danmcq

Judy - I am certain your husband could do this, especially with the photos of what he would need. :-) You can not find an off the shelf setup like this in a store. The only options you can purchase are the Avian Lamps on a pole of various lengths. I do not agree with shining the light from the side and in the Greys eyes directly. It would seem like torture. :-) An electrician could also do it for you, but would cost around 300 to 400 labor.

Hi MisterDave - Please give me the model number of the lamp you are using. Whitout being able to see the specifications on the lamp, I can't really say much. I do know that Reptile Lamps though, should never be used for Avian applications.

Great photo tyretosmom! I would imagine your Grey is around 9 or 10 months old. We have a ton of Greys on this forum between 10 moths and a year old. They are all seemingly going through their first molt, which is the heaviest. You have probably been finding many downy feathers when changing the cage liner and around your house, a few floating by your eyes etc. You will soon, if not already, start seeing "Gray" feathers coming from between his neck/back and working on down. The Aloe misting and Red Palm Oil will sooth his skin and relieve much of the itchiness.

Oh thats wonderful news Lovelylew !!! I'll bet you are beaming. :-)

Congratulations on bring Tuca Home. I assume your silence means you are having too much fun. :-)

African Greys only Flock together, unlike some other Parrot species. All non-grey conformists are kept away.

Skuffy - He has put two and two together...... The phone rings, you go get. He wants you to come and get him. They are super intelligent and observer cause and affect. :-) Cool video, brought an early morning smile, thanks!! :-)

LOL Judy - Thanks!!! :woohoo: I think :blink: Yep Berna, a flame thrower makes quick work it :-) Kinda rough on the house fixtures though.

Definitely sounds like a night fright or something your Grey detected, that you didn't. LOL Bmustee - I had as high as 37 Finches at once and I know what you mean. It is an awe inspiring sound to hear all those wings flap at once. :-) Although we do cover Dayo wit a custom fit black cover, we do leave a nigh light on also. I am not certain if that small amount of light penetrates the cover though.

Now that is a use for baby Powder I don't think many people know. Thanks Tracy, I guess I can retire my Flame Thrower now. ;-)

It seems we have a ton of Grey 1yr olds going through their first molt. :-) Dayo started a little over 1 1/2 months ago, downy feathers everywhere. Don't forget to mist the tray before you pull it out to clean or you'll have those downy feathers everywhere!! As Tracy described, the neck and in between the wings have been going too and pin feathers all around the neck and middle of the back.

Lighting Part Three: Assembling a Bird Safe Fixture and Lamp selection Now that we have got the basics of Avian vision and Lamp characteristics covered. We will now look at the fixture placement, Bird protecting it and Lamp selection. Fixture selection The Fixture should be chosen based on the size of your Cage to ensure good light coverage. My Cage is 36 wide by 30 inches deep. I selected a 24 inch dual Tube T8 electronic ballast fixture for this application. If you have a larger Cage or multiple Cages side by side, go with the appropriate length fixture to ensure light coverage of the entire Cage(s) area. Lamp selection is the next task: You need to determine which Lamp is right for your needs. Hopefully enough information was provided in Lighting part two for you to make this decision. I chose the Lumichrome 1XX tubes based on their overall characteristics. The “temp” of 6500 may be a little high for you. I prefer the brilliant white light it provides, versus a little more yellowish tint of a 5500 or 5700 value temp that the Lumichrome 1XC and 1XZ provide respectively. With that said, it’s assembly and mounting time. I chose to do everything myself to afford me the ability of customizing the length of the power cord and bird protecting it with a wall mounted conduit it was ran through. You can purchase a fixture already wired with an established cable length or have it installed by an electrician. I also searched for a solution online such as a stand type fixture that would be able to provide light from above the cage. But, with a Cage six feet tall, none were found. I do not subscribe to providing light from the side of the cage at all. It is not a natural light direction and would be shining directly in to your Avian friends eyes, which would be irritating, to say the least. Power Cord: I chose to purchase a standard white 3 conductor extension cord off the self. Ensure you get 3 conductor meaning it has a ground and thus the Plug end will have three poles, not just two. Grounding is for safety and also to ensure flicker free operation of your electronic ballast. I took the cord inside the house, held it up to the mounting location near the ceiling and then ran it across the ceiling and down the wall to the wall plug and added an extra foot of length to it to ensure it was sufficiently long. Once cut too short, it's back to get another cord. So measure carefully. I cut off the "Female end" of the extension Cord, which then just left the other end with the plug to connect to the wall/timer. Remove the insulation off the end you are going to connect to your Lamp Fixture exposing about 3 inches of the three conductors inside. The extension cord I purchased: I also purchase square tube wire conduit from Lowes which is made for wiring on the wall to ensure was protected and bird safe. They will chew on wires and electrocute themselves. The conduit is cheap and you can purchase the mounting brackets that hold it to the wall. You can purchase it in various lengths depending on your needs. You can also purchase 90 degree connectors to handle corners if needed. Square Conduit: Conduit with mounting brackets shown Now, feed the wire through the Conduit BEFORE you start doing the following or you'll end up taking it all back apart to do so AFTER you already connected the wires to the Fixture :whistle: Learn from my embarrassing experience :laugh: The fixture: Open the center cover of the fixture to access the internals. You will need to punch out the 1/2 inch knock-out on the fixture and then screw in a power cord gripping connector in to it. The Fixture power cord connector: Now connect the wire colors matching each other using wire nuts. Ensure you connect the green wire to the ground terminal which is normally a green color. cut your power cord to length needed and stripped off the outer insulation exposing the three wires. Fixture wiring: Now with the wiring complete, place the center cover back over the wires and your done. Do not place the plastic/acrylic Lamp diffuser, it will block all UV!! Fixture Cover in place: Hardware used to mount the fixture above the cage. I used brass chain, screw in ceiling hooks and screwed small hooks into the fixture itself. Then cut the chain to ensure there was not enough space between the ceiling and fixture for even my small Conure to land on. Hardware used: Now Mount the conduit to your wall using correctly sized wall inserts (Plastic) to ensure the crews don't spin in the Sheetrock. Note how the conduit is mounted. There are no exposed wires our Grey can get at from the Cage which will be rolled back against the wall. This is all about bird safety!! Conduit mounted on wall: Plug it in: I purchased a timer. If you elect to do so, ensure it is a 3 prong plug-in to the wall receptacle and also a 3 prong for the lamp power cord to plug into. This is to ensure it is properly grounded and functions flicker free. Timer: Three prong receptacle: Plugged in and ready to go: Tada, we have light: Please note that the Fixture is mounted safely above and out of reach to our Avian friend from the Cage. It is mounted 2 feet above it and only two inches down from the ceiling. This ensures the birds cannot access the fixture in anyway. Always think safety, safety, safety. I hope this long series of articles have been helpful in determining which lighting path you wish to take for your Avian friend. It may not be a necessity in the summer months with outings or sun shining in brightly. But,. in the dark winter months it will provide the correct light your Avian friend needs to stay healthy and happy.

LOL Judy - You get a free pass on that one today. :-) But watch out for tomorrow!!! :laugh:

Avian Lighting Part Two: First a warning: Reptile Lamps should never be used for Avian purposes. They are a completely different light spectrum with UV output levels that will harm your Avian friend!! In researching all the Avian Lighting specific companies advertising to us. I found many interesting facts. I also found that the existing fluorescent in-ceiling setup I was using for both Human and Avian light with Fluorescent Tubes labeled as Full-Spectrum, were so only in the visible range to us Humans, but lacking on the full range our Avian friends need on the UV-A side. Some of the interesting facts I found on Avian Specific Lamps: 1 Most have been or actually are using off the shelf Lamps (both bulb and tube type fluorescent) made by all the main lamp manufactures and re-packaged under their name with perhaps a minor modification or two. [li]OTT Sells the BE8 lamp, it is actually the Philips TL950 in disguise. It is manufactured for OTT by Philips. OTT adds a lead foil strip to the cathode ends of the lamps to eliminate the possibility of any stray radiation being emitted, which is unnecessary unless its physically right next to your Avian friend.[/li] [li]Vita-Light Now out of business, but being distributed from an apparent buy-out company, Vita-Light is still available, but with a CRI of 91 and 95, is not sufficient and the UV-A and UVB output is marginal.[/li] Table with specifics on Lamps, which is a duplicate with some updating by myself, of one available online 2 All the above lamps provide better lighting than you will receive from a standard, hardware store bought Lamp labeled as "Day light" or "Full Spectrum". Many of them have very low UV-A output and a maximum distance of 12 inches for UV-B from your Avian friend to accomplish any benefits in regards UV-B vitamin D3 inducing effects through feather absorption. . If you truly did accomplish this feat, it would be the most miserable experience for your Avian friend while being confined in a small space (like some Humans do inside tanning beds closed upon them) with this glaring in their eyes and possibly damaging them. 3 A few do output a sufficient amount of UV-A that your Avian friend would enjoy seeing. Most the above, do not output any UV-A at the entire UV-A spectrum to be perceived by your Avian friend. With the intent in mind, to provide the widest possible visible light spectrum for our Avian friends and the most beneficial aspects of all these lamps. I want to down play the UV-B role here and amplify the UV-A side of the spectrum. My reasoning on this is three fold. 1) Full-Spectrum lighting that includes UV-A at sufficient levels gives our Avian friends the full spectrum of light they need. UV-B is not visible and therefore not necessary, in the sense of Avian sight enhancement. 2) Most all of us provide Pellet diets, along with Seeds, Nuts, Fruits and Veggies that give our Parrots vitamin D3 levels sufficient to ensure correct Calcium absorption. To actually obtain UV-B levels required to produce D3 through a birds Feathers would require a secondary, special UV-B Lamp carefully turned on only for a specific amount of time to ensure your Avian friend is not harmed, yet receives the proper dose of this spectrum to initiate and maintain the D3 production process. 3) Our Avian friend can also get UV-B from outdoor sources of Sunlight either directly our indirectly in our homes through windows. Though reduced UV levels come in, they are still higher than the output you will get from a lamp. The only exception to this would be if you have multiple pane windows with Low-e glass which effectively reduces all UV to zero. I found two Fluorescents that initially impressed me as being the best choice as an Avian Lamp: Philips Lighting - TL950 The 950 series is a very high 98 CRI lamp which is available in 24 and 48 inch sizes. Its low color temperature of 5000 K combined with a high CRI translate to a longer acceptable life. Lumichrome 1XC and 1XX by Lumiram These are both excellent lamps with a CRI of 96 and 98 respectively. I chose the 1XX due to the higher CRI and also the 6500° K with an Average Rated Life: 24,000 hours and it is available in a T8 size. These lamps also produce more UV-A and UV-B than the Phillips/Ott TL950. These Lumichrome Lamps can be viewed and purchased in different sizes according to your fixture at: http://www.healthlighting.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=17&thiscat=5&frompage=Online_Store&page_num=1&=SID These Lamps are used for the treatment of SAD disorder and have proven effective in this sense and also for Avian use. The 6500K temp I went with produces a very pure white light. If you decide to go with a slightly less white output, then go with he 1XC or 1XZ with a reduce CRI. Why do I keep harping on CRI and Temp values? I believe the graph below will help you understand. The goal is to match noon sun characteristics as close as possible for our Avian friends. This displays the quality of light output by various sources in relation to the sun. As you can see, only Lamps specifically produced to match the Sun come close. These are not found in your local hardware store. Do not believe the "Daylight" or "Full Spectrum" labels. Lastly, if you are selecting new fixtures to place your Lamps in, go with energy efficient T-8 Tubes and ensure they have Electronic, not magnetic ballasts. You can use T12 size Lamps, but you will use more energy and probably have a magnetic ballast. Also, regardless of which Lamp size you have, always ensure you select the correct size Lamp. Some Lamps only come in T8 or T12 and sometimes the length also changes the "T" size designation. Magnetic ballasts are notorious for slow starts and constant perceptible flicker at 60 hertz and harmonics of it. If you can perceive the flicker, I guarantee you it is driving your Avian friend crazy. They can see much faster frequencies than we can. With enough flicker, the see as if you were in a room with a strobe light. We all know how that looks. Electronic Ballasts operate at a 25,000 hertz frequency and up, which is not perceptible to birds or Humans. This is going to be a three part series. Next will be the actual lamp assembly and making the installation bird safe with photos of assembly and the final outcome.<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2008/04/06 15:39

Word of caution MisterDave - Reptile lamps should never be used in Avian applications. It is not a correct spectrum of Light, nor is it a correct UV-A/UV-B ratio. It could actually harm your Grey. Which Lamp model did you purchasefrom them?

Avian Lighting Part One: In researching all the Avian lighting resources I could find, in regards what is required, recommended and why. I started comparing every manufacturer of claimed Avian Lighting and manufacturers that do not publish to or specifically advertise to the Avian industry, us. I will begin with an overview of the components of light itself and how it is crucial to the health and well being of our companion Avian friends. What the experts say in a nutshell regarding this: Ultraviolet light is present all the time outdoors during the day, even on cloudy days. You may have heard that ultraviolet light is bad for us and that we must protect ourselves from it. That is partly correct and partly incorrect. Ultraviolet (UV) light is commonly divided into three sections depending on its wavelength: near-UV (UV-A), mid UV (UV-B), and far UV (UV-C). UV-A tans and can burn us with over exposure. UV-B stimulates the production of Vitamin D3 in our skin and is essential for the absorption of calcium into bones. UV-C is another story. Although used in hospitals to kill bacteria and viruses, UV-C is widely considered to increase the risk of cancer. Fortunately, most of the UV-C that the sun gives off is blocked by the ozone layer of the earth's atmosphere. With the brief overview of the three UV bands above, we only need to consider UV-A and UV-B in relation to or Birds and ourselves. What we Humans see of the light spectrum: What our Avian friends see: UV-A (315 - 400 nm) In high doses or for prolonged periods can harm our skin, but is necessary for our Parrots to perceive the World around them with all their visual spectrum capabilities they have. It Lights Up if you will, their world, that appears grey, brown, black etc to us, but to them, it allows them to observe a much different and color filled perspective. The cobalt wings of Morpho butterflies reflect UV light into the eyes of our Parrots to a brilliant display of colors. Some birds of prey can track rodent movement via UV emissions from the rodents' urine. They also see flowers in a UV-extended rainbow that appear to us as a solid color. According to researchers at the University of Bern in Switzerland, Mother birds ability to detect ultraviolet light reflecting off the feathers of their young means that they can favor the strongest chicks in times of environmental hardship and constantly monitor their chicks' healthy glow. Growing feathers that reflect UV light is metabolically expensive. Birds that are healthy can grow these feathers easily, but malnourished or ill individuals cannot. In species that can see in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, this is used to select food and help choose potential mates from the crowd. As you can see, UV-A is a normal and important aspect to our Parrots view of its environment, physical health, mental health and survival in the natural world and our in-door world. UV-B (280 - 315 nm) This is unseen and un-reflected by Avian Feathers. It is absorbed through the Feathers though. This starts the chemical reaction which starts the production of Vitamin D3 which is so critical to the Calcium absorption needed to grow and maintain healthy bones and supply the rest of the body with calcium as needed. However, human health effects from exposure to UV-B include skin cancer, cataracts, and immuno-suppression. In addition, other dermatological effects include severe photo-allergies and accelerated aging of the skin. Although cataracts and cataract-related blindness are related to cumulative exposure to UV-B. It is necessary then to ensure that the level of UV-B provided for our Birds health, does not damage us. With this overview completed, I will finish here and begin Part two which will the address the light selection and factors to consider when doing so.

Hi HannaRae, thats great news and progress!!! I would love to see some photos or videos of the water play and the foraging tree frolicking. I'm certain it would give us all Ideas and a smile too. I know it is giving me a smile reading and imagining it. Photos and a video would probably have me rolling on the floor. :-) It's nice to see you back and posting again!!

I am resurrecting this thread on Avian Lighting. I have studied the many sources of information of both Parrots and the Lamps themselves and have come to final results and have built my first assembly from scratch along with obtaining the best on Market Fluorescent tubes suited for Parrots. I will be posting a lengthy read with photos of the parts used, some assembly, installation and the lamp types used. Hopefully, I will complete this today. :-)

Welcome KnLMedlin !!! Yes, placing the Cage in your Den is fine. You just need to insure you do not have or cook with anything Teflon coated and keep you Grey Caged when you do cook to ensure he/she can not accidentally receive a bad burn from a pan, boiling water, stuff just out of the Oven etc. IT's great to have you here and we look forward to hearing more from you. :-)

EEEEeeeeewwwww :sick: LOL Kibibi, might as well add it. Someone will surely start a myth about that too :-)

Good Link Falconeer. As Tracy said and provided the link here, we bravely explored this rarely spoken of health indicator in-depth. :sick:

No, Joe, I didn't misread your post or think you attacked me. :-) I don't think this thread is off color, except that last one did become so and your right, I did post to it. Thats why I said I was negligent in just responding to it and not even thinking about it in my haste to answer and move on back to work. I don't hold my feelings back and I know you don't either Joe. I also do not PM to hide anything either. I think thats what makes you and I REAL. What you see is what I think and I will tell it to your or anyone elses face, just as you will. :-)

Hi Joe, I appreciate your concern for my well being, but I think maybe you may have misunderstood the intent of my post. I did not feel threatened or even as if I had somehow been reprimanded for not taking the post down myself. I have been VERY busy with work lately and so engrossed in restructuring, software design, updates and personnel issues. That when I do come on it is a quick look, reply and then back to work. So I was negligent in not recognizing that the photo was inappropriate. I agreed with Talon 100% that the photo she removed was inappropriate. I have long been an advocate of keeping this site a place where all ages can come and not be exposed to anything they may not be expecting to find on a Forum devoted to African Greys. Many here have children that get online and enjoy seeing the Greys photos, videos and posts by our members and some of them also post. I would much rather see all members spend more time posting new Topics and sharing what their Greys are doing, photos, videos etc. That's what we all essentially come here for and look forward to finding. I believe, due to the low volume of posts related to each others Greys, we find ourselves bored and start topics and posts about everything under the sun just to get others to post and keep our minds and ourselves entertained. CD is a good guy and has been going through the fires of Hell for months now and I certainly would not want to be in his shoes. I do know, that as soon as he gets connected again and has his house back in order, we will see him on here just as active, if not more so than before. Every place we go in life has rules that we must follow. If they did not exist, there would just be chaos everywhere and no respect for others. So to avoid chaos, lose focus on why this forum exists and try to keep EVERYONE happy and find visiting here enjoyable and a place they view as a meeting of friends with like interests, we must have rules. I hope I have explained this well and not offended anyone. I just want to have fun and enjoy the friendship of everyone. :-)

That was a good video Max. :-) You have quite a character there and we all enjoy seeing everyones Greys in Action, whether in video or Photo. That why we all come here a look for new posts from everyone. They are like opening a new book and becoming engrossed in it.

Ah, it's refreshing to see a Woman that knows her job, isn't it guys :-)