full spectrum lighting?

[Lovebirdlover]

im looking into buying a full sectrum bulb for my gcc's cage

her cage is half by the window and half by the wall.. but i know most rays dont make it through the glass.. so im looking to buying a bulb.

so the problem is. i cant order online for bird specific bulbs ( 17 year old with parents who think ill steal their credit card number and buy more bird things LOL)

so im wondering if a bulb like the one below for reptiles/plants will do.
Exo Terra Full Spectrum Repti Glo 2.0 Terrarium Lamp - Lighting - Substrate & Bedding - PetSmart

im just worried it will have a negative effect somehow..

what do you guys think?
is it suitable enough for her?


thanks again!

 

[roxynoodle]

Can you call an avian vet and ask? I think they are different though.

Or ask your parents to order it for you?

You can buy a prepaid credit card, but they charge like $5 to use it, which is a rip off.

 

[illuminati]

I use these and there great!! bird light | bird cage light | bird full spectrum light | full spectrum bird light

Can you not let your parents order them for you and you just give them the money?? I've had to do that a bunch..

 

[Lovebirdlover]

ill give it a try, but im also in canada which makes things 500x more expensive it seems like LOL

 

[Lovebirdlover]

I use these and there great!! bird light | bird cage light | bird full spectrum light | full spectrum bird light

Can you not let your parents order them for you and you just give them the money?? I've had to do that a bunch..

thats a great price.. but shipping to canada for me is $ 68.94

 

[roxynoodle]

When I was a kid my parents would write a check if I gave them the money. Everything was mail order then (yeah I'm old).

Or ask them if you can open a checking account. Then you could get a Visa or MC debit card or use paypal. I was still 17 when I started college and was able to open a checking account.

 

[illuminati]

thats a great price.. but shipping to canada for me is $ 68.94

ouchhh!!! thats steep!!! I looked at the products actual website and its $20 bucks shipping to Canada for 2 bulbs

 

[Lovebirdlover]

oh i have a debit card with a checking account..
but it would have to be a MC debit card?

this is me being stupid LOL

 

[illuminati]

oh i have a debit card with a checking account..
but it would have to be a MC debit card?

this is me being stupid LOL

most places accept visa and master card and some places even american express

use you debit card just like a credit card..my checking card is a visa

 

[roxynoodle]

oh i have a debit card with a checking account..
but it would have to be a MC debit card?

this is me being stupid LOL

Probably, but some places take paypal, too. You don't have to have a CC for that, but then it takes a few days for the payment to go through.

 

[Welshanne]

It is very important to get the right bulb as we had no choice when starting off twelve yrs ago and the only bulb offered was for snakes. This turned out to be too strong. Now we have the correct wattage but sorry no help to you besides. Good luck.

 

[Lovebirdlover]

Thanks for all the help guys!
I'm not going to take the risk if the reptile bulbs...

I'm going to look into master card gift cards.. Apparently you can use them online.. So that's how ill be buying things now.. LOL

 

[newatthistx]

I use these and there great!! bird light | bird cage light | bird full spectrum light | full spectrum bird light
.

i just ordered a few of these tonight....their a great price....it's a great color temp (5000k) but just alittle worried about the CRI number, couldn't find it, just hoping its at least 88.....

 

[waterfaller1]

Some reptile bulbs will burn a bird's eyes. You can get appropriate lighting at a home improvement store like Home Depot. In fact long flourescent tubes have a better spectrum for birds than the spiral compacts.

 

[Stormcloud]

If you have your GCC on a quality pellet-based diet that incorporates Calcium and D3 as part of its ingredients then save your money. Based on Einstein's Inverse Square Law for the Intensity of Light I fail to see how these things are of any real benefit to birds. The beauty about the laws of physics is that they are completely objective. They do not take sides in a debate, they don't fall for sales pitches or fancy brochures and nor do they degrade with age. You may find this link useful. #21

 

[waterfaller1]

Gerard I have had this light directly over my canary's cage for three years with no ill affect to the eyes.~ Full spectrum lighting for birds by FeatherBrite

 

[waterfaller1]

Benefits of Full Spectrum Light for birds

 

[Stormcloud]

Gerard I have had this light directly over my canary's cage for three years with no ill affect to the eyes.~ Full spectrum lighting for birds by FeatherBrite

Carole, the following reply is not meant to be disrespectful to you or your thoughts on this subject, but merely to provide facts about artificial UV lighting based upon the laws of physics and the current technology available to manufacturers.

1). I have made no reference to any ill-effects to birds by using this lighting unless it is closer than about 6-8 inches to the bird.
2). What I am saying is that based upon the laws of physics, in this case Einstein's Inverse Square Law for the Intensity of Light, any benefits supposedly gained by using these products are grossly exaggerated. Einstein never had a financial interest in full spectrum lighting, Featherbrite do.
3). Canaries also don't crawl around the sides and tops of cages like parrots do.
4). I will re-iterate again, the laws of physics cannot take sides in a debate, they can only prove objective facts. The laws of physics do not take into account your own, mine or Featherbrite's opinions and/or claims on this issue, they can only prove objective facts. The laws of physics do not care for fancy brochures, sales pitches or supposed beneficial claims by manufacturers, they can only prove objective facts. (see note 2)

Let us look at a practical example. Here's little Kismet happily singing in his cage. Trying to do the right thing by making Kismet a happy little vegemite, you go out and buy an FSL light. It states that you should mount the light at a distance of 12in (I just plucked this figure because it's easy to work with) from where the bird would normally be perched in its cage for Kismet to receive the optimum benefit of artificial FSL. These are the figures you are given to work with by Featherbrite when the globe, compact or tube are new. As we all know the amount of UV produced by these lights degrades rapidly to the point where they put out virtually no UV light whatsoever at six months of use and therefore needs to be replaced. Let us say for argument's sake, that after 3 months use that the FSL is now only putting out half the amount of UV light (see note 1). Using Einsteins Inverse Square Law for the intensity of light Kismet is now only receiving a quarter of the amount of UV light he did before...2 x 2 or 2 squared = 4. So we now need to move Kismet 4 times closer to the UV light to get the same effect as when the light was new. In order to accomplish this we can do one of two things. Move the light 4 times closer to Kismet or move the perch further up the cage, but either way Kismet needs to be within 3 inches of the light to get the same benefits as stated by Featherbrite as when the light was new. To make matters even worse, most of the manufacturers state that you need to use a dedicated reflector so that the UV light transmitted out the other side of the light source is not lost. The problem with this is that as the the amount of UV light produced degrades over time, Einstein's Inverse Square Law for the Intensity of Light actually becomes more like Einsteins Inverse Cubed Law for the Intensity of Light when using a reflector. So after 3 months the amount of UV light that Kismet receives is only one eighth of the intensity of the light he received compared to when the source was new...2 x 2 x 2 or 2 to the power of 3 = 8. This means Kismet would need to be within 1.5 inches (12 divided by 8) of the FSL source to receive the same supposed benefits as when the light source was new.

#Note 1: FSL lights do not degrade their output of UV light in a linear manner as used in this example for illustrative purposes. If you were to look at it on a graph of hours of use vs quantity of UV output, it would appear as a curve...a bit like the bottom left quarter of a circle or the first half of the letter U. In reality an FSL light source is likely to have lost at least 50% or more of its UV output by 2 months of age.
#Note 2: This post in no way necessarily disputes Featherbrite's claims about the benefits of UVA and/or UVB lights to birds. It does prove that based upon the laws of physics and the current technologies available, that until manufacturers can produce an artificial UV light source capable of emitting a stable quantity of UVA and UVB light over a sustained period of time, any benefits gained by the use of such products are extremely minimal at best in relation to their use with birds.

Manufacturers of FSL light sources do not provide a degradation graph of UV light Output vs Hours Used so that we can calculate and adjust the optimum distance of the FSL light source from the bird, because if they did people they would find it quite difficult to have the light source close enough to the bird after a month or two of use. A compact light source, fitting and recommended reflector cost in the region of $150 in Australia and hence why I did some extensive research before outlaying my hard-earned.

The two best things you can do for your bird if you are worried about its uptake of Calcium and/or D3 are:
1) Take it outside twice a week into unfiltered light for about an hour or so; and
2) Ensure that you feed your birds a quality pellet which contains both Calcium and D3.

As always the decisions we all make must be our own. The simple reality is that when used within the manufacturers recommendations, artificial UV lighting is highly unlikely to harm your birds, but they are also highly unlikely to provide any meaningful benefit either.

 

[roxynoodle]

Despite being on a pellet diet I had a bird get sick from not having FS lighting.

Not all of us can take birds out year round, and in my area, West Nile is an issue as well.

 

[Ziggymon]

I use the long flourescent full spectrum tubes from the hardware store.

They are no substitute for natural sunlight, as Gerard has pointed out, but they do provide the lighting necessary for a parrot to be able to see close to his/her ability if outdoors - normal household lighting leaves parrots in what is a twilight world, compared to their actual visual range in proper lighting.