Keeping a cockatiel cool

[Hopkings]

Hello! First time poster.

I have a 15 year old male cockatiel. I am from the UK and we are having a major heatwave right now where temperatures are going up to 40 degrees Celsius! I know that may not seem hot to many people, but our houses here are built to keep heat in and no one has air conditioning.

I know cockatiels are Australian and are built for hot weather, but I’ve also read online that anything about 30 degrees Celsius is dangerous for them. I am worried about how to keep him cool. Any tips or advice?

 

[Wardy]

I am letting both of my conures out earlier in the day before things heat up to much.
When things do heat up all windows are opened all blinds and curtains shut this kept the temp right down yesterday.

 

[Icey]

I am keeping my 2 indoors but windows are open and I have floor fans in both rooms for them.
I am giving them lots of cool mists throughout the day and fruit which has moisture...apples oranges and grapes in small portions. I refill their water throughout the day so it's always cold.

 

[MommyBird]

you can put ice cubes in their water dish
I open my house up very early morning and run all the fans to cool it down. Then about 7:30 I close all windows and blinds and it doesn't heat up inside till about 4.

 

[Toy]

Close all blinds, curtains & drapes to block sun in the morning before your house gets hot. If that is not an option then cover your windows with aluminum foil to reflect the sun. Open windows only when temps cool to tolerable levels, usually late night or early morning. If you have a basement, with a inside door, you can put a box fan in the door entrance to pull cool air from the basement.

Put ice cubes in your birds water. If you don't have AC, but do have fans.....fill a bowl with ice, place it in front of the fan. It will blow cool air. Refreeze the melted ice/water to use again.

Many parts of the USA have been in a heat wave for weeks. We're in one now & I live in the Northeast. We also have extremely high humidity, which makes the heat even worse. It's like living in a sauna & also makes it hard to breath. Our grass is brown with a little green. We need rain bad.

 

[Icey]

For the 12 years I have lived in the Uk this year feels like Florida weather. It's usually one day sun with temps high of maybe 23 then rain for two weeks straight lol

 

[expressmailtome]

Bathing your bird can be helpful as well if they enjoy it.

 

[flyzipper]

In addition to the good suggestions above, ensure you have an indoor thermometer by your birds so you know the actual temps they're dealing with, not just what's forecast outside.

That $5 device goes a long way to reducing or eliminating unnecessary worry.

• outdoor temperature > indoor temperature = windows closed
• outdoor temperature < indoor temperature = windows open

 

[flyzipper]

Also, I see this sentiment a lot...

our houses here are built to keep heat in

.. and for the most part, it's inaccurate (or at least the implication that the opposite isn't also true is inaccurate).

A home's air sealing, insulation, thermal mass, etc which combine to keep the heat in, will also do a similar job keeping the heat out.

Heat loss or gain in a given structure is a function of the building enclosure's efficiency, its wall surface area, and the temperature differential between inside and outside temps.

That's why you want the windows closed during the high daytime heat, to take advantage of the protection your home provides (the same way you keep them closed when it's cold outside in the winter).

 

[lobster14]

My house gets terribly hot due to terrible HVAC setup in my home and during the summer my Cockatiel is regularly in a room that is 30 degrees Celcius (86 Farenheit). He is fine at that temperature but started to show signs of being too hot at 31C. (89F). Ice water, spray baths, box fans to move air around, black out curtains to keep sun out, these are all things that can hopefully keep the temperature down a bit.