BE AWARE, BE VERY AWARE Written in memory of Gertie a two year old African Grey and Charlie a 7 month old Umbrella Cockatoo who tragically lost their young lives to PTFE poisoning.

Most Parrot keepers have heard of Teflon poisoning and are aware of the dangers of non stick cookware to their parrots but just how much do we know and are we taking all the precautions we should to protect our birds? Polytetraflouroethylene or PTFE is a substance used on non stick cookware such as pots, pans, frying pans, baking trays etc. It isn’t supposed to be dangerous under normal cooking conditions but when heated to a certain temperature the substance breaks down and emits toxic fumes which are deadly to birds.

Most people think of Teflon when talking about non stick kitchen products but strictly speaking we can’t talk about Teflon poisoning as Teflon is the brand name for just one company producing non stick products that use PTFE. Like most bird keepers I have been aware of the dangers of PTFE for quite some time but just recently I heard a tragic story which brought it to the forefront of my attention and I felt I had to do some research of my own. I hope if I share this tragic story with you, you might feel compelled to do your own research and further deaths might be avoided.

A friend of mine who breeds parrots and is very knowledgeable about their welfare had a phone call from a panic stricken fellow parrot owner with the following terrible tale. He owned two parrots, an African Grey called Gertie and a young Umbrella Cockatoo called Charlie. Gertie and Charlie were kept in a large open plan living area which incorporated the kitchen. On this evening, his wife had cooked dinner and they had just sat down to eat when their African Grey, Gertie, flew to his shoulder to share his meal as she always did. She started to regurgitate some food and to his horror appeared to be struggling to breathe, before he really had a chance to realise something was very wrong or to do anything to help her she had dropped dead.

Completely in shock and with his wife breaking her heart over Gertie’s body he phoned my friend for help and support, as he was explaining what had happened, he noticed that their Umbrella Cockatoo had started to have breathing difficulties too, my friend realised immediately that it could be an airborne poison and shouted for them to get the Cockatoo outside into the fresh air. They rushed straight to the nearest avian vet who immediately put Charlie on oxygen, sadly within a few minutes Charlie had also lost his life. A post mortem showed that they had both died from PTFE poisoning. The vet advised that the PTFE poisoning was probably caused by an oven baking tray, this tray was not new, it had been used before but they were unaware that it was PTFE coated.

Both husband and wife were absolutely devastated by the loss of their beautiful, young parrots but what makes it doubly hard to bear is the crushing guilt that they feel. They feel responsible for what happened. Hearing this story brought home to me just how deadly PTFE can be to our birds, everyone involved was shocked at how quickly it killed both birds; there was nothing anybody could do to help them. I decided to do some research of my own to ensure that I was not putting my own birds’ lives at risk. Some of the information surprised me as I hadn’t previously known about it and the stories of birds dying from PTFE poisoning were truly shocking. PTFE is not only used on pots and pans, be aware that it can be found on non stick griddles, woks, frying pans, waffle makers, coffee makers, bread makers, slow cookers, roasting and oven trays, pizza pans, George Foreman grills, sandwich makers and self cleaning ovens. There is also an aluminium cooking foil which is non stick and uses a PTFE coating.

Being a cautious type of person I won’t use any non-stick products in my kitchen but the manufacturers do state that PTFE is safe to use under normal cooking conditions. However if your cookware is scratched, stained, chipped or damaged in any way the PTFE is more susceptible to breakdown and gives off toxic fumes at a much lower temperature. So you might have used the pot, pan, baking tray many times before but it doesn’t mean that it is safe. It is also worth knowing that manufacturers are not required to label their products so it won’t necessarily say that the product is PTFE coated. My advice would be ‘If in doubt throw it out’. I’m sure that most Parrot owners would be aware of these dangers being the conscientious parrot keepers that we are but I was shocked to find that PTFE is also used on other products, not solely in the kitchen. How many of us have used a hair dryer, curling tongs or hair straighteners in the same room as our parrots? They can all be coated with PTFE. Have you ever sat and done your ironing in the same room as your parrot? Some irons and ironing board covers contain PTFE. Did you know that some heaters and heat lamps are coated in PTFE? Once you start looking into it you realise that there are far more dangers than you were ever aware of. But there are ways to protect our birds, the first is by researching the subject for yourself, find out what products contain PTFE and make sure you don’t use them either in your house at all or anywhere around your birds, if it means throwing out a couple of pans then isn’t it worth it? Avoid keeping your birds in the kitchen where there are other household dangers, not only the risk of PTFE poisoning.

Be very careful when buying cookware, as manufacturers are not required to state that their products contain PTFE you will have to use your powers of deduction and if they are non stick, don’t buy them. If you do still wish to use non stick products then check regularly that they are not damaged in anyway. Apart from anything else just be aware of the risks and take as many steps as you can to avoid the unnecessary deaths of any more birds. I hope that the deaths of Gertie and Charlie and all the birds that have previously succumbed to PTFE poisoning will not be in vain and that you will not just read this and think that none of your birds have ever been poisoned so it won’t happen to you. Please do your own research and find out for yourself what you can do to protect the lives of your birds. There are many sources of information, most if not all parrot books have a section on household dangers and poisons to be aware of and if you have access to the internet then there is a wealth of information for you to read. Please also inform new parrot keepers of these dangers. As they say knowledge is power and it is within our power to save lives.