Give up Smoking for You and Your Parrot
Please
feel free to join this yahoo list IF you are a resident of Arizona. We
are at arizonabirdtalk@yahoogroups.com
Since I don't know many of
you personally, I am not slamming anyone, but Judy asked
about second hand smoke for our birds....
Bird's respiratory systems
are much more efficient and effective than ours.
Remember the Canary in the coal mine? The sensitive
nature of bird's airways is why this trick worked for the
miners to test the safety of the air they were
breathing.
Birds are incredible athletes
and need to be able to quickly absorb oxygen. The
critical feature of their respiration sensitivity and
efficiency is that there is more oxygen transferred with
each breath.
In birds the lungs expand
very little because the air goes through them into the
air sacs and back through the lungs on expiration. Thus
not only can a greater volume of air pass through the
lungs, but since it passes through twice, gas exchange
is more efficient.
They also differ in their
respiratory rate; we people breathe about 16-20 breaths
per minute and birds breathe anywhere from 25-40 per
minute. .Diseases of the respiratory tract are the most
common illness found in parrots.
The anatomy of their
respiratory tract is very unlike ours...they don't have
a diaphragm and their lungs have rigid walls (remember
how they don't expand?). They have air sacs and much
more area of capillaries.
The other aspect of the
bird's respiratory system is it is used for cooling.
This is probably more
information than you wanted to know, but it all shows
why the effects of smoking, candles, pollutants,
pesticides, other toxins are revealed much faster in our
birds than in humans. It also helps explain why flighted
birds are so much healthier than birds that are clipped.
They need this exercise to keep the respiratory system
exercised.
Of course, I wish people
would stop smoking for their own sake, but also for the
sake of their parrots. If you are a smoker, please don't
be offended; I am on your side :)
Blessings,
Beth at www.pamperedpeeps.com
Beth at www.pamperedpeeps.