by Laura S.

Created on: November 01, 2008

Birds in the wild spend a great deal of their time exploring their environment with their beak manipulating, chewing, tasting, and nibbling. A bird who flies around freely in your home will engage in similar activities, often without your knowledge. An owner might turn around to discover that his or her unusually quiet pet is pruning a plant, remodeling some furniture, or dismantling a favorite pair of earrings. Any of these items contain potentially harmful substances, including poisonous plant alkaloids, wood preservatives, and heavy metals such as lead or zinc.

Toxins in Plants

It is fairly certain that if your bird has access to plant in its environment it will sample the plant at one point or another. Although few plant toxicity studies have been conducted with pet birds, it is generally considered that any plant that has been shown to have harmful effects in man, poultry, or other animals should also be considered to have potentially harmful effects in pet birds as well. None the less, signs of toxicity may not be immediately apparent, or may be more subtle and long-term. Unless actual plant toxicity studies have been carried out for that species of plant with your species of bird, it is best to avoid those plants known to be toxic in other animals, and to stick with those plants that are known to be safe.

Plant toxicity can occur in a number of ways. Some plants are immediately toxic, in that they cause illness or death immediately upon ingestion. Others cause allergies, skin inflammation, or temporary irritation to the mucous membrance of the mouth or throat. Still others can cause changes in cells, which can lead to cancer or deformities in the offspring of the bird.

Here is a list of the Plants Considered Potentially Toxic:

Avocado

Azalea

Baneberry

Bean plants

Bird of Paradise

Bleeding Heart

Boxwood

Bracken Fern

Buckthorn

Bulb flowers (amaryllis, iris, daffodil, narcissus, hyacinth)

Burdock

Buttercup

Coffee plants

Cowslip

Crown vetch

Daphne

Dieffenbachia

Elderberry

Eucalyptus

Euonymus

Flame tree

Felt plant

Firethorn

Foxglove

Heliotrope

Holly

Honeysuckle

Hydr angea

Ivy

Jasmine

Jerusalem cherry

Jimsonweed

Lantana

Larkspur

Lily

Locusts

Lupine

May apple

Milkweed

Mistletoe

Mock orange

Monkshood

Morning Glory

Mountain Laurel

Nettles

Nightshade

Oak

Oleander

Periwinkle

Philoden drons

Pigweed

Poison ivy and oak

Pokeweed

Privet

Purple sesbane

Rain tree

Red maple

Rhubarb leaves

Rhododendrons

Sandbox tree

Skunk cabbage

Sorrel

Snowdrop

Spurges

Sweet Pea

Tobacco

Vetch

Wattle

White cedar

Yews

Even if the plant may be considered safe, beware

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