Keeping your Linnies Safe during the Holidays
By Nick R
The Holiday season is an extremely fun time, with music, family, decorating, cooking, and togetherness. It’s very easy to get wound up in all of this holiday hype and forget that parrot care requires paying extreme attention to details of what’s going on around the house.
There are several holiday items and events that can pose a potential danger to your lineolated parakeets and other parrots. In this short article, we’ll do our best to list many of these dangers and reasons you should avoid them.
Christmas Trees can be very frightening to your feathered friend, because unless you keep a tree up all year, they are unfamiliar with it. Try to avoid placing the tree extremely close to your parrot’s cage.
Allowing the birdies to play on the tree is fine, but not recommended for various reasons:
- Chewing on the tree may be dangerous or even toxic
- Light fixtures on the tree pose an electrical threat
- Ornaments are shiny, pretty, and attract birds’ attention rather quickly, which can post electrical, glass, or plastic dangers if chewed on
Other plants such as poinsettias, holly, Philodendron, ivy and mistletoe are some dangerous holiday flora and are very dangerous if ingested by your parrot.
Gift wrap, wrapping paper, and bows are also attractive to the birds. Yes, it’s fun to let them help us open our gifts, but the ink on the wrapping papers could be toxic and harmful if ingested. Bows also pose the threat of getting stuck around your bird’s feet or neck.
The holiday feast is tempting to us and our birds, but it’s easiest to stay safe and avoid offering any of the holiday meals to your parrots. Some ingredients, spices, or additives may be poisonous.
Cookware and cooking are two dangerous aspects, in that non-stick cookware with Teflon releases a harmful gas or fume that is deadly to parrots. If your parents are coming to cook at your house, be sure to leave the Teflon-coated-cookware at the door!
Cooking with your birds unrestrained is dangerous as well, for if you turn your back, your bird may decide to take a dive into the pot of stew.
Fragrances and candles are obviously a large issue. Fumes of any kind are dangerous to birds because of their highly-sensitive respiratory systems. Avoid using air-fresheners, candles, or other fragrances, unless they are safe for birds.
Stress is something we all know very well. Our parrots do too. Exciting sights, sounds, and celebrations may freak our parrots out and stress them to no end. If you’re having a very exciting party, it may be a good idea to temporarily put your bird in a separate, quiet room. That isn’t to ignore them, but to only bring them out to join the party for short periods of time when the party winds down.
Monitor the guests. If you’re reading this, the chances are that you probably spend a lot of time reading about parrots and how to care for them properly and optimally. But do you think all of your non-parrot-loving holiday guests do, too? If they don’t have parrots themselves, then they probably don’t. As such, they may not know what is safe and what isn’t for your parrot, so it is up to you to monitor them closely and ensure they don’t inadvertently put your bird at risk.
Here is a website for further reading: Holiday Safety for Parrots
Loading ...