My dog thinks she is Gil's "mommy"

[ruffledfeathers]

I have an odd "problem". My one dog ADORES Gilbert. She always wants to be with him and take care of him. It is adorable but I have to separate them (he likes her too) because they always want to kiss and it's bad for him. The two of them together are soooo cute. I was taking a video of Gilbert this morning and she ran over to get close. I got this pic of them.

 

[aliray]

Aww too cute. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Agapornis]

Awwww, they really love eachother! Do they play together?

 

[ruffledfeathers]

They want to play together, but they always start kissing and i try to keep them apart. That's why Kisses has that funny look on her face--i just said "no" because she was trying to lick him.
Kisses will regularly 'take care' of him. If he flies to the floor, she runs over and guards him until i come over to pick him up. If Pinto barks at him when he gets food, Kisses jumps in between and barks. She clearly wants to protect him and it's just adorable.

 

[KatherineI]

Is dog saliva bad for birds? I'm not sure why it's bad?

 

[Labbie]

Cute, Rosie and my dog are great friends too. Henry the dogs sits outside her cage for ages whatching her play with her her toys. Rosie loves rolling her ball around the cage towards the dog to tease him.

 

[ruffledfeathers]

Katherine-dogs (and human) saliva contains bacteria normal to us that is not normal to a parrot's body and can cause illness. Although there could be occasional transfer from normal life together, i try not to let them kiss each other like that--it seems too much like asking for trouble!

 

[KatherineI]

If that was the case, my guys probably would have keeled over by now. I kiss them constantly! My dog won't go near either one enough to lick them, which is why I was curious, since I don't really have to worry about that.

Interesting, in all my years, I've never heard that. I just tend to keep dogs and birds apart from the fact that even the nicest dog could hurt them. My Mom has lost 2 Too's because they got out of their cages and found the dogs before she found the bird

 

[KatherineI]

Yeah, I didn't think that was the case with the saliva, because I couldn't find anything on the web and my AV knows I have a dog and never mentioned it to me. I also found this, right on our very own home page, in a thread about it:

Ok, I have often read on the internet on bird sites that cat and dog saliva are extremely toxic to birds, and even the tiniest bit can kill a bird quickly. However, when I would try to research this I never find any actual veterinary sites concerning this. So I asked my vet today, what is the truth? She told me unless the dog or cat bites and punctures the bird, almost all birds can handle it in their digestive track. So if your bird kisses your cat or dog, or the animal licks the bird, it should be fine. Now you probably shouldn't let your dog or cat repeatedly lick your bird, but if it happens once, don't panic, everything is probably ok. However, if it gets in through a puncture, it is an emergency (although you would have to think most of us have enough common sense to realize if our bird is bitten, it's an emergency for any number of reasons).