worried

hey, im new here. literally made an account just to post this.

but to get to the point, i have a parakeet, and she has this habit of flying down to land on my fingers or water bottle whenever i take a drink out of my water bottle. this doesnt really annoy me, but a few minutes ago she flew down and nibbled the part where i drink out of(?). i immediately took her away and put her back in her cage, but im not sure if this could harm her. i worry about everything too much and this is probably a really minor thing that i shouldnt worry about at all but i still worry about it-

but i just wanna make sure. could this harm her? or will she be fine?

Hi welcome to the forums!! I'm glad you joined abd hope you stick around! Yes it's not a good idea to share saliva as we do carry bacteria that can harm our Fids. But you and you bird are ok ! I have had mine steal drinks many times and even steal from my lips cuz they are fast and sneaky! And everything has been fine. So your bird should be ok. It's work keeping them safe isn't it?

thanks for the reassurance : ) she seems to be doing fine, nothing seems off. thanks again!

Hello and welcome! Your bird will be fine. Kermit, my conure, loves tea for some reason and tries to steal it from me. He always manages to sneak in a little sip. I do my best to defend my tea from him, but he is fast and sneaky! Nothing has ever happened. I hope you stick around and tell us more about your little budgie

What's your birdies name? We like pictures too!

her name is tiki:



that picture is old though. but she hasnt really changed much

People here will tell you that any type of human bacteria etc. can possibly hurt your bird -- it may be true (esp. the gram negative ones).
On the other hand: most birds with normal immune systems can deal with a few bacteria etc. when they bump into them... so I would not lose sleep about this (esp since it was only an incident.)


I am a terrible person to take advice at hygiene from, I have two female birds that will try for anyhting I have in my mouth (not just food, teeth and a tongue are all the excuse they seem to need). Not something I ever taught them- they came here behaving this way- or active encourage, but it happens once in a while when I am not paying attention.
I am very happy they got tested for all the nasties (including psittacosis) so I just hope we will all be fine.


As always: keep a close eye on your birds health and wellbeing.
When in doubt - get them to the CAV.