beware of teflon around baby chicks

[afarhat8]

a lot of these posts seem to be written by people new to raising chickens, and it's great to see the sharing on this site. one thing most of us oldies know, but may be worth repeating is that if you keep your chicks in the house initially, and especially in the kitchen, don't cook using teflon cookware. the funes can kill baby chicks. it's never happened to me, but i've heard it from several places. do a google search for "teflon birds" and read some of the articles that come up.

sorry if this sounds like scare tactics, but better safe than sorry, 'eh?

 

[Herp Lover]

I am pretty sure that teflon is safe as long as you don't heat it over 500f. I remember reading up on it when I first got into birds. A lot of people on bird forums use teflon pans with birds and just make sure that they don't get them to hot. Here is a article that explains it http://www.straightdope.com/columns...coated-pans-a-health-risk-to-birds-and-humans

 

[afarhat8]

thanks. i stand corrected. i think your post about being careful with teflon is worth the read though.

 

[afarhat8]

with all due respect to herp lover, i've read the article she's referenced, and it is contradicted by many other articles on the subject.
the following is a direct quote from reports & consumer guides, may, 2003:

DuPont claims that its coating remains intact indefinitely at 500°F [12]. Experiences of consumers whose birds have died from fumes generated at lower temperatures show that this is not the case. In one case researchers at the University of Missouri documented the death of about 1,000 broiler chicks exposed to offgas products from coated heat lamps at 396°F [13].

from birdtricks.com, june 2012, in an article titled "non-stick cookware kills another parrot", the following:

A big misconception is that Teflon only offgasses at high temperatures. The manufacturers of Teflon (DuPont) originally defended their product by saying that one had to leave a pan on the burner over high heat in order for it to offgas. This claim has been proven false: they offgas at lower temperatures, enough to kill a bird.

the dec. 12/ jan. 13 issue of mother earth news ran an article titled "teflon dangers: deadly to chickens - and us". in the article, a general electric brand teflon coated light bulb killed 19 chickens when the bulb was used in the coup.

herp lover may be correct, i don't have personal experience one way or the other. but why risk it?

 

[Fawn and Fam]

Quite a few years ago my brother had his parakeet cage in his kitchen. It died all of a sudden. It hadn't been sick & after ruling out many things and researching he believed it was from the Teflon pans. Back then it wasn't common knowledge or he would have never had his cage in that location.

 

[EsKezzy]

From what I've read, if the light bulb doesn't say anything about being a "safety" or "shatter resistant", then it probably doesn't have teflon.
Is this correct?

(totally new and trying to learn all I can)