Prepared or Unprepared for Cold and Drafts

Can it be that birds in the wild tolerate cold, wet, windy days, and that a bird in your home could become sick from a moderate draft? Seems contradictory, doesn't it?

One canary breeder, who has an outside unheated aviary, claims that occasionally in the wintertime he will have to knock the ice off the water before his birds can drink, yet his birds are tremendously healthy. This example is extreme, but is given to indicate that birds can tolerate moderate cold as long as they are healthy and well fed.

An incident that happened a number of years ago may give you an insight to a bird's ability to tolerate cold.

In December of that year a cold wave came down from the Great Lakes Region and when it hit Louisiana a large die-off of pigeons occurred. The deaths concerned the wild life people, until finally they declared that all the birds died from chilling.

Well, pigeons are the army tanks of the bird world. They are tough I The pigeons in Chicago had no problems with the sudden cold, and ordinarily the pigeons in Louisiana would not either. What happened?

The pigeons in Chicago had become acclimated to bad weather by their usual wet, cold, windy autumns. Louisiana had had an unusually warm, mild fall that year, and, thus, the pigeons were not prepared for the sudden cold.

Birds can acclimate themselves to pleasant or harsh weather conditions.

All birds have a built-in mechanism that allows them to tolerate harsh weather. These systems need to be ''turned on" in order to function. The trigger to start the internal acclimating system actually is changes in temperature. When the need for it to function exists-it works, but when no need exists it "sleeps".

As seasons go through their gradual change, birds have ample time to prepare their heat regulatory system for what's ahead. The colder it becomes, the better prepared the body becomes for even worse weather.

The lesson to be learned from this ''incident" is that birds can tolerate cold weather and drafts if their bodies are conditioned.

In modern homes the temperature fluctuates very little and birds are so well protected that their "furnace" rests. If temperatures suddenly drop - chilling easily occurs. The same thing happens with drafts because of the wind chill effect.

A draft of ten miles per hour at a temperature of 40 degrees has a wind chill factor of 28 degrees. Even a temperature drop of 10 degrees could be traumatic for a pet bird, and if that were accompanied by a draft, it could be sufficient to cause health problems.

In order to protect the birds in your home during the winter months drop the temperature in the bird's room at night. Gradually lower the temperatures from a few degrees to 5 to 10 degrees. The changes will not hurt your birds and will stimulate their heat regulatory system to handle drafts or colder weather.

Warning Signs
Drafts will chill pet birds unless they have been acclimated to a wide range of temperatures.

Unhealthy birds that look normal at 700 may show signs of their problems if the temperature declines slightly.

If the bird in your house is bothered by air conditioning in the summer time then move him to a warm room and consult your veterinarian. In general, birds tolerate cool temperatures better than hot.