Buddi's face looks kinda pink?

[birdmom]

Anyone ever seen that b4? I noticed yesterday when I came home that the white area surrounding her eyes it looks pink, so I guess the skin underneath the little tiny white feathers is pink, it normally looks very white. CHarlie's is white.

 

This morning she looked white like usual, but this afternoon she looks pink again and it makes it look like she has bluish circles around her eyes.

 

All I fed them was their pellets and a mix of sweet potatoes and rice with red palm oil in it.

 

She did tear apart a pinata that has red in it, and dumped some in her water bowl. Any ideas? She doesn't feel hot. Thanks, Joanne

[judygram]

She is blushing and she obviously is a happy bird and happy to see you, Josey has done that too.

[birdmom]

Okay, Thanks Judi good to hear from several people. Maybe I'm making some progress with my little Miss Fit! She never did it before yesterday! :woohoo:

[birdmom]

Could it be the full spectrum lite by her cage? I wonder if its a sunburn.

[danmcq]

No, it's not sunburn. Greys blush and the pink tone is natural when they do so.

 

Dayo does it too and other Greys at the breeders also blushed back when we were visiting Dayo there.

[birdmom]

Well, that's what people keep telling me. But, I've had her since oct. 2003 and I've never seen this b4. And it happens to coincide with using the ZooMed light more now that I'm home more. I noticed it last week, so I turned off the lamp and used it for a shorter time the rest of the week and didn't turn in on every day. Then yesterday, I noticed her sitting right under it, about 18 inches away. Now today, guess what? She is very pink again on her face. I think she is getting too much sun.

 

Actually my new vet told me about a month ago that there is developing research that those avian full spectrum lights that have been touted for Parrots--most of them are perceived by the bird's vision like a strobe light and she said the new research is being done by an avian opthamologist. So she told me not to use them, that it bothers the birds eyes. Since these are preliminary studies that I have not seen published, I thought it was poo-poo but guess what?

 

Buddi's eyes look like she didn't get any sleep, like she has dark circles around them or like she's tired. So....I think I'm gonna stop with the Zoo Med light. I'll post again if the pink skin fades again. joanne

 

ps: yes, I use only the bulbs made by zoo-med for this avian lamp I paid alot of money for.

[kelly]

my zak always goes red round the eyes when he comes out of his house i think it must be an excitment thing cos he does it when i give him a kiss too its kinda cute :blush:

[danmcq]

birdmom wrote:

Actually my new vet told me about a month ago that there is developing research that those avian full spectrum lights that have been touted for Parrots--most of them are perceived by the bird's vision like a strobe light and she said the new research is being done by an avian opthamologist.

 

Interesting Birdmom. As human sight goes, a frame-rate of 16 per second is perceived as true natural motion to us. Thus, strobe lights are adjustable between varying flashes per second, depending on the amount of delay we wish the audience to see between movement when the strobe flashes between 1 to 16 times per second.

 

If (and it is totally possible) animals and birds can visually detect a higher frame rate or cycles per second. Then a light powered by our 60 hertz (cycles per second) electricity could induce a strobe effect to them.

 

If some animals and birds can indeed see the time interval between cycles above 16 per second, our lighting systems must drive them bonkers :-)

 

Now, I am going to see if I can find any research on the animal and bird optical studies of frame rate detection...B)

 

Thanks for posting this, it is interesting. I just may need to switch to hew electronically switched ballasts for my fluorescents. They have them available upto speeds of 27,000 cycles per second.

 

Another fix, would be to switch to DC powered lighting, which is not cyclical and remains at a constant voltage.

[danmcq]

Here ia a good link in relation to Avian sight and hearing. There is a huge variance between species, as you can see.

 

http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/RITCHISO//birdbrain2.html

[chapala]

Kali is not a blusher, though I have heard other Greys can be. We do have quite a blusher in our Military Macaw. The only time Kali's face has been red is when he's fallen while beating up a toy. That's obviously bruising, not blushing!

 

I don't know about the full spectrum lights. Our birds get some natural daylight (outdoors) year round so have never used them. I have heard though there is new information coming out, and some of them do not provide what they claim.

Reta

[birdmom]

danmcq wrote:

 

I just may need to switch to hew electronically switched ballasts for my fluorescents. They have them available upto speeds of 27,000 cycles per second.

 

Another fix, would be to switch to DC powered lighting, which is not cyclical and remains at a constant voltage.

 

Hi Dan,and thanks. This is verrry interesting!

Can u please help us to understand about :

Hew electronically switched ballasts for flourescent lights?

 

Also, I don't know waht DC powered lighting means, so sorry! Can you explain or is it too complicated for the forum? joanne, thanks.

[danmcq]

Hi Birdmom.

 

Sure, I would be happy to.

 

Ballasts are the skinny black box you see inside the lamp fixture (if you've opened and looked inside) that converts and controls the current and voltage (electricity) the fluorescent tube needs to fire the Gas contained inside.

 

Magnetic Ballasts are the simplest sort of ballast and works something like an inductor. A basic inductor consists of a coil of wire in a circuit, which may be wound around a piece of metal. Magnetic ballasts modulate electrical current at a relatively low cycle rate, which can cause a noticeable flicker. Magnetic ballasts may also vibrate at a low frequency. This is the source of the audible humming sound people associate with fluorescent lamps.

 

Electronically switched ballast designs, use advanced electronics to more precisely regulate the current flowing through the electrical circuit. Since they use a higher cycle rate (frequency), you don't generally notice a flicker or humming noise coming from an electronic ballast. Different lamps require specialized ballasts designed to maintain the specific voltage and current levels needed for varying tube designs.

 

DC voltage is a constant voltage, unlike AC which is alternating current. Basically, this means that DC would be a flat line, say at 12 volts, like your car battery. AC, at 120 volts, would be a sinusoidal voltage alternating from a positive 60 volts to a negative 60 volts, which totals 120 volts and 60 times per second. If you looked at it on an oscilloscope, it would look like ocean waves basically.

 

So, the alternating AC your home is powered by, causes the flickering due to the cycles per second (cyclical rate) the tubes are fired at.

 

An incandescent lamp, can be lighted with DC power which is not cyclical, and thus no flicker is observed what so ever, due to the filament staying at a constant brightness.

 

Also, AC powered incandescent lamps do not flicker due to the filament heating up to the "white hot" metal point and the cyclical AC power does not produce as noticeable flicker due to the filament barely reducing in brightness (cooling down)between cycles, unlike the pronounced flicker seen in fluorescence due to the instantaneous "Black Out" when the gas looses it's charge every 60th of a second.

 

The bottom line is, your Zoo-Med may have an electronically switched ballast. You could find out by simply calling the manufacturer.

 

I hope I did not ramble on too much. I had a hard time relating some fairly basic technical concepts in general public terms. If I had a lab with camera's like the old "Mr. Wizard" show, I could have "Shown" you what it took hundreds of words to describe in about 2 minutes :-)<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2007/12/24 15:04

[Talon]

WOW! You never know what your going to learn here on the forum! Thanks guys for the information.

 

Karma for you both!! :cheer: