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Hi Guys, ok it's that time of year again and I am stressing once again. This is my issue. Our house is long and the heater heats the back of the house mostly, well Rosie is in the living room at the very front of the house. Last year we were just leaving the heater on 90 all night and all day long so she wouldn't get cold because the living room is the coldest room of the house.

I wanted to do something for her this winter that will heat "HER" and the room she is in at night. I was thinking of the heated perches in Dr Foster and Smiths catalog but me and my paranoia am afraid that what it if overheats and shes asleep and don't realize it fast enough and gets burnt before she is able to get off. Then I see those heating panels that they are always advertising in Bird Talk and was thinking of one of those but worry about that overheating her too. (I know I worry to much, but thats just how I am). Then someone asked me if I had a space heater for her room. I don't even know if a space heater is safe for her.

I have no idea what would be the safest most effective way of heating her at night now in the winter. I also have been told to put a heating pad but am not sure how I would put that so that she don't get burnt, I am afraid of putting it in the bottom of her house because it is plastic and am afraid if the plastic gets to hot it may let out a fume of some kind.

Does anyone have any suggestions or advice on what would be best and what you do to heat your birds. Our heating bill has went up an additional 200 a month because of the way we were using the heater last year. Now if thats the only way to heat her we will have to do it, but if I can find a more effective way that would be great because putting the heater on 90 all night and then opening my bedroom window to let the heat out of my room isn't very cost efficent..

Here you go: http://www.avitec.com/Avi-Temp-Infrared ... -p/ihp.htm

For Rosie, you'll want the small size (50w) with the free attachment pieces. Just hang it against her house, next to her favorite sleep perch, plug it in, and leave it that way until spring. Watch poop to see if she changes where she sits after you give it to her. If she's moving away, that means she doesn't need the extra heat. I've read that we often overheat our birds. Unless she gets sick, she might be just fine in your cooler living room. But her poop pattern will tell you what she likes and needs.

RM:

I know you are a worry-wart, but let me give you this tid-bit of information. My kids (the oldest I got from the breeder) were all hatched and raised outside in freezing weather. This breeder has his aviary under some trees for summer time heat, but during the winter, he never heats the aviary, and it's completely open unless we have freezing weather with wind blowing. Then, he'll wrap plastic around the aviary, but never adds any kind of heat. As long as the birds don't experience a rapid temp drop, they can survive much lower temps than we would assume. The old adage about they are comfortable at the same temp that we are also applies. If the front side of your house gets below freezing, then you MIGHT have a problem, but then again, depends on how quick the temp falls. You could use one of the heat pads as suggested in the other messages. Put the heat pad on the outside of the cage if it really bothers you about the temp. Modern day electric products if NOT made in China (if you can find one) and as long as it had the UL seal, you need not worry about it catching fire, as they have undergone many tests to prove they are safe. Other than that, let Rosie survive in the ambient air temp at night. If it's comfortable to you, it'd be comfortable to her!

Sam

Rosies mom, we are in the process of getting a new furnace hooked up and in the mean time we don't have heat......well we do if we feel like filling the oil tank and then having tons left over that we won't use! We are switching from oil to gas heat. Anyway, it got cold a few nights a while back and we use one of those oil filled heaters that you plug in. I hate using anything that uses a bit more electric at night while sleeping or while we are out. The thing with these heaters though is that you can run it and let it heat up, and then turn it off when you go to sleep. They still stay warm for a long time after turning off and still throw heat, and they are safe for the birds......as long as nobirdy lands on them, but if you put the temp on lower, they really don't even get that hot. It's what I've been using and seems to work fine to get rid of the chill. If you want this for night time when Rosie is sleeping, then you don't have to worry about her going near it or landing on it.

I definitely would NOT use a space heater. Those things give off invisible gasses like teflon pans. I do have a customer who uses a heated perch (from Dr'sfoster) for her lovebird. She seems to like it but I,like you, worry about a malfunction.
Me, personally, I would put Rosie in the room that you all comfortably use.
I have friends who put their heat on the lowest temp. I freeze my @$$ off when I visit them but they don't seem to mind it and neither do their birds.(their thermostat is on 60F brrrrrrrr)
One funny story though. We lost electricity for a few hours which regulates the heat system. It got God awful cold. I brought all the birds up to the bedroom with me and stuck them under the blanket with me.

I agree with Sam
You've got to realise that here in Oz, it isn't always warm (honest! ) the tiels in the wild cope with all sorts of temperature changes...
Draft is what would make a bird sick, cold doesn't necessarily, especially not when the bird is kept indoors.
I don't assume your house gets any colder than what, 10 degrees Celcius???? (sorry I don't do Fahrenheit ).........
Don't stress, she'll be fine!

FYI 10C is 50F. That's a bit nippy. I guess my birds are spoiled....
I am assuming Rosie that you do not have central heat?!?!?

Thanks Guys, for all the help and suggestions.. We do have central heat but the living room is the furthest away so the heat don't seem to go into the living room as much as into the other rooms and we didn't have the heater on till yesterday. What I did for the past 4 nights is I brought Rosie and her house into my bedroom to sleep with me but I toss and turn all night, I have stupid allergies so I have sneezing attacks in the middle of the night and I wake up around 1 in the morning and I can't fall back asleep till 3 or 4 hours later. So my room is a bit noisy at night. But I was laying as quietly as I could when I would wake up in the middle of the night and all the time I would move I would tell Rosie it was me not to worry and I loved her, so she wasn't getting very much sleep at night. Then at 7 when i would wake up and she would see me start moving around and see that it was daylight outside she would get up and start calling to me & she would start circling her house inside like crazy so I would get up with her. Needless to say she was missing out on alot of sleep the last 4 nights plus she is hormonal again doing her little booty thing. I ordered her a heat panel but the lady said they are so busy that they won't be shipping it till late this week. Although we did get the heat on and I bought a carbon minoxide detector and tonight she got to sleep in her room..

I feel bad cuz she was sleeping alot yesterday and the day before during the day. I don't know if it's cuz she wasn't getting much sleep at night, cuz she is hormonal or if she isn't feeling good . She does have an appetite tho so I hope it's not that she isn't feeling good..

Now if I could just figure out where the best place to put the carbon minoxide detector would be. I put it in the bathroom since ALOT of heat goes in there from the heater. I was gonna put it in the hallway where the heater is located because there is a vent a few feet above the floor but the guy at Home Depot said not to put it by the floor?

My CO2 detector is placed outside the bedroom door (hall) at eye level.
Since you have only one bird I don't think it is so bad keeping Rosie in your bedroom. Doe she have a sleepy cover?
When I had only one bird and had a smaller house I kept Whook in the bedroom. There was no problem so long as I kept the light off and did not bang into the cage. I do not sleep well so I am up & down all night. Whook was used to my restlessness.

Your bird will get used to your sneezing or restlessness in the night. But why would you feel the need to speak to your bird - saying, it's me, don't worry - in the middle of the night. Given how attached to you that you say she is, I would think that the sound of your voice would be more disrupting than anything else.

And if you have that much trouble with allergies that you're up half the night, a trip to your own doctor might be an idea. Not sleeping well is a miserable thing. - I know. Perhaps a fresh pillow is in order?

RM
You could always use a fan to draw it out the hall to the LR , if you have a ceeling fan you could place that on low I forget which way it goes but there are 2 directions on it and one lifts the cool air in summer and the other pushes warm air down in winter . We run our fans year round . We keep our temps at 65* year round and only use a little heater in the bath room for some extra warmth .. Our guys are quite reseliant and the lower temps should not harm them as long as others have said no sudden drops or drafts
If using fans be sure that wings are clipped and perhaps turn them off when she is out ..

My tiels live outside and we are in an area that gets well below freezing in the winter. They do fine! Have a look on the net at where tiels are native. They live in areas that have extremely high daytime temps and VERY cold nights. I know from a camping trip to Ayers Rock where we saw flocks of hundreds of tiels that it is a very harsh and unforgiving environment. I do have some inside pet birds, but we turn our central heat off at night when we go to bed and just throw a flannel sheet over their cages...once again they do fine! I am amazed that even on very cold winter days here our birds actually fully submerge themselves in their water bowls for a bath. They are tougher than one would think. I used to be an over protective mum too. BUT.....just like we are reading more and more in the news that by using too many antibacterial cleaners and such we are making our human kid's immune systems weaker. We can actually compromise our birds' health by "molly coddling" them too much.

Someone may have already written this, but I did not have time to read all the posts. Space heaters can be a problem--some of them let off chemicals toxic to birds, and they can also overheat and cause fires--you should never leave a spaceheater on in a room unsupervised. Be careful!

So I got her heating panel yesterday. I was so happy cuz it comes with something to hang it to her cage with.. Just my luck, it don't work with her cage. So we are still having to use the heater to heat her at night because I don't know how to attach her heating panel to her house *sigh*

I have that same problem with some of my cages. There is a hole on the back of the panel if you have a wall you're willing to hammer a nail into and pull Rosie's house up tight. Or you could prop the panel up with books (or anything heavy enough) behind it on a table just the right height. Bungee ties were recommended to me, but I don't think they're safe to use around birds. You could tie the panel with string to the top of her house, but only if you're certain the wgt of it won't pull her house over.

Hope you like it!