Cooking...

[JenJen]

With summer fading fast and winter not too far away, I'm growing more and more paranoid about accidently exposing Zulu to toxic fumes. The room Zulu is housed in is off the back of the kitchen, separated by a relatively short (<5ft) hallway and a door that is always left shut. Whenever I do cook (I do not use teflon or non-stick cookware), I always have a window and/or door open and run the exhaust fan. The window/door will not be an option come winter, for obvious reasons.

Is it just the fumes from teflon/non-stick cookware that is deadly to birds? Is it just as lethal if the bird is located where Zulu is (relative to the kitchen)? How do you all handle cooking in the winter - esp. those of you who are sometimes as prone to burning things as I am?

Also, I heat my home with a fuel oil furnace. It's located right outside the room Zulu is kept in, and delivered through the rest of my home by hot air vents. Are there any additional dangers I'm not yet aware of from this source of heat?

I've tried researching all of this online, but there are SO MANY horror stories and it's hard to separate fact from fiction...

Advice and insight are ALWAYS welcome!

JJ

 

[MonicaMc]

It's the fumes from PTFE that is toxic. There is non-stick cookware out there that does not contain PTFE and is safe to use around parrots.

PTFE is dangerous to all birds in the home, regardlss of where they are located. Essentially, the closer they are to whatever is giving off PTFE fumes, the quicker they will die... the further away they are, the better chance they may have of living if they can quickly be gotten out of the house and away from the PTFE... sad and scary fact.

The fume can also travel through the vents and air ducts, so unless a room has separate heating and air, it's not completely safe, either.


As for an oil furnace? If you mean an oil filled radiator/heater that's PTFE-Free, these should be fine. If you mean fuel oil (as in diesel), I'm not so sure. I've had homes that have run off of both Propane and Natural Gas without any problems.

 

[JenJen]

Thanks, MonicaMC. Now to find out how to figure out if the things I have are PTFE-Free or not.

By fuel oil furnace, I mean an actual furnace that runs off kerosene. The tank is outside and feeds keorsene to the furnace that's inside... and in turn that kicks out heat to the rest of the house. The only time there's ever an odd smell is when I first turn it on for the winter.

JJ

 

[weco]

Jen, you should be good for the winter.....the odd smell when you first start up your burner/heater is normally the dust burning off, that's collected in the ducts & burner, however you might get the occasional burning fuel oil smell if some trash comes through the line & makes your flame look funny (yellowish flame).....

If you've got black or dark grey, coated cooking pans, of these brands, that are 5 years or older, there's a good chance the coating is Teflon based or another brand name that has been licensed/marketed.....manufacturers are in the process of phasing out PTFE PTFOA coatings.....current replacements are plain iron, steel, silicone coated cookware & ceramic cookware.....

Here are some of the brands that sold cookware with PTFE & PFOA coatings: Autograph, Clad, CuFlon, Ballarini, Duracote, Excalibur, Farberware, Fluron, Greblon, Hostaplon, Maxalon 2000, Perma-Cote, Princess, Resista, Revere Ware, Risoli, Sliver Slick, Silverstone, Swiss Diamond, Tefal, T-Fal, Wear-Ever and Xylon, among others.....

 

[MikeyTN]

I was forced to use a kerosene heater during winter time for my birds up in South Dakota one year. It was blizzard outside and your basically stuck at home. I was living out in the country side at that time so I had no neighbors. No street lights either, so if you get stuck out there on the road, your a gonner....Anyway, my birds were fine, we actually lost power and my bird room got super cold as they were acclimated to the cold in the first place so I had to use kerosene heater to warm up the room. Everything was fine with no ill effects....

 

[Luke252]

Dam, luckily here in Australia we don't need to worry about that stuff too much. What we need to worry about is extreme heat. It can get dam hot in summer. Speaking of summer, for us that's just around the corner. Glad that winter is finally coming to a close, and the breeding season here is about to start. YAY!!

 

[MikeyTN]

Yea, and we're coming to a fall season pretty soon....But I actually can't wait....By the end of the summer I've had enough of mowing the lawn....lol....

 

[Luke252]

Yea, and we're coming to a fall season pretty soon....But I actually can't wait....By the end of the summer I've had enough of mowing the lawn....lol....

Haha, whoops, forgot about that. Oh well, I am just excited for the warm weather. Sick of this cold Sydney weather.

 

[MonicaMc]

I know that Walmart is still selling pans with PTFE in them.... I think Costco is as well... but I think PTFE is supposed to be banned during or after 2014.

PTFE can be found in *anything* that heats up, so it's not just pans you need to worry about. The best you can do is to contact the manufacturer of the pans and ask them.