians in very warm conditions then their offspring will have to be kept at those temps and known as 'hot house' birds. I would not keep any finches at constant temps over 20C.

lovemyfinch · Post by **lovemyfinch** » Sun May 31, 2009 4:01 pm

L in Ontario wrote:I've heard/read that if you keep Gouldians in very warm conditions then their offspring will have to be kept at those temps and known as 'hot house' birds. I would not keep any finches at constant temps over 20C.

Question regarding hot summer conditions. Is it okay to use a ceiling fan in the same area as the birds, when say the temp. hits 30?

Finch Fry · Post by **Finch Fry** » Sun May 31, 2009 11:45 pm

Learn something new every day about temps. I was going off of what I had read at so many sights saying what temps goulds like. Have any of you noticed issues with goulds at colder temps like 15-18 C?

L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:06 am

lovemyfinch wrote:Question regarding hot summer conditions. Is it okay to use a ceiling fan in the same area as the birds, when say the temp. hits 30?

I would not use ceiling fans in a birdroom only because sooner or later I'd forget to turn it off when I'm cleaning or feeding and (again) sooner or later one of the finches will escape and fly into the whirling ceiling fan. Not a pretty thought or sight!

L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:12 am

Finch Fry wrote:Learn something new every day about temps. I was going off of what I had read at so many sights saying what temps goulds like. Have any of you noticed issues with goulds at colder temps like 15-18 C?

I keep all my birds (finches and parrots) at temperatures I am comfortable in. In winter (when I typically breed them) I keep the house around 18 - 20C. In summer (when they are usually moulting) I set the air conditioning to kick in at 25 or 26C.

Hope that helps.

poohbear · Post by **poohbear** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 3:45 am

As seen on a survey of breeding conditions in the wild...Gouldians can tolerate extremely high temperatures...but also breed at lower temperatures in the cooler regions.
Domesticated birds have been bred for generations at lower temperatures in the cooler regions of the world.
They do like high humidity though...which is why I have always planted flights with real plants and not artificial.

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:50 am

at present the night time temps here are getting down to 4 - 5 degrees celcius (freezing to me) my gouldians ar in an outside aviary and are still breeding. there are a couple of nests of young and another 3 nests with eggs. the only thing I do differently once the nights get colder & longer is to add extra linseed, rape seed and niger to their daily dry seed mix. this is for the higher fat content.
I have no artificial lighting or heating in the aviary nor will I be adding any, as the birds cope the way it is