Questions about cooking safety in small homes

[Flapjack]

Hi all! Me and my GGC Kure are staying with at my mom’s house for a visit in a few weeks and I was curious about how to keep Kure safe from any dangers that a kitchen could produce.

She will be kept in a room down the hallway from the kitchen, but I worry because it is a small single floor home. My mom already uses bird-safe cookware, she has a full set of caraway pots, pans, etc. but I am not sure how much normal smells from cooking affect birds as Kure is currently kept upstairs as far away from the kitchen as possible in my house.

Basically my question is: If nothing was burned, no Teflon was used, and she is in another room with a fan running, would my bird be safe from the cooking? if not, what other solution/protective measures would you recommend?

Thanks a ton!

 

[hiriki]

So, you're best to avoid foods that cause lots of fumes. Burning your food will obviously cause fumes, so avoiding that, BUT also please keep in mind that spicy food also tends to create fumes.

I've lived in plenty of smaller homes where my birds didn't have a full wall between them and the kitchen, just a doorway with no door, and never had an issue... but, I don't cook spicy food. I have heard of people losing their parrots after cooking with chili peppers.

 

[Flapjack]

So, you're best to avoid foods that cause lots of fumes. Burning your food will obviously cause fumes, so avoiding that, BUT also please keep in mind that spicy food also tends to create fumes.

I've lived in plenty of smaller homes where my birds didn't have a full wall between them and the kitchen, just a doorway with no door, and never had an issue... but, I don't cook spicy food. I have heard of people losing their parrots after cooking with chili peppers.

Thanks for the heads up! I’ll we don’t normally cook very spicy food either but I will definitely keep that in mind.

 

[Inger]

I've always had Bumble in a small apartment where she can't be far from the kitchen. I use cast iron and stainless steel cookware, and I turn off heat dry on the dishwasher (in case something plastic gets relocated near the heating element).

She's 7 so it seems to be working fine so far.

 

[clark_conure]

Spicy isn't the problem, birds are basically immune to capsaicin, Its the burning of plastics releasing gasses....I love hot peppers but my birds can eat stuff that make me cry like a little girl. By all means use peppers just make sure you use safe cookware.

 

[hiriki]

Spicy isn't the problem, birds are basically immune to capsaicin, Its the burning of plastics releasing gasses....I love hot peppers but my birds can eat stuff that make me cry like a little girl. By all means use peppers just make sure you use safe cookware.

The taste of spicy food does not bother them, but the fumes when cooking does. I wouldn't normally insist because I don't want to sound disagreeable or stubborn, but spicy food can absolutely be dangerous, and I have several friends (particularly latino, since their families cook with dried peppers a lot) who have lost birds to regular, unburned dinner fumes from spicy foods.

I'm not really talking about American spicy foods--putting hot sauce on your chicken tenders or whatever isn't a problem. But frying spicy peppers (especially the seeds) or otherwise heating very spicy food is. Not sure if you've ever been in the room while Mexican parents cook spicy food but it sometimes creates fumes that make even me as a human being sneeze or cough, and that can be deadly to
a bird.

Edit - I went on a googling frenzy to try to find sources and found that even a birds air sacs & eyes & skin aren't irritated by capsaicin, so in theory I'm actually wrong about this one! I'm glad to be wrong, because my darling wife is obsessed with food so spicy it makes my eyes water and I've been paranoid about my birds being harmed, so I guess I can chill a bit about that... but I think I'm still going to insist she opens windows when she cooks, just in case, and I guess I'll just have to wonder what actually killed those birds I've always believed were killed by hot peppers--teflon maybe? Maybe mom just burned the enchiladas that night? We may never know lol