Teflon Toxicity in Parrots

Most of us have heard the stories of the miners sending in Canaries before entering a mine. The canaries were most likely to pass out or die before a human will from carbon monoxide gasses. When the canary would go down, the miners knew to leave. This makes me wonder about Teflon toxicity and what our parrots are telling us.

Birds are susceptible to a respiratory condition called "teflon toxicity". Deaths can result from this condition, which is due to the noxious fumes emitted from overheated cookware coated with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). This chemical is found on most non-stick cookware and appliances some stain repellent products, and other household items.

Product brand names containing PTFE include non-stick Teflon, SilverStone, Supra, Calphalon, All-Clad, Circulon, Emerilware, Farberware, Meyer, KitchenAid, Krups, and George Foreman. The stain repellants StainMaster and Scotchgard also contain PTFE.

Other products but not limited to the following list:

• Non-stick pots, pans, and other cookware Stain repellents
• Space heaters and heat lamp covers
• Non-stick irons and ironing board covers Hair dryers
• Non-stick oven drip pans and broiler pans Non-stick griddles, woks, waffle makers, electric skillets, tortilla presses
• Non-stick hot air corn poppers, coffee makers, bread makers
• Non-stick slow cookers, roasters, pizza pans
• Ceramic cooking stoves

Below you will find some cases where Teflon has caused some parrot owners a great scare and some cases some major grief.  I threw away all my Teflon a few years ago. Before that I would put stuff on the stove and would not move from the front of the stove until the pan was shut off. I was so paranoid that I would not even let the kids cook. (which if you ask my son-in-law was not a good thing) Finally I had said enough is enough and threw them all out just before I was leaving on a short trip and the kids were left at home with their Aunt. It was definitely worth the peace of mind for while I was gone!

This story came from a first hand experience of a teflon scare:

"I decided to hard boil some eggs and I put the eggs in a 'teflon' pan on the stove top (one of the only ones we have left in our inventory) to bring the water to a boil (I did not turn on the cooking fan). I set the alarm on the microwave. My husband and I went downstairs (to my office in the daylight basement) for a quick phone call with a buddy of his.

Layout of the house - two stories with a daylight basement. On the main floor we have a sunroom where we keep our personal flock. The sunroom is on the other side of the living room and we have a pocket door that we use to close off the birds and the room also has French doors that go outside to the deck. The pocket door was OPEN and the French doors were closed.

Alarm - Well, during our chat with Ron, the smoke alarm went off! Yikes, I instantly knew what was happening... the EGGS!!!!! We ran upstairs to find the house smokey and VERY smelly inside. The water was all evaporated (huh) and the eggs SO hard they were cracked and about to blow up. We quickly opened up all the doors we could and turned on all the fans. We ran to the sunroon to close the pocket door that adjoins to the living room and opened the French doors and moved the birds (4 of them) toward the deck..... and we prayed for God to protect our birds. We waited.... and waited.... and we saw no change in the birds.

Teflon is dangerous and we know that...., and to err is human - and boy, do I know that!

Happy Ending - We are SO thankful that my absentmindedness didn't kill our flock. I share this story with you to encourage all to be VERY careful. I know I will be in the future."

A woman and her husband had 4 Amazons that were all between 10 and 20 years old. They were great pets and talkers. They had a new GE convection oven put in the week before, and when they used it every bird died in a matter of minutes. Prior to purchase, they had inquired into whether there was any Teflon in it, and there is nothing in the owner’s manuals. The vet performed a necropsy and sent tissues off for testing. GE is now asking for samples that they can also send out to a lab to confirm. I would say that GE has a bit of a lawsuit on its hands.

They had the birds cremated and had a small service for them.

• Stainless Steel
• Copper-Clad Stainless Steel
• Copper
• Corningware, White Oven-to-Table Ware
• Glass
• Aluminum
• Cast Iron

I know that some of the above mentioned are NOT cheap. I don't know how everyone  feel s about hitting a few garage sales, but that is my favorite place to shop! My all time best find was my Cast Iron frying pans - if I remember correctly, I paid $7 for the whole set. The alternative cookware is not as easy to clean as Teflon, but I would prefer to spend extra time cleaning my pans than losing my birds.