Scented candle

[henry0reilly]

My wife has a Pet House brand natural soy wax scented candle that's supposed to help with pet odors. Personally I don't care for anything that supposedly "freshens" the air.

I contacted the maker of this candle and could not get them to say the product is safe for use in homes with birds.

She has burned it in the kitchen occasionally over the past year and I have not observed any obvious ill effects on the birds in the dining room. It just smells awful to me, though.

 

[noodles123]

Nope--- even unscented candles are not safe for them. 1. The smoke, 2. the wax that gets into the air, 3. the wick itself, 4. the scent...
It might be pet-safe, but that doesn't mean bird safe.
SORRY! HUGE candle lover here, but you can't use them or scented oils/fresheners around a bird...
You could simmer some oranges and cinnamon on the stove top though...

Lots of people do things that are unsafe for years but the thing is, it can be causing irritation and damage that isn't observable until a later time. Sometimes it could just mean that your bird becomes more susceptible to respiratory infection etc--- and you might never know that it was an irritant that caused it.

Note: Do not assume that essential oils are safe either--- aromatherapy works because we inhale these oils and they actually enter the blood stream and cause medicinal effects (that is why they "calm" people down or help people with breathing etc). People can overdose on essential oils just by breathing them in via a diffuser etc (especially young kids and pets---if a small amount can impact our nervous systems, imagine what it could do to a bird's)...so don't assume natural means safe. On top of that, there is the fact that diffusers are shooting oil into the air and that is not good for a bird either, coupled with the fact that oils are not regulated by the FDA and often contain lots of additives.

I am not saying that a one-time incident is going to cause observable damage, but it could depending on what it is...Bottom line--99% of scented products (unless you are talking about live flowers, freshly cut herbs etc) are bad for your birds. Heck, many of them are also really bad for us (watch Stink! on Netflix for an interesting commentary on the fragrance industry and "proprietary secrets" that allow industries to put all sorts of crap in products under the catch-all of "fragrance"----it is pretty crazy and it really makes you think twice about the products you use within your home).

 

[Kiwibird]

A very long time ago, we used to burn various incenses in a different room than Kiwi (we knew enough to have anything producing smoke near him), but the smell always permeated the entire very small apartment. While we never observed any ill effects, once we learned it could still be harmful, we stopped. Just because something doesn’t make a bird drop dead or suffer immediate symptoms doesn’t make it safe. People can chain smoke around their birds for years/decades before the bird becomes ill from it, but the bird is still being harmed with every cigarette that’s lit.

I would have your wife ditch the candle and invest in good air purifiers instead. We have 4 air purifiers in our home, and unless we’ve done cooking recently, the smell of our home is pretty neutral. We also use carefully selected essential oils in oil WARMERS (NOT the kind that put a mist into the air, which are called diffusers) that are well out of the birds general vicinity on occasion for a nice scent. I’m not sure even that is 100% safe, but I find it “safe enough” to be willing to do it personally.

 

[noodles123]

Another thing that may not be totally safe (but that I sometimes do around the holidays ) is place 100% natural bar of soap with a natural scent in the bathroom (the organic snooty kind that is hand-made and lists exactly what oils etc are in it). I can smell the lemongrass/ginger bar from outside of the bathroom, but it is made of all-natural (hippie-dippy) ingredients...SO, even though it was $9, I don't use it that often and it seems like a safer alternative...It smells nice even when not in use, and the oils that are in it aren't overtly bad for birds (unlike tea-tree which is very dangerous for them)...plus, they aren't shooting into the air...so that is a possible option too (although it may still pose some risk)...Technically, if you can smell anything then it is in the air in trace amounts...but I can't smell it in her room at all.

I also run 3 heavy duty non-ionizing/non-ozone producing hepa air purifiers (one in the basement and 2 on the main floor in/near bird room.

 

[SailBoat]

Within North America and Europe, one of the fastest growing health problems is COPD. This was first noted in the older population, but it is also showing-up in middle aged adults and even teenagers. At first this was a problem easily connected to smoking and now with vaping. The odd part is that there is a growing number of cases in which the individual has never smoked or vaped.

All the while respiratory infection in birds are also on the rise.

Is it possible that Birds in the underground that had saved miners in the past may now be saving us in our homes?

We use a full home air exchange unit.

 

[Kiwibird]

Within North America and Europe, one of the fastest growing health problems is COPD. This was first noted in the older population, but it is also showing-up in middle aged adults and even teenagers. At first this was a problem easily connected to smoking and now with vaping. The odd part is that there is a growing number of cases in which the individual has never smoked or vaped.

All the while respiratory infection in birds are also on the rise.

Is it possible that Birds in the underground that had saved miners in the past may now be saving us in our homes?

We use a full home air exchange unit.

I have always been fairly sensitive to a lot of artificial scents and strong smelling chemicals, but since getting Kiwi and completely eliminating them, I find my sensitivities have become even worse. I recently ordered a decorative item off Etsy that should have had no odor at all, but the seller sprayed it with perfume (just because?) and now it is being returned. As soon as I opened the box my eyes and nose started burning and before I could even send an email to complain, I had a headache. I had to double seal it in ziplock bags to contain the smell and scrub my hands with baking soda. Then the smell lingered for hours after that, on both my hands and in the room! Kiwi seemed unbothered, though he was on the other side of the room when I opened the box.

Point is, I am 100% convinced all these “nice smells” people seem to like so much are going to be proven soon enough to cause all kinds of health issues. Once you aren’t being assaulted with chemical scents all day, every day, they burn and cause respiratory issues like the “bad smelling” chemicals or cigarettes/acrid smokes etc... that the body can also become somewhat used to (and is still being damaged by).

 

[noodles123]

Within North America and Europe, one of the fastest growing health problems is COPD. This was first noted in the older population, but it is also showing-up in middle aged adults and even teenagers. At first this was a problem easily connected to smoking and now with vaping. The odd part is that there is a growing number of cases in which the individual has never smoked or vaped.

All the while respiratory infection in birds are also on the rise.

Is it possible that Birds in the underground that had saved miners in the past may now be saving us in our homes?

We use a full home air exchange unit.

I have always been fairly sensitive to a lot of artificial scents and strong smelling chemicals, but since getting Kiwi and completely eliminating them, I find my sensitivities have become even worse. I recently ordered a decorative item off Etsy that should have had no odor at all, but the seller sprayed it with perfume (just because?) and now it is being returned. As soon as I opened the box my eyes and nose started burning and before I could even send an email to complain, I had a headache. I had to double seal it in ziplock bags to contain the smell and scrub my hands with baking soda. Then the smell lingered for hours after that, on both my hands and in the room! Kiwi seemed unbothered, though he was on the other side of the room when I opened the box.

Point is, I am 100% convinced all these “nice smells” people seem to like so much are going to be proven soon enough to cause all kinds of health issues. Once you aren’t being assaulted with chemical scents all day, every day, they burn and cause respiratory issues like the “bad smelling” chemicals or cigarettes/acrid smokes etc... that the body can also become somewhat used to (and is still being damaged by).

I do agree-- having eliminated scented products, I am SUPER sensitive to smelling anything (which is funny). I smell everything before anyone else catches a whiff, unless it is something natural that I smell daily due to work (e.g., other people's B.O. etc LOL!)
Watch "Stink!" if you haven't-- it seriously confirms what you are saying and I am not some sort of conspiracy theorist or gluten-free-vegan either LOL (no offense to those who are--super healthy organic eating etc =NOT a top priority for me...I am just saying, I am not Gwenyth Paltrow or anything). That having been said, scents ins the USA are generally full of things like formaldehyde and blatant carcinogens that are banned in Europe etc.

 

[LaManuka]

I suspect that brand name refers more to cat or dog odours and was not manufactured with birds in mind.