The only silly question is the one not asked.
after reading FAH's post on his brooder and have a specific spectrum light, is sunlight important for our little ones?
i was thinking about it the other day, the only light they are really exposed to is normal incandecent bulbs.
should i be giving them a little outside time during the day now that they have all started growing feathers and thier skin is mostly covered?
Importance of Sunlight
Moderator: Mods
Importance of Sunlight
Adam and Dude
This is a good article on the basics behind photoperiod for birds as well as a quick guide to light and birds.
http://users.mis.net/~pthrush/lighting/breed.html
Use the link at the bottom to go to the index.. lots of interesting things for some... lots of very boring things for others.
Vitamin D3 is produced by natural sunlight.
These are some tips for why vitamin D is important for your adults at all times.
It is vital for the calcium metabolism. Calcium is vital to fitness and vitality through its role in muscle and bone health. Vitamin D3 is incredibly important for egg laying, strong babies and vitality in the young birds and breeding flock but an excess of vitamin D causes kidney damage and retards growth. Vitamin D is naturally formed by the action of direct sunlight on the bird and breeding birds do better when the aviary is flooded with natural light.
Egg binding and soft shell eggs are rarely encountered in sunlit aviaries.
Bent keels, splayed legs and beaks abnormality are the most common signs of a vitamin D3 deficiency. It is almost impossible to reverse these abnormalities.
The reason I use low level UVA / UVB lights (about 10% output compared to natural light) is a) help about with the bone growth in the young birds and b) to promote a healthy growth of feathers.
I have had some clutches that were layed in undercover avairies and then brought indoors to hand rear.. which at both the laying stage and raising stage.. dont get the Vitamin D requirements they need.
Without the lights I used to get healthy bubs, possibly a touch smaller than I will with the lights like a friend uses but they had less pinning growth evenly spread among their whole body and it took those birds in that environment longer to finish pinning than others in far more open environments.
All my avairies are in outdoor areas now that have 50% access to the elements and 50% pure shelter. Though I just want to help promote a healthy large bird from a tiny bit of extra harmless vitamin D source.
You have to be very careful as not to get the wrong globes etc.. as you can very well cause serious issues with baby birds and too much UVA / UVB. Liver problems.. etc...
As I said before.. the globe in my brooder is just a tiny portion of a healthy UVA / UVB source from the wild.. and really only used as the birds are into the pinning stage and beyond.
Once your baby starts to fledge I highly recommend bursts of sunlight outside (dont just dump it on the grass for an hour heh) if you dont use low level UVA/UVB lights indoors.
It is truely incredible how important the dirivitaves from sunlight are in absolutely nearly everything living in our natural world. At one point in its life or another.
http://users.mis.net/~pthrush/lighting/breed.html
Use the link at the bottom to go to the index.. lots of interesting things for some... lots of very boring things for others.
Vitamin D3 is produced by natural sunlight.
These are some tips for why vitamin D is important for your adults at all times.
It is vital for the calcium metabolism. Calcium is vital to fitness and vitality through its role in muscle and bone health. Vitamin D3 is incredibly important for egg laying, strong babies and vitality in the young birds and breeding flock but an excess of vitamin D causes kidney damage and retards growth. Vitamin D is naturally formed by the action of direct sunlight on the bird and breeding birds do better when the aviary is flooded with natural light.
Egg binding and soft shell eggs are rarely encountered in sunlit aviaries.
Bent keels, splayed legs and beaks abnormality are the most common signs of a vitamin D3 deficiency. It is almost impossible to reverse these abnormalities.
The reason I use low level UVA / UVB lights (about 10% output compared to natural light) is a) help about with the bone growth in the young birds and b) to promote a healthy growth of feathers.
I have had some clutches that were layed in undercover avairies and then brought indoors to hand rear.. which at both the laying stage and raising stage.. dont get the Vitamin D requirements they need.
Without the lights I used to get healthy bubs, possibly a touch smaller than I will with the lights like a friend uses but they had less pinning growth evenly spread among their whole body and it took those birds in that environment longer to finish pinning than others in far more open environments.
All my avairies are in outdoor areas now that have 50% access to the elements and 50% pure shelter. Though I just want to help promote a healthy large bird from a tiny bit of extra harmless vitamin D source.
You have to be very careful as not to get the wrong globes etc.. as you can very well cause serious issues with baby birds and too much UVA / UVB. Liver problems.. etc...
As I said before.. the globe in my brooder is just a tiny portion of a healthy UVA / UVB source from the wild.. and really only used as the birds are into the pinning stage and beyond.
Once your baby starts to fledge I highly recommend bursts of sunlight outside (dont just dump it on the grass for an hour heh) if you dont use low level UVA/UVB lights indoors.
It is truely incredible how important the dirivitaves from sunlight are in absolutely nearly everything living in our natural world. At one point in its life or another.
i read in internet several posts about bird lighting.
As they say birds needs a ful spectrum light including UV, different than commersial fluorescent or incandecent lamps.
With common lamps birds have problems with their oculoendocrine cyrcle and have results in agitation,picking behavior, weakness,breedind,metabolic and vit D3 synthesis,as Fah mentioned before.
All birds live indoors need this lamp ,even these who stay near window,because glass filtered out UV ray.
i bought one compact fluorescent lamp yesterday.
This lamp ( Arcadia-UK ) is 20 W, at 5600 k ( like natural sunlight) and produces 15 % UV ( 12% uva and 2,4% uvb). It is enough expencive, costs 44 Euro while a commercial compact lamp costs less than 10.
http://www.arcadia-uk.info/product.php? ... &sub=&id=4
http://www.arcadia-uk.info/product.php? ... &sub=&id=4
As they say birds needs a ful spectrum light including UV, different than commersial fluorescent or incandecent lamps.
With common lamps birds have problems with their oculoendocrine cyrcle and have results in agitation,picking behavior, weakness,breedind,metabolic and vit D3 synthesis,as Fah mentioned before.
All birds live indoors need this lamp ,even these who stay near window,because glass filtered out UV ray.
i bought one compact fluorescent lamp yesterday.
This lamp ( Arcadia-UK ) is 20 W, at 5600 k ( like natural sunlight) and produces 15 % UV ( 12% uva and 2,4% uvb). It is enough expencive, costs 44 Euro while a commercial compact lamp costs less than 10.
http://www.arcadia-uk.info/product.php? ... &sub=&id=4
http://www.arcadia-uk.info/product.php? ... &sub=&id=4