UV light bulb

[lemonade]

Hello,

I have been thinking about using a uv bulb in the birds room. As you know, I live in not so sunny Scotland, so it's not really an option for the buds to get a lot of sunshine and outdoor time. 
Since moving to my new home, the birds now have a whole room to themselves. What I would like to know is, the bulb in the link attached (from Northern Parrots), would this do the job if just used in the normal ceiling light fitting, or a standard uplighter lamp? Or does it need to be directly over the cages? 

www.northernparrots.com/arcadia-compact-uv-bird-lamp-screw-fitting-prod8298/

[jellybean]

I have seen this a few times on the Northern Parrots website myself lemonade. Would be interested to see what others think.

[samwiseg]

I have an arcadia bulb for my boys. Before when I did my research about this, felt that it has to be good for them as it encourages them to produce vitamin D

Personally I think there is a distance/closeness measurement of where you need to place the bulb - unfortunately it cannot be in your celing one as it will be too far away for it to prove effective.

You can use one of those tall spot lamps and if they are bayonet then you can purchase a screw converter from the same place as the bulb.

I bought mine from Scarletts Parrot Essentials

[Shirls]

I did the same as samwise lemonade and got an arcadia bulb, if you have it switched on for 5hrs per day it will last for a whole year. It gets less effective apparently in time.

[jellybean]

I would really love to get one of these as the weather in Scotland (as lemonade mentioned) does not always allow us to take our birds outside. If the bulb is supposed to be above the cage to give the birds any benefit, I really don't know how that would work for mine as they are never in their cage other than to eat/drink, they have the freedom of the living room from early morning until locked in at around 6pm to allow them to settle down before being put to bed at around 7.30pm.

[Shirls]

jellybean you could always put the buds in their cage a little earlier and put the light on for them. Even if you only had the light on for a couple of hours they would really benefit from it.

[OP]

Or put them to bed a little later.

[jellybean]

How do you position yours over the cage shirls, I see Northern Parrots have a floor stand with a light at £74.99, A bit expensive, but if that's what is needed to help keep them healthy, then needs must.

[jellybean]

Aug 17, 2014 16:23:22 GMT OP said:

Or put them to bed a little later.

At 7.30pm OP I feel they need their bed, I like them to get their 12 hours rest, they are up at 7.30am every morning and apart from napping during the day, they are continually flying and playing.

[lemonade]

Thanks for the replies
Also like Jellybean, my lot are free range budgies. They are out all day until bedtime. They stress to the point of near heart attack if they get locked in their cages. No joke. So I couldn't keep them in.
But saying that, they mostly sit atop the big open top cage most of the day by their own choice, so say I got one of those spotlight lamps, you know the bendy ones that you can position where you want it, I think ikea have ones you can clip onto things, would that be effective?
I have an uplighter, and although I can sit this right next to the cage, but would the fact it's pointing up and not on them, make it pointless?

[OP]

I didn't realize you got them up that late, sorry. I'm usually up for about 06:00 and the buds are up 10 minutes after me. How on earth do you get them to play and fly all day long. I have to get them out of the cage and make them fly. They don't nap much. They are in bed for about 20:00 hours and within 10 minutes of the cover going on they are silent.

[jellybean]

I don't know how they do it either OP, I wish I had half their energy, they just seem to enjoy playing and flying about enjoying each others company immensely, as I type this at 5.40pm they have just chased each other round the living room, and are now sitting nattering and touching beaks on the wooden wine rack on the living room window sill.

[jellybean]

Aug 17, 2014 16:35:13 GMT lemonade said:

Thanks for the replies
Also like Jellybean, my lot are free range budgies. They are out all day until bedtime. They stress to the point of near heart attack if they get locked in their cages. No joke. So I couldn't keep them in.
But saying that, they mostly sit atop the big open top cage most of the day by their own choice, so say I got one of those spotlight lamps, you know the bendy ones that you can position where you want it, I think ikea have ones you can clip onto things, would that be effective?
I have an uplighter, and although I can sit this right next to the cage, but would the fact it's pointing up and not on them, make it pointless?

Lemonade, I laughed out loud when I read your post, as that is exactly how Ben & Max would react if locked in during the day too.
I open the cage door in the morning, and in 2 seconds flat, they are off

[lemonade]

Pippin Is sometimes off his swing and clung to the cage door waiting on me to open it in the morning, it's ridiculous. My own fault though ... as I've encouraged their freedom for so long, it's now impossible to get them in!

I've been looking on Scarlett's parrot essentials, and looking at the kit, with the stand. I think my lot would just perch on that, then there would be the risk of them getting too close and burned by the bulb, so probably safer to just buy the bulb and pop it into a normal spot lamp with a shade eh?

[birdguhl]

I have one of those bulbs in an Ikea floor standing lamp that cost £11. I have it timed to be on for about 6 hours a day. Works fine I think.