Um, human saliva and parrots

[Viatrixa]

A bit of an odd question here. I heard a rumour that human saliva is potentially toxic to birds in general. I have no clue about the verity of this claim, but I figured I'd ask. And why do I ask?

Well, I'm on a diet which means a lot of veggies and some fruit for me. Simo always wants a little of what ever it is I'm eating (I snack on stuff like carrots, apples, etc.) so say I bite off a tiny piece of carrot and give it to him, is that harmful? The other side of the piece having touched my mouth I mean, not spitting out food! I'm aware that we have very different bacteria to birds and the human mouth in general isn't the cleanest places, but I'd like to know the answer to this. Thus far I cut him his own piece of food before I eat it myself and offer it to him, but it'd be an interesting thing to know either way. Or would the toxicity only be meaningful with, say, open wounds? Logic says that human saliva isn't the purest of substances (and let's consider it's major function too) but is it actually downright toxic to birds?

[liz]

I have been told that saliva from human or dog & cat is harmful. I don't know how true it is.

Rambo and Myrtle will play with the dogs toys. Basically they take the squeakers out then throw the dead body back to the dogs.

I can give them apple or banana from one that I am eating but they prefer to eat mine while I am eating. When on the floor they will drink from the dog bowl. None of my critters are normal so I can't really say anything much about the saliva.

[Pajarita]

It's not that human saliva, per se, is toxic, it's that different species have different types of bacteria living on them and in their mouths and each species is tolerant of their own but have no real immunity to any other species'. Personally, I am not super strict about cleanliness (it's not that my birds cages or house are dirty, it's that I don't use disinfectants or anything like that to clean their cages of food, I just use soap on a daily basis and a tiny splash of bleach when I do the thorough scrubbing) but I do not allow them to go into my mouth and, if I am sharing food with them, I always give them their own piece so no saliva of mine touched it. It's a very simple and easy to follow precaution which gives me peace of mind...

[Wolf]

While I am in general agreement that human saliva is bad for our birds, I am not too concerned with their getting the occasional bite of food where I have bitten from or even the occasional kiss from me. But it does still bother me to some degree because of the birds own immune system being compromised. The problem is that I know that stress weakens their immune system the same as it does ours and I am sure that most if not all captive birds are stressed, but I can't tell how stressed they actually are and I don't know how strong or weakened their immune system is. It is normally when their immune system is weakened that this would present a problem and allow our foreign bacteria the opportunity to flourish and make the bird ill. Can you tell whether your birds immune system is compromised or not ? I know that I can not tell.

[Pajarita]

No, I don't think anybody can tell... I mean, you can't even tell with humans. And I am sure (and I do mean 100%!) that all captive birds suffer from stress - some more and some less but even when our husbandry is the best, there is stress for the simple reason that nobody can give them the kind of life they are supposed to have. And, even if we did, they would still be stressed out because they imprinted to humans! Poor things can't win no matter what...