UVB in early morning?

[Girltron]

Hey all,

 

My new Avian Sun bulb stopped working after 2 weeks and even though I'm getting it replaced, I no longer trust it to give Francis enough UVB to keep his vitamin D levels up. I've been setting his sleep cage outside every morning between 7 and 8 a.m. to supplement. It's the only time of day that I can do this.

 

I can't find any information that seems helpful to tell me if he's getting a decent amount of UVB at this time of day. Do you think this will be good enough for him to manufacture vitamin D?

 

Related: what about those lamps sold to S.A.D. sufferers? They look like they have better stated performance than the avian bulbs. I could set up one of those lamps beside his cage for an hour in the mornings, on a timer. Bad? Good?

[danmcq]

You will get more UVB from the sun in an hour outside, early morning, than you would from a light fixture with full spectrum tubes that include UVA and UVB running all day. So yes, let him sun outside each morning for an hour. Nothing like a outside time breathing the fresh air with sun casting down upon them.

 

I built my own dual tube electronic ballast fixtures and have one hanging suspended about 20 inches above each cage. They run 12 hours a day everyday. I also take them outside on weekends for a shower, followed by a misting with aloe and ten sunning for 2 to 3 hours.

[Girltron]

That sounds like a great schedule! I think I'll imitate you, but stick also with my morning time outside. He seems to enjoy talking to the wild birds. His grey feathers look so beautiful in true sunlight, too! No comparison to any kind of indoor lighting. I'll look into building my own fixture, because the bulbs are a lot less than the specialized lamps...do you have any tips for me?

[danmcq]

I did a ton of research on finding the best tubes for the 24 inch dual tube fixtures I built.

 

The best ful spectrum with UVA and UVB outputs in T8 size were Lumichrome 1xx tubes. Here is just one website with this information:

 

http://www.truesun.com/proddetail.php?prod=Lumichrome_1XX_full_spectrum_light

 

Here are the light spectrum charts for these type tubes: