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Dr. Laurie: People ask us a lot about what temperature they should keep their birds at
in their houses and really, what's comfortable us is comfortable for your bird. Birds actually
can tolerate temperature changes fairly well. I mean they do fine in warm weather. Many
of them are tropical and live in heat.
But those that live with us here, even in the northeast where we live they're very comfortable
in our homes, around 70 degrees or so, maybe a little less in the wintertime. The big thing
to remember is that birds really don't tolerate rapid changes in temperature. Their bodies
can adjust when they go from hot to cold and cold to hot, but they do need a little bit
of time to acclimate. We see those wild Quaker parrots, right?
Sarah: Absolutely, there are wild Quaker parrots that are flying around up here in the northeast,
and they actually do quite well. They are quite proliferative actually, from what I
understand. They just need time to adjust to the temperature change in the environment
and they can actually handle it pretty well.
Dr. Laurie: Yeah, you'd be amazed. We see people bring in birds all the time, even little
parakeets, budgerigars that aren't normally found here and they live outside all winter
long, and they survive and they somehow manage to get through.
So I don't think people have to get as stressed as they do about temperature. Birds that are
sick will fluff up and trap air between their bodies and their feather, because they're
trying to keep warm, because they're ill. But in general, most birds that are healthy
can tolerate temperature changes just fine, as long as they have time to adjust.