LED Lights For bird Cages

[Birdy916]

I use my old icecap reef ballasts with T5s.

trouble with led compared to floros is that they have such concentrated beams.
Meaning, its easy to place a coral under a pinpoint led, because corals dont move.
For the light to have any effect at all, youd have to garuantee that a bird sits in the exact right spot for the right amount of time each day.

I put 4 3ft T5 in my budgie cage, the birds cant go anywhere without being exposed to the light, which is on for about 8hrs a day.

I use 6700K bulbs, and with the icecap ballast, those things put off some lumens...
Whether of not my birds benifit, I dont know.

I know leds are energy efficient, but i still think that because the beams are so concentrated/compact, they are pretty much useless for a bird...

This is just my opinion, i have multiple setups of led/floro/halides, and the only one that seems useful to me is juicing up some cheeap reef bulbs with this icecap ballast...

 

[thekarens]

I'd be concerned about the heat put off by T5s unless you have them a sufficient distance from your birds and I wouldn't put the lights in the cage but above it so the birds can't accidentally rub into them.

I use a bulb specifically meant for birds, though I imagine you could find the same spectrum that doesn't have the bird designating on it.

 

[Birdy916]

the heat from the bulbs doesnt really concern me....
Its cold here anyways, and the few extra degrees from the bulbs actually seem to help...

The cage i use is an old wooden rabbit hutch with a solid roof, the lights are attached to the underside of the roof, so unless my budgies grow hands with opposable thumbs, I really dont think they can get to the bulbs...

I do have a perch setup about 4 inches dirctly below 1 bulb, and my birds seem to like perching in that spot a few hours each day.

ps- Just like TVs, most of the T5 bulbs are made in the same couple of factories, the only difference is the box they put them in and the price that company charges....
I use a brand of bulbs I trust(from my reefing days), because I know the quality... just because the box of a bulb has a picture of a bird on it, doesnt mean anything to me....

 

[thekarens]

I use 6700k T5s on my planted tank, but I'd still worry they could fly up and hit the bulb, but whatever works.

The bulb I use is the same spectrum that they use for people who suffer from SAD.

I should check to see if it's the same spectrum as the T5s. I'm not sure why the leds wouldn't be just as useful if you had a big enough strip of them.

 

[Birdy916]

I'm not sure why the leds wouldn't be just as useful if you had a big enough strip of them.

Because they are too focused....
And LEDs are rated for PAR(intensity), not Kelvin Temp(spectrum)
Just my opinion....

Now if you had a full set of red/white/blue LEDs for ambient lighting, I bet the colors on your birds would be AMAZING!

 

[thekarens]

Makes sense