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Do I need to change after having a bird on my shoulder?

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Do I need to change after having a bird on my shoulder?

Postby lad » Sun Jan 14, 2018 1:24 am

I've googled this, and asked around on YouTube but ultimately found nothing.

I'm a bit of a germophobe, so sorry if this is a dumb question but I was wondering if I put my bird on my shoulder (or had it touch my shirt), would I have to change my shirt afterwords? If not, could it cause something like salmonella or something gross like that? Would it be considered dirty if I didn't?


I don't have a bird yet but I was just wondering.
lad
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Re: Do I need to change after having a bird on my shoulder?

Postby Pajarita » Sun Jan 14, 2018 10:57 am

No, birds are not really 'dirty' animals and, if one of them had salmonella on their body, it would be a very sick bird, poor thing!

There is only one disease that they can pass on to you and it's chlamydiosis [aka psittacosis]. BUT even if your bird does get sick with it, as it is transmitted by aerosolized poop that we end up breathing in and, as it needs to be in a significant quantity [otherwise, our own immune system takes care of it], if you keep the bird housing clean and an air purifier in the room, you are fine. And I know this for a fact because I had an epidemic of it in my birdroom years ago when I had the rescue and I never caught it even though I was the one taking care of all the sick birds [so I was touching them all the time] and spending hours and hours in the birdroom - and I've had asthma my entire adult life!

In reality, it's our birds that are in danger of catching nasty things from us! Parrots are an undomesticated species that is, historically speaking, VERY new to the human pet trade so they never developed antibodies for bad bacteria that resides in humans so, for example, allowing them to put their beak in our mouth or giving them something to eat where we have already put our mouth can make them sick. Allowing a stranger to touch their bodies is another no no because it's been proven over and over that lots and lots of people carry e coli on their hands as they do not wash their hands after going to the bathroom [I cannot even begin to tell you how many women I've seen just putting their fingertips under a running faucet after using a public bathroom! No soap, no scrubbing, nothing but a bit of water on the fingertips - as if that would actually do anything! Disgraceful!]
Pajarita
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