UV light and windows

[TinyTimneh]

Gonna play devil's advocate here for a minute...

 

It's recommended that parrots be exposed to UV light, and it is also almost always stated that it's useless to put the bird cage near a sunny window etc. because the window pane glass filters out UV.

 

But then, I for one and many members of my family have tanned while driving in the car with the windows rolled up (one side of my family is of Celtic etc. colouring and the other is not, I do not take after the Celtic side...) which theoretically then shouldn't happen because the UV is supposedly filtered out through the car window.

 

Anybody else have any thoughts on this?

[Dave007]

n the wild, parrots go into the sun for short periods of time and leave then come back and leave. It provides a certain item they need internally. This can also be obtained by the birds even if there's no sun outside.

Your friends stayed in the sun and the tanning occurred from the constant sun beating down on them. Birds never hang out in the sun for a long time and birds have feathers, people don't. Their skin is exposed. A bird's skin is never exposed to the sun whenever they're outside.

[danmcq]

Normal standard Windows block a high percentage of the UVB and a lesser amount of UVA. Thus the slight tanning effect if you sit in a car or in front of a window for hours in the sun coming through.

 

However, the amount coming through is reduced to a point that the UVB does not do the job for your bird in terms of vitamin D3 production. Now if you can open the window and let the sun pass through the screen into the room, your getting high levels of the entire UV range into that area.

 

If you have dual pane windows treated as most newer homes or old homes with window upgrades. The UV range may possibly be block entirely by the inner window coatings. This stops the furniture and curtains from fading due to the low levels of UV coming through the window over years.

 

The bottom line is, a bird sitting in front of a window does not receive enough UVB for D3 production naturally.