Keeping a parrot in a kitchen?

by **corvine22** » Tue Dec 07, 2010 2:42 pm

I am wondering about keeping a parrot (Meyer's) in a kitchen of sorts. My kitchen is located in an open plan great room that is 25 feet by 30 feet. The kitchen is located in one corner of the room. I would like to keep the bird on the opposite wall, about 20 feet away from the actual cooking area. Birdie would be caged during any cooking. At this point, my main concern is cooking smells etc. Even with a vent, I worry that it would somehow bother the bird? In every other way, the room is perfect -- I would be able to keep my cat in the other half of the house and the bird could have much more freedom except when I am cooking. Please share your thoughts on this with me. Thanks!

by **Kathleen** » Tue Dec 07, 2010 5:53 pm

This might be okay if the room is highly ventilated during and after cooking. Of course, I hope and assume you are using cookware which does not emit toxic fumes which can kill birds (things like stainless steel, cast iron or other alternatives to nonstick cookware)!

I would also be concerned about the bird having independent time to prevent behavioral problems, though I don't know how much time you spend in this room.

by **corvine22** » Tue Dec 07, 2010 6:33 pm

Thanks for your reply! Yes, we are all non-toxic cookware around here, so that's not an issue.

When you say independent time, what do you mean? It sounds like you mean that the bird should have some alone time, but I might be confused. There are six people in my family, and someone is almost always home, so the bird would have lots of company and chances to be out of the cage. I wouldn't be comfortable leaving it out of the cage unsupervised however. Would this be a problem?

Parrot Youtube Channel · by **Michael** » Wed Dec 08, 2010 11:25 am

As long as the bird isn't out during cooking and isn't getting squirted on by kitchen stuff, it's probably fine. Keep it well ventilated, don't use non-stick cookware, and be careful about not burning stuff.

by **entrancedbymyGCC** » Wed Dec 08, 2010 5:11 pm

Also, if you have a self-cleaning oven, don't run the self clean cycle with the bird in the room. And you may want to check with the manufacturer as some self-cleaning ovens contain PTFE components in their lining -- this is the same type of material as in traditional nonstick cookware. If you oven does contain PTFEs, even more care would be required when running the self-clean cycle.

Ceramic nonstick coatings are becoming more and more common and these can be bird safe, FWIW.

by **SpeedyNyC** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 12:13 pm

Am I the only one who thinks this is a horrible idea? Accidents happen in the kitchen. There's always that Thanksgivings day when the kitchen is extremely busy and sometimes you forget about that turkey in the oven and it burns. It only takes one accident to kill your birds. Sad to say that it happened to my mother's love birds. She left a chicken in the oven too long and it burned. The last thing you think about when you're taking that burning chicken out of the oven, opening windows and using a towel to keep the smoke from reaching the smoke detector to make it stop beeping is your birds in the kitchen. And it only took about 3-5 minutes. I think it's a bad idea to keep your parrots in the kitchen. They have extremely sensitive lungs.

by **lzver** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 2:25 pm

When we used to live in our condo townhouse I didn't have a choice but to keep the birds fairly close to the kitchen. Even now, my birds are in the dining room and the kitchen is on the other side of the wall. I use safe cookware, I always have the fan on while cooking and I never leave the kitchen while cooking. At times my husband or step kids try to call me away but my rule is if they need to show me something or talk to me while something is cooking they need to come and see me. Its too easy to get distracted when you can't see if something is going wrong. And the birds are never out of their cages when anyone is cooking in the kitchen.

Website · by **zazanomore** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 2:39 pm

When I was little, my great aunt always kept her cockatiel in the kitchen without problems. So I think it is possible.

I never even thought about the effects of burned food on birds. I guess that tiny amount of smoke is harmless to us, but can do a lot of damage to birds.

I don't think I'd ever keep my birds in a kitchen area. The idea of the seed husks and the mess the birds make in the place where I prepare food and eat...no thanks.

by **MandyG** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:38 pm

My Amazon's cage is in the kitchen area. Not in the kitchen itself but it is open to the area with no door to seperate. He's always in his cage when my husband is cooking (to prevent accidents) and my husband uses the fan and in the summer he opens the window. At the first sign of smoke (which is very rare) he calls for me and I take Mojo into the shower with me until the smoke is gone. We have really good ventilation over the stove and throughout the house so the smoke disappears rather quickly. I'll also take him into the shower if my husband is cooking any extremely spicy or any other food that is irritating to the eyes and nose. The set-up works just fine for us!