Beebleburb
Strolling the yard
SO- on this website the other day I saw an article where an individual was really scared because their bird took a sip from their cup and they had read that mammalian saliva was toxic to birds and that it was going to die. That was not something I had ever heard of before, and some of the comments went as far as to say that it is often a cause of trouble instead of somthing rare, so I started reading up on it. My grandmother lived in Germany in the 1940s and she used to rescue baby injured birds from their family cat multiple times. She would chew food with her mouth and feed it to them. Now I'm certainly not advising this, because nowadays we have these wonderful appliances called blenders, But by what these articles I read all these already sick, injured, and stressed baby birds should have basically KOed on the impact of human saliva. And that is just not the case. She was a very dedicated rescuer and had a large survival margin, and those who died usually did so within the first 48 hours of rescue to their existing injuries.
That aside, there are tons of articles out there about how potentially dangerous saliva can be for birds, but I could not find a single instance of anyone ever reporting a bird having become sick based on this. Some of these articles are real 'scare articles' with big bold headlines about how you're murdering your bird if you give it a kiss. This is called clickbait. The information it contains is likely exaggerated to attract attention. Notice how if you google 'human saliva and parrots' the top result is Birdtricks- the clickbait captains of the parrot community as far as I am concerned, and I know many of you feel the same. Most of the articles that have keywords like 'toxic' in them redirect me to 'wow I won a Walmart gift card!'. Most of the articles that seemed studied and knowledgeable were from forums like our own, which spoke of the gram-negative and positive bacteria. I was able to find a couple of good sources about this- all of which attributed it to direct bloodstream contamination with saliva, most commonly attributed to cats and rabbits.
But I still was not happy. I went and contacted my local avian vet to have a short interview with them. They are Wellesly Exotic Pet Vet and specialize in birds. And she told me that I had absolutely nothing to worry about giving my bird a kiss. While they don't advise kissing any animal because of potential fecal transfer from the animal to you, that the minuscule amount of saliva that got on my bird was not going to do it any harm. She also wanted to know where on earth I had even read that it could be harmful to them and seemed very surprised at the question in general. I brought up the positive and negative bacterias as well, and she said she was aware of this and still would not consider it a concern to the health of the bird.
I'm not saying go out there and french your macaw or something, or spit in their water bowl, but I'm saying, based on what I found, that you're not a murderer if you give them a little smooch on the top of the head, or a bite of something yummy off of your plate.
I would like to reiterate that I came into this search ready to accept whatever answer I found. If it was true that one drop of my saliva was toxic, I was fully prepared to begin protecting my flock from it. I did my best to avoid biases in googling this so I did not add words like TOXIC and DANGEROUS to my searches as that is going to bring up negative results, nor did I add SAFE or HEALTHY. I simply searched 'parrots and human saliva' 'birds and mammalian saliva' 'birds and gram-negative bacteria' and similar terms. If you give out 'hint words' to your search engines, you are going to get results biased towards that result, and I think that might be why this has taken root so much because even I myself am guilty of searching 'Is '?' DANGEROUS for my bird?' Be careful when making searches to avoid telling the advertisers what you would like the answer to be.
I did not write this article to start any arguments. Criticism and opinion is welcome, as long as you put the same time and thought into it as I have written this article. This is merely to soothe the anxiety of everyone who has ever booped a beak or shared a snack. I know my anxiety levels can be out of control when it comes to the health of my bird, and I admit to breaking down into tears when I read that first post about the birds drinking water and commenters saying it could be dangerous because my birds have sipped my water before as well. i'm sharing these results for other people out there who are like me, and always worried sick. Is it possible? yes. Is it probable? From what I understand, and I am not a professional, and from speaking to a professional, I would say it is quite improbable.
My sources- feel free to browse yourself and add additional links
wellesleyexoticpetvet.com
birdtricksstore.com
.
thepetwiki.com
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
www.merckvetmanual.com
That aside, there are tons of articles out there about how potentially dangerous saliva can be for birds, but I could not find a single instance of anyone ever reporting a bird having become sick based on this. Some of these articles are real 'scare articles' with big bold headlines about how you're murdering your bird if you give it a kiss. This is called clickbait. The information it contains is likely exaggerated to attract attention. Notice how if you google 'human saliva and parrots' the top result is Birdtricks- the clickbait captains of the parrot community as far as I am concerned, and I know many of you feel the same. Most of the articles that have keywords like 'toxic' in them redirect me to 'wow I won a Walmart gift card!'. Most of the articles that seemed studied and knowledgeable were from forums like our own, which spoke of the gram-negative and positive bacteria. I was able to find a couple of good sources about this- all of which attributed it to direct bloodstream contamination with saliva, most commonly attributed to cats and rabbits.
But I still was not happy. I went and contacted my local avian vet to have a short interview with them. They are Wellesly Exotic Pet Vet and specialize in birds. And she told me that I had absolutely nothing to worry about giving my bird a kiss. While they don't advise kissing any animal because of potential fecal transfer from the animal to you, that the minuscule amount of saliva that got on my bird was not going to do it any harm. She also wanted to know where on earth I had even read that it could be harmful to them and seemed very surprised at the question in general. I brought up the positive and negative bacterias as well, and she said she was aware of this and still would not consider it a concern to the health of the bird.
I'm not saying go out there and french your macaw or something, or spit in their water bowl, but I'm saying, based on what I found, that you're not a murderer if you give them a little smooch on the top of the head, or a bite of something yummy off of your plate.
I would like to reiterate that I came into this search ready to accept whatever answer I found. If it was true that one drop of my saliva was toxic, I was fully prepared to begin protecting my flock from it. I did my best to avoid biases in googling this so I did not add words like TOXIC and DANGEROUS to my searches as that is going to bring up negative results, nor did I add SAFE or HEALTHY. I simply searched 'parrots and human saliva' 'birds and mammalian saliva' 'birds and gram-negative bacteria' and similar terms. If you give out 'hint words' to your search engines, you are going to get results biased towards that result, and I think that might be why this has taken root so much because even I myself am guilty of searching 'Is '?' DANGEROUS for my bird?' Be careful when making searches to avoid telling the advertisers what you would like the answer to be.
I did not write this article to start any arguments. Criticism and opinion is welcome, as long as you put the same time and thought into it as I have written this article. This is merely to soothe the anxiety of everyone who has ever booped a beak or shared a snack. I know my anxiety levels can be out of control when it comes to the health of my bird, and I admit to breaking down into tears when I read that first post about the birds drinking water and commenters saying it could be dangerous because my birds have sipped my water before as well. i'm sharing these results for other people out there who are like me, and always worried sick. Is it possible? yes. Is it probable? From what I understand, and I am not a professional, and from speaking to a professional, I would say it is quite improbable.
My sources- feel free to browse yourself and add additional links
Wellesley Exotic Pet Vet | Richmond VA – Exotic Pet Veterinarians in Richmond Virginia
wellesleyexoticpetvet.com
Saliva Is Dangerous For Parrots
Photo from afewsteps.org There has been a video circulating for a couple of years that depicts a parrot on a counter top feeding long strands of pasta to a large dog waiting below. It is an adorable video of an interaction between two species that are not naturally seen together. While it is...
birdtricksstore.com
Saliva - a Danger to Birds - The Pet Wiki
The saliva of mammals carries a bacteria known as “gram negative.” It is present in the body fluids of mammals and in normal amounts does not pose a danger. Birds do not have gram negative bacteria in their bodies and are not equipped to fight it. We know you love your bird, but kissing can […]
thepetwiki.com
A survey of aerobic bacteria and fungi in the feces of healthy psittacine birds - PubMed
Fecal samples from 61 clinically healthy psittacine birds of a wide variety of species were cultured for bacteria and fungi. The most common bacterial isolates were gram-positive bacilli, which were recovered from 60 of the 61 birds. These organisms included Lactobacillus, Bacillus...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The gram negative bacterial flora of the avian gut - PubMed
Earlier papers describing the bacterial flora of the avian digestive tract suggest that the finding of Escherichia coli in the intestines of some grain and fruit eating birds, notably the parrots and parakeets, is abnormal. It has been postulated that coliforms in these species are likely to be...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Bacterial Diseases of Pet Birds - Exotic and Laboratory Animals - Merck Veterinary Manual
Learn about the veterinary topic of Bacterial Diseases of Pet Birds. Find specific details on this topic and related topics from the Merck Vet Manual.
She loves it and asks for kisses, and I’ll admit, I’m addicted to giving her kisses!
