Moulting under artificial lighting

[Finnish]

Can anybody tell me more. Has anyone tryed this. What sort of lamps do you use.... How long do you keep the light on for.etc etc



Finnish

[GregMik]

Tasha and I do this for the birds we want to hawk with in the summer. She did it with a Sharpie last winter and I am doing it with a harris right now. We just use a regular incandescent bulb on 24/7. It gets cold here so the Harris is in the spare bedroom during the winter. It was -18f which is -25C or so last night....Just a little chilly...heheheheh

Greg

[Sparrie]

I use a uv bulb from arcadia to make the light hours longer each day like in summer. It worked last year but he is a bit slow this year but he started a couple of weeks ago.

Gary.

[Coedhirion]

Some times works well, as stated you increase the 'day light hours' gradually. If you fly through the summer then put the bird down in winter and feed up, some will reverse molt without the need for a lighting system. I have never done it, but know several who do, or just fly thro the molt. If it is a first year bird I was told not to try it but allow it to have one propper natural molt without intervention.

[OutFlying]

Any more input ?

[Finnish]

I thought there would have been loads more info on this thread.:(

[BrianM]

i started at the beginnining of febuary by putting timer/dimmers onto 4 ft full spectrum lights ( the ones from aquatics shops for marine inverts) ,, they fade in at 8am out at 10am ,,back on at 3pm and of at 7pm i then gradually prolong the "daylight hours" by 15minutes per week till till i have the birds in either natural daylight or false light for 12 hrs a day.. this is the first time i have tryied this but the gos has started to throw feathers now ,,, i recon hes about a month early,,,BUT i would not be doing this had he not lost tail feathers while i moved house,,