Considering Adoption

[LaurenB]

Hi there,

I'm new to the forum and looking for advice.

I've been interested in adopting a Conure for several years. I had a pair of parakeets for 10 years that passed away last year. I was (and still am) heartbroken.

My main concern for a conure is the location of it's cage within my house. Let me give you a little information about my living situation.

I own my home and live with my husband and our six rescued cats. The cats are confined to the basement level of our house when we are not at home. When I had the parakeets, they stayed in their own bedroom and when the cats were out, we closed their bedroom door. I didn't like this situation because it meant I would have to specifically go into that bedroom to spend time with them, instead of them being in a central location and around us more often. However, I knew they were okay because even if I wasn't in there, they still had each other.

I don't want to do that with the Conure though, as I only plan on adopting one. I want the bird to be in a central part of the house. My concern with this, is fumes from cooking and how lethal they can be. My first level of my house is completely open. There is the kitchen, which is connected to the family room (almost as if it is one huge room, with only a hardwood/carpet divide), next to the kitchen is the dining room, divided only by an open walk way (no door), and the dining room is connected to the formal living room, also like it is one big room with just pillars dividing the rooms. Other than that is the foyer. From how far away can fumes from cooking affect a bird? If it isn't directly in the kitchen, would it still be okay? We don't have a ventilation system to the outside.. the microwave just blows the air back out into the kitchen.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can make this work? I really miss having a bird.

Thanks for any help!

 

[weco]

Welcome to the forums...hope you enjoy your stay.....

Unless you are frying chicken or other fried food that will aerosolize hot grease or using Teflon cookware, you should not have any problems with the cooking.....

With an open floor plan, you're going to have to watch your bird when cooking...hot pans/water/foods, cooktops/burners/grates, etc......

You'll also need to figure out a workable arrangement for cat out-of-basement time & bird out-of-cage time, curious cats lying around staring at an in-cage bird can stress a bird out.....