Clean, fresh air can make the difference between life and death for your canary and finches. Birds have air sacs rather than lungs. As a result, birds have no way to filter out harmful toxins, smoke, fumes, dust, and other matter like our lungs do. As a result of breathing in these particles, birds become susceptible to illness and even death. It wasn't so long ago that miners took caged canaries down into the shafts with them to warn of gas leaks. We all know what happened to those canaries unfortunate enough to discover the leaks.
But what is going on in our homes? We take for granted all the sprays we use; hair spray, fabric sprays, furniture polish, window cleaners, and the list could go on and on. We use these products with little or no thought to what they might be doing to our birds. Teflon had also made headlines when it was discovered that it releases fumes at certain temperatures, and these fumes are toxic to all birds and can kill. Please avoid the use of these products around your birds -- they could have deadly results. It's so easy to move your bird into another room for a few minutes if you must use them. It doesn't make sense for your bird to suffer through carelessness.
And smokers beware -- the smoke from tobacco products is not only dangerous for you and your birds, but the residual nicotine left on fingers can irritate your birds skin if you have to handle him for toenail clippings or giving medications, etc. I used to have neighbors next-door to me that lived in a small one-bedroom apartment and they smoked. They also loved birds, but every bird they got died within a year. By the time I met them, they said they had gone through about five birds. By everything they told me they did for the birds, they should have been quite healthy. When they both decided to quit smoking, they did it as a joint project and supported each other and were successful. The surprise is that they bought another Quaker Parrot as a reward for successfully quitting, and this time the bird survived his first year with them and went on to become a wonderful companion for many years afterwards. We all think their little bird survived this time due to the fact that the bird was not exposed to any smoke. |
