ARCADIA Lighting Kit Parrot Pro T5

Birds are known to be tetrachromatic and to use UVB in the same way as reptiles to produce and use essential vitamin D3.

Tetrachromacy is the term used to describe the addition of the all important fourth cone cell in the eye of birds, reptiles and some fish. The inclusion of these four cone shaped cells and the oil droplets that they contain effectively opens up a whole new world to these remarkable animals. Humans using three rod cells (trichromacy) can only reportedly view the world with around one million colours. Tetrachromats are able to see around 100 million colours, that is a massive difference. Humans as usual don’t seem to be able to truly grasp just how important this maybe to birds, maybe it is because we cannot experience viewing the world in the way in which birds do. The inclusion of this fourth cone cell allows the bird to see wavelengths of light that humans simply cannot see i.e far into red and blue and also into the ultra violet wavelength. By providing UVA in the correct way we effectively activate the colour vision of a bird and allow it to see and behave more naturally. This can pay back in more settled and better feathered birds and of course with better breeding results from the birds tetrachromatic ability to select a mate.

UVB is the term used to describe the wavelengths of light between 280-320nm.this is far into the blue spectrum. This wavelength of light which is invisible to humans would need to be provided at these wavelengths and in enough power to start and complete what is commonly known as the D3 cycle. This is the ability of animals including humans to produce and utilise vitamin D3 in the skin but only after exposure to unfiltered natural sunlight. Vitamin D3, among many other uses allows the assimilation of calcium. I guess one word that we could use would be “catalyst”. Without vitamin D3 in the correct levels calcium simply cannot be absorbed into the animals system properly. Vitamin d3 is produced more effectively when light is emitted at 297nm, a good UV source should have a slight peak at this wavelength. Birds and reptiles rely on this natural process to flourish in the wild. A lack of D3 and calcium can cause painful and even fatal conditions in birds and reptiles. The most common of which is called “metabolic bone disease” which we will now refer to as MBD. This is a terrible condition caused by a critical lack of calcium in the body of the animal. Bones affected by this preventable condition will turn very rubbery and will also become very misshapen. Rickets is probably the closest disease that occurs in humans for reference.

The Arcadia bird lamp has been specifically designed to allow captive birds to use both UVA and UVB in the way that nature intended. This lamp has been designed to emit visible light at a colour that we call “full spectrum+ UV”. Standard full spectrum lamps should not be confused with full spectrum+ UV lamps. The term full spectrum simply refers to the colour of the light that the lamp produces. A standard full spectrum or even some of the SAD lamps produce a colour of light that is very close to natural daylight. It has a very high CRI (colour rendition index) in simple terms these lamps will allow keepers to see their birds in the very best possible way within the limitations of human vision. These lamps do not emit UV. So although the birds look good to us these lamps do not provide any usable UVA or UVB for the bird to utilise. It is important that UVA and UVB is provided in the correct ratios. We advise that a lamp fitted correctly near the bird should emit 12% UVA and 2.4% UVB.