AFTER having my parakeets for nearly two weeks (and cooking with a teflon frying pan several times), I started reading that fumes from teflon coated things will kill your pet birds. I got this in several places, but it just seems really, really silly to me. I mean, I live in a very small apartment. I cook here. My only frying pan DOES have teflon. My birds are alive and well. So, since I live in South Korea, do I have magic birds? Or is this whole Teflon thing a big hoax?
Also on my mind, is OLD Teflon okay? Frying pan is about a year old. But, I just bought some cookie sheets and a muffin tin that I’m pretty sure have Teflon on them. (Label doesn’t say…imported from America, so it’s all in English) I don’t want to risk killing my birds just for some homemade cookies, but it just sounds so SILLY!
Here is a .pdf article which addresses the question (and it’s definitely not a hoax). Essentially, high temperatures are bad, but under normal circumstances the cookware doesn’t reach those temperatures. Drip pans, however, can reach such temperatures during normal use, so pose a greater threat.
Yeah, I accidentally turned on the wrong burner once and cooked an empty skillet. An empty non-stick skillet on a hot burner makes a foul smoke. I don’t doubt it’d be lethal to small birds.
Normal cooking should be safe. Just be careful not to turn on the wrong burner. Better yet, don’t leave empty pans on your stove.
Not a hoax. Heated teflon gives off an odorless, colorless, tasteless gas harmless to mammals and deadly to birds.
Dry heating of teflon MUST be avoided! So must high temperatures. You may have gotten away with the frying pan (and age of teflon doesn’t matter) but the baking sheets - being largely dry and intended for the oven - pose a much higher risk.
Once a bird gets a dose of the gas, death is almost certain and comes quickly. There is, last I heard, no treatment or cure.
Here in the US I’m starting to see warning labels on non-stick pans warning of these dangers, but it’s far from universal.
Absolutely true. And my understanding is that it applies to all non-stick surfaces and the oderless gas is released with pretty much any heat (not just really high heat). Note: this also applies to non-stick surfaces on your (clothes) iron. So be careful with that as well.
You have to consider that your budgie’s (parakeet) size is that much smaller than you, and is considerably more frail. In this parrot education seminar, they tell you to discard or store away pans and irons with non-stick surfaces once you get a bird (and yes, budgies/parakeets are parrots).
Let me add this to the pretty good stream of info provided:
Teflon enhanced products used to (does they still?) contain warnings that certain high temp cooking can cause “flu like symptons” in humans. As it turns out, those 'high temps" are quite easily reached.
You might fee like crap for 1-3 days, and it might be because you cooked on Teflon. And Dupont doesn’t refute this. The issue is that they think most people don’t cook at temps that high. I forget the temps, but they seemed low.
“…DuPont said polymer fume fever doesn’t last beyond 48 hours, has no lasting effects, and can’t occur unless Teflon is heated well beyond 500F. The company has acknowledged that birds, whose lungs are more sensitive than humans’, can die when exposed to Teflon cookware heated above 500F…”
Awwww…jeez~ I really wish I had found out about this sooner. I spent 50,000 won on those cookie sheets and that muffin tin and now I can’t use them?! Then again, I bought them before the birds, so it’s a good thing I bought the birds or I wouldn’t have known that I was endangering myself with homemade goodies. :mad: I don’t even remember ever seeing frying pans for sale that were NOT non-stick. Argh…and it’s New Year’s over here…everything is closed and I have nothing with which to cook. Oh No~! Even the rice cooker has a non-stick bowl in it. Then again, I’ve used it frequently After Birds’ Arrival so I guess it’s safe. And I suppose my frying pan is as well…but I guess I won’t risk the cookie sheets or the muffin tin until the weather gets warmer and I can hang the bird cage outside off the balcony during baking time.
Or, do you think it’s safe if I only use them on breezy days and have all the windows open for good circulation?
A rice cooker, when used properly, should not get much above 100 C, the boiling point of the water that is used to cook the rice. Which is probably why you’ve been OK so far.
Just don’t heat it dry. If you have water or oil in it, it shouldn’t get above the boiling point of either of those liquids. But best if you put the bird in a different room when you cook. If you have an over-the-stove ventilation fan use it while cooking to draw off any vapors.
Err…had mentioned that I have never seen frying pans that were not non-stick…that’d include cast iron. But, they do sell small, individual sized cast iron bowls that you put directly on the gas range when cooking your daenjang jigae.
There is only one button to push, so I think that even I can't screw up on that one. :D Good to know what temperature its reaching as I was wondering about that. Thanks!
Now that’s the best news I’ve heard so far…it’s that easy? I have never heated it dry as that is the quickest way to ruin it and I am not big on buying replacements. Now my only real concern are those cookie sheets and the muffin tin. Are they safe to use so long as I don’t burn the food on them? I’m on my sixth year in Korea and I never had an oven before. (They are rare in Korean households.) I’m just dying to use it to cook some foods that I miss and cannot buy here, but I’m already attached to my birds and don’t want to kill them. Oh, and something else that I find strange…years ago when I was in elementary school, I had a parakeet. My mother frequently forgot that things were on the stove or in the oven and I’m very sure we did have some non-stick cookware. The parakeet never died. I don’t mean it’s still alive; we had to give it away when my sister developed an allergy to it.
This may sound odd, but some folks over here consider cast-iron to be a variety of “non-stick” cookware. Not a dig, just trying to be sure we aren’t tripping over language quirks (you say you’re in Korea - I have no idea if you’re ex-pat US or from somewhere else or what have you)
Me, personally - no, I would not use them, I wouldn’t take the chance. On the other hand, I have ready access to non-teflon baking sheets, too.
A lot depends on ventilation - if the fumes never reach the bird, the bird is OK. But how do you determine that? And if you’re wrong, just once… well, it only takes once. In your mother’s house, it may be that the airflow through the house keep hazardous fumes away from the bird.
I never knew that cast iron was considered to be non-stick! Wow~ (Oh, I’m ex-pat US, so it was knowledge ignorance) But anyway, I don’t know why I said that there were bowls here made of cast-iron–they are made of stone. Big difference, I know…don’t know what I was thinking when I mentioned that. But, I’ll keep my eyes open for cast iron things.
But anyway, I don’t know why I said that there were bowls here made of cast-iron–they are made of stone. Big difference, I know…don’t know what I was thinking when I mentioned that. 
But, I’ll keep my eyes open for cast iron things.