#bird safety

[ziggystarling]

Hey that video with the starling opening the Clorox wipes is cute and all but Clorox wipes are toxic for birds and can kill them. Not trying to be a buzzkill, please google it if you don’t believe me, just trying to keep anyone from losing their beloved bird.

Anon, I understand your concern, and I did consider this before reblogging it. I think considering OP is right there watching Cricket the whole time and can stop him if he actually tried to eat one of the wipes it's fine. You can see after he bites the wipe, he immediately realizes it isn't food and tastes bad, and doesn't bite it again. Birds generally will not eat something coated in distasteful chemicals.

Obviously you should supervise your birds whenever you're using cleaning chemicals, and don't ever spray aerosols around birds! I've been using Clorox/Lysol wipes to clean up bird messes for years now, and I've never had any issues. Since they're already coated in cleaning chemicals and you don't need to spray anything, the bird isn't going to breathe in anything harmful. It's a pretty effective way to clean when you can't use aerosol cleaners.

That being said, if you're worried about cleaning with any potentially unsafe chemicals around your bird, the safest thing to use is plain white vinegar mixed with water. I use this for cleaning their cages, whereas the wipes are for my desk and desk chair.

[tytonidyke]

Kestrels are so cool but this is Not the circumstances I wanted to see one under. This window strike could have easily been fatal, but luckily after resting for 20min or so this fellow was able to fly away. I’m going to campaign my school to put up bird-safe window decals here; this is not the first time I’ve seen a window strike at this location and likely won’t be the last.

[toothlespoggers]

In almost all cases, raising awareness doesn’t work. But when it comes to this I want people to speak up and listen, I want everyone to post something about it, here or another platform. I want more mainstream YouTubers to cover this. I want this everywhere.

Bird breeding is out of control, with alot of people doing it as a hobby or as a sketchy way to make money, it’s bad and wrong and causes a lot of problems. But let’s get to the main issue I want people to raise awareness of; BIRDS ARE NOT TOYS, THEY ARE NOT ACCESSORIES, NOT DECORATIONS, NOT PETS.

they should be treated like you would a human child, you cannot keep buying birds, avoiding research and then rehoming them.

do you know how many birds are abandoned each year? How many are rehomed? Do you know how many birds suffer? These intelligent, human-level sentient beings trapped in tiny cages all day?

Stop the abuse, birds are tiny people, not pets. They don’t just sit around like dogs or cats. Stop abusing birds, this happens constantly so rampant in fact that it’s normal to just.. let a bird die instead of taking it to a vet because it’s seen as too fragile that they just die anyway.

these birds can live up to 80 years in some cases, yet they barely make 1 - 2 with these conditions.

I don’t care if people are here for my undertale content. I’m so sick of this.

I want to call this the Kiwi movement, after my first conure kiwi, who suffered a tragic death due to mishandling and uneducation combined with a family impulse purchase. (I was too young to know how to care and my parents didn’t know.)

[silver-whistle]

Pigeon Rescue

Yesterday’s good deed: I heard cooing outside the office late yesterday afternoon, and as I was leaving work, I saw a group of pigeons on the pavement, one of whom was clearly in trouble, with both feet tangled in thin black plastic string/tape (the sort sometimes used to close bin-bags). Its pals were watching over it. I nipped up to my flat (next door) for scissors and seed, and enlisted the help of a workman who’s doing stuff at our building. I distracted the bird with seed, and he grabbed it and held it, while I cut off and unwound the plastic string, which had wrapped around its toes and tied both of its little feet together. (This is how so many pigeons end up as Stumpies, with toes and feet missing.) Fortunately, it must have been v recent: no significant swelling, only minor abrasions, and the wee thing flew off happily afterwards, up on to a rooftop.

[deadsquidstudios]

I wish that certain YouTube channels would stop putting ducklings and chicks in with kittens for “cute videos”.

Cat saliva is full of bacteria and even a single scratch from a cat can kill a bird. I would assume this applies to kittens as well as adult cats. I don’t think the people making these sorts of videos have any ill will towards these animals, but it’s still very unsafe.

For some reason a lot of the channels that do this also seem to focus on British Shorthairs...I don’t know if that’s just a coincidence or if there’s something deeper going on here, but...yeah.

Those videos of kittens “playing” with baby chickens or ducks aren’t exactly as cute as they look.

[birdhism]

If you're extra bold, there's another eco-friendly and economical option. You can chose to go without any bedding at all. Instead, you'd scrape the tray with either a dough scraper or a spackle knife, and sanitize as usual

"Newsprint is now free of lead so it is non-toxic to birds even if they chew on it." - Rick Axelson, DVM and Laurie Hess, DVM 

B&W pages are preferred as you can monitor the condition of their poop better. Yeah, it's icky, but poop is a good indicator of health.

As a precaution, avoid using glossy pages.

#budgieweek

[sweetiesugarbird]

Can anyone advise me on the bird safety of this cook and bakeware set?

https://www.wayfair.com/kitchen-tabletop/pdp/gotham-steel-original-copper-20-piece-ceramic-non-stick-cookware-set-with-bakeware-gtst1089.html?piid=50929811

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gotham-Steel-20-Piece-Aluminum-Ti-Ceramic-Nonstick-Cookware-and-Bakeware-Set-in-Graphite-1922/307959072

The reviews seem good, and it says it’s “PFOA, PTFE, PFOS free” and has “Ti-Cerama coating that combines super strong titanium fused with super slick ceramic.” Any other concerns I should have? Other potential bird dangers I am not thinking of? (Obviously birds are kept away from the kitchen in general) I’m not well versed in this stuff, I haven’t actually bought any new cookware in ages, but I’m moving soon and need new stuff. Thanks!!!! 

[rooftops-are-for-towels]