LOL - Yes, it does sound terribly complicated, doesn't it? But, you know, the truth of the matter is that keeping psittacines the right way is INCREDIBLY complicated. Much, much more difficult than most people realize and, unfortunately for pet birds, quite impossible to achieve for the simple reason that most companion bird species live under very specialized conditions in their natural habitat. Conditions we simply cannot reproduce in captivity (one of them been the right kind of light). Another truth is that most pet birds are given up because of behaviors that can be easily taken care of by reproducing more faithfully the environmental conditions of their natural habitat and the most common problems (aggression, too loud or too frequent vocalizations, cage possessiveness, chronic laying, depression, feather destruction, self-mutilation, etc) are a direct result of inadequate light and an unnatural schedule because of the direct relationship between them and their endocrine system (which governs absolutely ALL body functions). We need to remember that all parrots, with the exception of the English budgie, belong to undomesticated species with identical needs to their wild counterparts and that these needs are hardwired into their genes, part of their physical make-up, something that cannot be changed with behavior modification techniques. Their physiology is something that took nature millions of years to fine-tune to match the conditions of their natural habitat so thinking that we can take a wild animal out of their environment, breed it in captivity for a few generations and expect him to do well living under completely unnatural conditions is just plain naive. And light IS terribly important to birds, much more important than most people realize and that you seem to believe, if one goes by your comments, so maybe you need to do a bit more research about it. You will be surprised by how important it is. I know I was.
And I can tell you that a good light and a natural schedule work. They work like magic. Sometimes, they take time because an endocrine system that is screwed up from years of not getting the right cues does not adjust in a matter of a couple of weeks (lovebirds been, IMPE, the hardest to 'switch'). And I have the proof right in my birdroom because the greatest majority of the birds under my care were given up because of the problems I previously mentioned and all of them are doing great. No aggression, no screaming, no chronic layers, no depression, no self-mutilation, no nothing (well, in all honesty, not all the chronic pluckers get completely better, some continue to pluck, less than before but still pluck) and it's all due to the natural daylight schedule and full spectrum lights. Which, by the way, are not my own personal invention. The credit goes to nature.
