Introduction
There are plenty of species of birds that are ideal for keeping as pets in your home. They are compassionate, fun to look at, and be with, downright intelligent, and very intuitive when it comes to how you treat them and to their environment. In that sense, keeping a bird in your home is a really good idea as these pets are some of the most caring and fun animals to be with.
However, a lot of exotic pet birds come from regions and countries that have the type of climate that is suitable for them. They mostly come from places that are warm and humid or tropical in nature, such as South America, Madagascar, Southeast Asia, and the warmer parts of Australia. That said, they may not be well-adjusted to the colder climate of North America, especially during the fall and winter seasons.
In that case, there is a need for you to put them in cages or in habitats that have suitable climate conditions. Birds that come from warm regions should be housed in a warm cage. This is where heaters come in. There are plenty of types of heaters you can use to provide the warmth that your pet birds need. However, because birds can be quite sensitive to heat, you need to choose a heater that is safe for them. As such, here are our picks for the six best safe heaters that won’t harm your birds.
Heaters that are safe for birds
Ceramic heaters
Ceramic heaters are almost completely safe for your birds whenever you want to provide them the warmth they need to thrive well under captive care and in a place that is normally colder than what they are used to. A ceramic heater is usually great for a large area such as a room that is dedicated to providing warmth for your birds. So, wherever your birdcage is, that is where you should place your ceramic heater.
If you are housing your birdcage in a pretty large room such as a living room, make sure to get yourself a ceramic heater that has a fan so that the heat gets spread out evenly throughout the entire room. However, if you are using a smaller room, you may be able to use a fan-less model that spreads heat out evenly over time.
The good thing about using ceramic heaters is that the type of heat they emit is safe and clean. Moreover, they are very efficient at heating a room. And because they are small and compact, they do not take up a lot of space and are easy to carry around.
The only downside to them is that they emit a lot of heat and should be kept far from your birds. The best way to use a ceramic heater is to place it in the same room as your birdcage but should never be too close to your birds. What is bad about this is that you would also feel the warmth in case you happen to be housing your birds in a room you frequently go to. That might be inconvenient for you if you do not want to feel warm.
Oil-filled heater
Oil-filled heaters are some of the best choices for different types of pet owners if they want to heat space. The one thing that makes it a good choice is that it is quite cool to the touch as it does not emit heat. Instead, what it does is to use radiation to heat the space around it. This makes it safe for your birds even if the cage is placed a bit too close to the oil-filled heater.
Another thing that might interest you about oil-filled heaters is that they evenly throw heat from all sides as, again, what it does is to heat the space around it instead of emitting heat itself. That means that there won’t be any parts of the room that are a lot warmer than some. You no longer have to use a fan to throw heat evenly throughout an entire room.
Oil-filled heaters are efficient in the sense that they heat rooms quickly at a price that is quite cost-efficient. Moreover, oil-filled heaters tend to be silent compared to other types of heaters. Finally, these heaters tend to keep the air in the room a lot more humid compared to other types of heaters. Humidity is another element that is important for pet birds, as most of them come from tropical countries that are not only warm but are also humid.
Infrared heaters
Infrared heaters are some of the more common types of heaters to use for your birds. These are usually called bird heaters. They do not emit UV light that will most probably keep your bird awake because birds in the wild are wired to try to stay awake whenever they sense UV light from the sun. As such, infrared heaters tend to be one of the better choices for your birds if you want them to stay warm while preventing them from staying up all day.
Bird heaters are usually placed near the birdcage instead of letting them heat an entire room to provide the warmth that your birds need. You should place them on the side or on the top of the cage. However, make sure to place the heater in an area where your birds won’t be able to touch it.
Heated perches
Heated perches are not the common types of heaters you use, but they are actually pretty effective for your birds. Instead of warming up a room or a certain space or emitting light that can warm a cage, it uses electricity to generate heat that will run through the perch. As such, your bird can stay on the perch to feel warm instead of feeling the warmth throughout the entire cage.
Heating pads
Heating pads are the all-around type of heaters in the sense that they are good not only for birds but also for other types of pets that need heat. They do not warm an entire room or emit light that will provide warmth for your birds. Instead, heating pads work by generating heat that will not be strong enough to warm the entire cage but is still warm enough to allow your bird to snuggle up near it and feel the heat.
For most pet owners, heating pads tend to be the best choices because they are affordable and completely safe for your birds. As such, heating pads tend to be the most popular types of heaters for birds as they are efficient and quite effective. The downside is that you will need a lot of heating pads if you have a large cage with many birds.
Fan heater
Fan heaters work in the same way as your regular fan. However, it releases warm air instead of cool air. Plenty of fan heaters are cool to the touch and are completely safe for children and pets alike. For birds, it might be best to keep the fan heater a bit far from the cage but still close enough for the birds to feel the warm air coming from the fan. Moreover, there are fan heaters that are technologically advanced enough to shut down on their own whenever they get too hot or whenever the room is too warm. This makes it safe for birds as it can prevent the room or space from getting to warm for your birds to handle.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a heater that is safe for your birds, the one thing that you should remember is to make sure that the heater is cool to the touch as a heater that is quite hot to the touch can be dangerous for you, your birds, and your other pets. Another factor to take note of is to choose the size of the heater depending on the size of your cage and the number of birds you have. The larger the cage and the more birds you have, the larger the heater. Other than that, so long as you do not place a strong heater close to your birds, most types of heaters can be quite safe for your birds.
