Five Ways to Keep Your Bird Safe from Kitchen Hazards

Since birds are very sensitive to particles in the air, the kitchen can be a hazardous place for them. Follow these five tips from a Black Hills veterinarian to keep your bird safe from kitchen dangers.

The easiest way to keep your bird safe while you’re cooking is to simply remove him from the kitchen area. If he’s nowhere near the kitchen, many of these hazardous factors won’t be an issue. If your bird’s cage isn’t large, it shouldn’t be a problem to move him to the family room or a bedroom before you start cooking a meal.

Teflon and other non-stick cookware pans can emit fumes when overheated that can prove fatal to birds. Make sure you don’t pre-heat Teflon-coated pans or other non-stick surfaces. It’s best to avoid their use in your home completely.

Even using cooking oil, butter, margarine, or fats during pre-heating could prove hazardous. Ask your veterinarian for more information on this and how to keep your bird safe.

Set up a fan, open a window, or do both—however you manage it, make absolutely sure there is adequate ventilation while you’re in the kitchen. A variety of kitchen fumes, including sprays, smoke, cooking gas, and others, can spell harm to your bird. With proper ventilation, these fumes won’t come into contact with your pet.

Dangerous foods found in the kitchen area need to be kept far away from your bird. Garlic, onions, avocado, salt, coffee (grounds and beans), tea, chocolate, alcohol, and various other vegetable matter can be harmful if your bird ingests them. Make sure your bird is safely locked in his cage and can’t reach these foods. If he does accidently ingest something he shouldn’t have, call your Black Hills veterinary hospital immediately.

Hot stoves, ovens, coffeepots, tea kettles, pots of boiling water, cooking oils, toasters—the list of hazardous kitchen appliances goes on and on. If your bird is wandering outside of his cage and comes in contact with these surfaces, burns, cuts, or other dangers could result. Monitor your bird to make sure he stays safe, and ask your veterinary professional more about the most common kitchen hazards to afflict birds.