Need some advice on heating my chicks and safety please . . . .

Kakarikilover2021

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Jan 31, 2021
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Hi ye I am currently breeding kakarikis this is my first time and it's in my home in a large cage . The cage is in a relatively cold room . There's currently 6 eggs with hatch date not to far away please god . We are currently experiencing very cold weather and I want to make them as comfortable as possible so I am going to use 100w infrared lamp pointing down into cage at night time when I go to bed I will leave it on but I am concerned about fires and how safe it is ? It's approx 40cm from nest box and is sitting on top of cage(can't fall down) will it set anything on fire ? Thank you so much for your advice guys I will try attach a picture . Ps the bulb will be on approx 10 hours at night time only in kitchen .
 

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More dangerous than fires= the PTFE/PFOA/PFCs/Teflon that commonly coat the interior heating coils in many standard space heaters EDIT- when you said you were worried about fires, I thought you meant from a space heater, which is why I added what I did about PTFE/PFOA/PFCS/Teflon. For comfort, I'd go with an oil radiator if I were you. The don't blow air like a heater (which is better)and most are considered bird-safe (the same which cannot be said of space heaters -unless you call the company and give them the full chemical name as well as the abbreviations...but that means listening to the customer support person claiming that their "product is safe for people and animals" without having any idea about birds....only to transfer you before finally explaining that they will make an inquiry but will get back to you within 3-5 days (if you even get that far)


You will need a brooder for the chicks (probably).....and equipment to control and monitor humidity (depending on how you are doing this).


The radiator warmth won't be warm enough for eggs...The intention would be to keep the adult birds warm


If the room is drafty though, you should reconsider their location in your home, as they can get very sick from drafts/ air blowing on them


Random question- but what is that dark spot on the wall (left side). The other 2 look like some sort of mounting screws, but that isn't mold or water damage, is it?
 
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Hi,
Going to need to do a good cleaning. Easy for mold and fungal and bacteria to breed in bottom of cage tray.
 
Exactly how cold is the room first of all, birds are generally ok down until 15 when hatching chicks and incubating eggs (I've bred birds on some days which are 3 degrees without problems)

If its too cold, for years with reptiles and young birds I have used many ReptileOne products: https://petcodirect.com.au/reptile-...gGxhLH460pz_vW2NUCsy6hOsgaAgxYEALw_wcB#144=25 they are all safe

Those lamps are generally pretty safe and very rarely cause fires, but the only issue is if it does fall down make sure it doesn't smash everywhere all over the birds. I must mention as well, if the Kak's bathe and get water on the lamp it will crack and explode so make sure the water is far away from it all.

Also what nesting substrate are you using? Might be worthwhile to out in a bit extra just in case they have flicked too much out.

In the last few days of incubation just in case that heat lamp has dried everything out too much, an old breeders trick I learnt from an aviculturalists in Sweden with indoor kept birds is to boil a pot of water and sit it next to the cage, that will add a bit of extra humidity for the eggs when the steam rises.
 
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There is no dampness or mould the spot your referring to is Mark on wall from where I had stuff hanging. The room temp is between 12 - 15 degrees Celsius it doesn't have a door that opens straight to out door so not much draught will get in there at all it's only a door that leads to my hallway .
With regards the mess at bottom of cage that leads me to another problem they (mostly the ****) keep tipping over the food bowls I put in and also throw out the parrot mix I give them and end up on floor of the cage DAILY so it's impossible to keep it spotless 24/7 ,I am thinking I am place the feeding bowls into a deeper bowl to stop them kicking the food all over the place . The nest box has shavings in there bedding I bought from the pet shop .

More dangerous than
fires= the PTFE/PFOA/PFCs/Teflon that commonly coat the interior heating coils in many standard space heaters EDIT- when you said you were worried about fires, I thought you meant from a space heater, which is why I added what I did about PTFE/PFOA/PFCS/Teflon. For comfort, I'd go with an oil radiator if I were you. The don't blow air like a heater (which is better)and most are considered bird-safe (the same which cannot be said of space heaters -unless you call the company and give them the full chemical name as well as the abbreviations...but that means listening to the customer support person claiming that their "product is safe for people and animals" without having any idea about birds....only to transfer you before finally explaining that they will make an inquiry but will get back to you within 3-5 days (if you even get that far)


You will need a brooder for the chicks (probably).....and equipment to control and monitor humidity (depending on how you are doing this).


The radiator warmth won't be warm enough for eggs...The intention would be to keep the adult birds warm


If the room is drafty though, you should reconsider their location in your home, as they can get very sick from drafts/ air blowing on them


Random question- but what is that dark spot on the wall (left side). The other 2 look like some sort of mounting screws, but that isn't mold or water damage, is it?
 
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Thank you that link was very informative . I plan on hand feeding them from 3 weeks old in a small container placed inside an aquarium with an over banging heat bulb and I will have a thermometer installed in the cage to keep an eye on temp etc .
 
I have a pair of kak's and they are the messiest birds I have ever owned. Sweep up and turn around and it's just as messy. Are they red or yellow crowned? Hard to tell from the picture.

In their natural environment they are found in some pretty cold locations so personally I'd only worry about heating if it got below 10 degrees C. Surprisingly tough little birds. I would also suggest trying to increase the ambient temperature rather than directing heat at the nest box.

While I am certainly no expert I would think that directing heat at the nest box could potentially cause overheating and dehydration so indirect heating would be less risky in my opinion.
 

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