Sunday, October 24, 2010

Questions and Tips for Big Bird!

My daughter Kellie has just returned from a three week vacation in Spain. While there she shot some bird related photos at the home of Salvador Dali!! He was a canary lover and the cage was in his bedroom!!



The egg is on the roof of his covered terrace!

Use this blog post for current questions.

Questions

Thursday

I have a question about lighting the shed.
How many lux do you advise?
Thanks,
Chris

Oreck air cleaners?

I was just wondering if any body knows about oreck air cleaners ? are they harmful to birds ? the one I have has the ionizing stuff and leaves the smell of ozone in my bird room, seems I have read something about this not being good for birds, if any one has any knowledge or experiance with this type of an air cleaner I would be interested

Thanx Gwen

Anyone know about this?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Linda,

I have a question about lighting the shed.
How many lux do you advise?
Thanks,
Chris

Anonymous said...

Hi Linda
I was just wondering if any body knows about oreck air cleaners ? are they harmful to birds ? the one I have has the ionizing stuff and leaves the smell of ozone in my bird room, seems I have read something about this not being good for birds, if any one has any knowledge or experiance with this type of an air cleaner I would be interested

Thanx Gwen

Linda Hogan said...

Unless the birds are breeding, they should be on natural lighting pattern.

The birds need to get up with the sun and go to bed with the sun.

Many pet owners are unaware of this, so it is critical that we stress not only diet but also the importance of day length. Failure to do this will lead first to not singing and then health problems and ultimately early death.

Canaries can be moved from room to room during day hours. I recommend that about a half hour before sundown, that the cage be moved to an area where light coming through a window can put them to bed and no light will disturb the bird till the sun wakes it up first thing in the morning.

I do not recommend covering a bird, as most people are inconsistent in the time they get up especially on the weekends. The sun is consistent and it changes the day length with the season. It is the change in day length that triggers hormonal changes that the birds natural cycle.

Anonymous said...

Linda,
Thanks for the response.
I read about canaries needing 500-1.000 lux! This is a lot of light when to be achieved by artificial light. I think a lot of breeders don't get this right.
Chris