Teflon reminder... please read!

[Alika]

Now that you all have your wonderful new gifts from Christmas, many of which, I'm sure, are cooking appliances, this is a great time to remind you that Teflon is deadly to birds. They are putting Teflon on everything now, so make sure you find out what is coating your pans, oven, and slow cookers before you use them.

The vet tech at the aviary was just telling me that she lost both her pet pigeon and her cockatiel to Teflon poisoning on Christmas. They both died very suddenly. The necropsy showed severe lung trauma, like the type associated with Teflon poisoning. She knows better than to use Teflon around her birds, so this news was distressing. But in thinking back, she had gotten a new toaster oven for Christmas that had been used frequently that day.

Apparently, new toaster ovens are supposed to be run for a couple of hours in a well ventilated area because they give off fumes. She didn't know that, and now she is broken-hearted because both her fids are gone.

Please please please check and make sure you know what is on that cookware before using it!

[Alyce Johnson]

We got new space heaters, and a careful reading of the instructions stated to run them for awhile in a well ventilated space, also. I'd never have guessed it. Fortunately, I read the instructions for once!

It's kind of scary actually, how many things put off toxic fumes of one kind or another. If in doubt, I'd say run any appliance outside (or in a separate closed off room) first and give it a careful sniff - if we can smell anything at all, it's surely not good for them. (And read the directions/materials list very carefully too, because there's plenty of dangerous stuff that we cant smell at all.) Thanks for the warning - it's easy to overlook something, as we almost did with the new heaters.

[Kateykat]

Since I got a lovely new kitchen full of stainless steel cookware just before christmas, I have thrown out all my Teflon pots and pans.Counting them all up at the end, before I threw them out, I was amazed at just how many things have a Teflon coating on them. As I see it, stainless steel cookware lasts longer anyways.