This is exactly how I like it. YOU research it and lemme know, I repeat it.

Totally clenches it if canary people prove it and it's easy to prove with canaries, agreed.

Really, thanks for everything. I totally agree with you on the 30 minutes and usually write 15-30 and got careless in a hurry.

There will be a spelling test on this on Friday and the prizewinner gets a dimmer LOL.

I told him "get off" in a very quiet stern voice today, and he did. Its not the curtain rod that is a problem its the curtain he unhooks or the wall he eats. It was quiet funny the way he looked at me to see what I was going to do about it.

With regard to dawn and dusk, we never use artificial light in the day here. The sun is so bright all year round it is unnecessary. My suns do follow a very strict nighttime all by themselves, that is one thing I never have to tell them go to bed. Half an hour before dusk they panic and do the abandoned bird act if they still in the aviary. Budgies are a different matter and I am sure would stay up if they got the chance.

And you know? There is now something called dawn simulators with full spectrum lights in it. I don't know exactly what it does but I assume it turns on automatically on a timer and gradually increases the intensity of the light so as to reproduce the sun rising. I saw one called Rise and Shine advertised at the Verilux site when I ordered my last batch of full spectrum lights. Cool, ain't it?

It's very cool ...and another reason to beleive it's important to animals even human type. ..I"m reading up on it now and totally buying one for the bird room and maybe the living room.

Good holiday gift for my son he works at home and is a night owl on the computer.

Yikes not too cheap but still, worth every penny...I'll have to work it into the budget.


here's one link

PsychEducation

UK - this one has sunset, too
Dawn Simulators - Lumie

EU-

Wellango*-*Simulateurs d'aube

good graph of the "waking up cycle" how long it takes

DayBreak Duo Sunrise Sunset Simulator Alarm Clock

costco...how can this little thing put out all that light? it's dawn and dusk that's what I want...maybe it works with a lamp

Costco - Daybreak Duo® Sunrise/Sunset Simulator

Columbian Presby NYC study:

[Biomedical Frontiers:SUMMER:95] A Sunrise/Sunset simulation machine treats depresion

fisheries talking about stress when the lights just get turned off quickly
Lighting Systems, Dawn Dusk Simulator, Sunrise Sunset Simulation, Sunrise Sunset Simulator

OK I'm stopping now LOLOL

(sorry off-topic here)
Yeah, poor budgies! My boys love their boings so much it's hard to imagine other budgies not trying them out! At first Winston only played on the largest boing. Then after a month or so he flew to the atom hanging gym, and he was most hesitant about the smaller and skinnier boing (because it swings much more when they land on it and it's smaller in diameter). But he does great with all 3 hanging rope boings/gym!

But back to daylight times, I do need to get dimmers. What I do in the mornings (when they don't rise with the sun - when it's possible for them to rise with the sun I of course let them) is begin turning adjacent lights on. First the mud room light goes on (that's farthest from their room). Then after 20 or 30 minutes, kitchen light goes on (bird room is still pretty dark but they can see the kitchen light for sure). Then after 10-15 minutes, I begin talking to them softly and I turn their light on. I never just bust in and flip on their light.

Sarah your explanations help so much. I didnt think of the boing being too wobbly. Maybe they tried it when I'm not home and dont like it. It's thin.

A hand me down from Piper

OK tomorrow I'll hang a better one. I"ll let you know this time next year if they ever tried it

I've done the furthest light thing, too. It works. Problem is those lights are high so it's not the angle of the sun. I found an ikea round moon looking lamp perfect for this. Problem was I couldnt get any dimmer to work properly cuz it's plastic. But it would be good just a round white globe like a sun.....that's the one I put on in my bedroom adjacent to their room, too. It's on a low end table cuz I have a platform bed with the tables built in low. That seems to help,too. I turn it on then go put the dimmer on in the birdroom

I have a small lamp on the floor in their room with a small bulb and dimmer... is ideal AND easier than running all over the house. Poor Sarah that's a hoot. I can just see you now, shower...switch a light on, toothbrushing,,,another light...make coffee...another light LOL.

Walmart has the perfect dimmer its a wheel you turn. You screw the attachment right in the bulb holding thing. Then screw the bulb in the dimmer's holder thing.

It's not a tapping kind it's a wheel kind so you can slowly turn it up or down. So easy and all in one room

When I have to use mine I put it on the floor first then when it's brighter I pick it up on the chest about waist high and leave it there. Then when I see them get off their sleeping thing, I wheel them out where I only have another lamp on till I leave for work.

What a pain....

Cindy, try securing it top and bottom and see if that helps.

It's hanging from the ceiling. But if I could find an 8 foot boing that'd be COOL

Make your own. It comes in any length.

The cycle of night and day is known as Circadian (Latin for 'around the day') rhythms. The maintenance of an exogenous (external) rhythm that closely patterns nature is essential to avian health. Light may rightly be considered an essential dietary element, as well as its absence, in the alternating pattern of the circadian rhythm. An interesting article on hormone research, Endocrine Secretions under Abnormal Light-Dark Cycles and in the Blind details the hormones and other secretions effected by these rhythms. Because of their lightness of bone, birds are especially sensitive and in need of proper alternation of light and dark cycles that mirror the natural world. Changing my birds to a natural dawn to dusk cycle has made a huge difference in their behavior, that's for sure.