Do You Use Gloves?

When I collect the cage liners and pick up debris from my three fids cages I wear nitrile gloves, usually blue or purple depending on where I buy them. None of my fids like gloves proving they see colors for sure. Once I take them off, all is right with the world. Just an interesting tidbit.

I also use gloves to cut peppers like jalapeños and habaneros. Mainly to make poppers, and salsa. I do this because the pepper juice will soak into the skin and I've been victim to my fingers and my eyes. I always cut extra peppers and feed to my fids. They will not come to the bowl until those strange colored hands leave, lol!


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Yup, and they all have steered clear until the all clear was sounded (they are removed). I think they know what our hands look like and when color is added, they resort to the stay clear /not to be trusted position.

Interesting! Since parrots see into the ultraviolet range, it would be interesting to see what the gloves look like under black light!
Maybe your hands are glowing!

Yep! Wouldn't do it without them!

Never even crossed my mind to wear gloves to clean Kiwi! I do wash my hands after cleaning his area/cage, but I've yet to be poisoned by a little parrot poop getting on my hands by accident

I have to agree with April, never even thought about weaning gloves to clean up after the fids. I dont know, to me, cleaning a cage falls into the same category as changing a diaper.

I do have a package of gloves for chop making though. The fids love their peppers and I made the mistake of chopping all their hot peppers without gloves once. Never again.

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Nope, just clean the cages and wash hands afterwards. For some reason, bird droppings don't disgust me as do turds from mammals.

Scott said:

Nope, just clean the cages and wash hands afterwards. For some reason, bird droppings don't disgust me as do turds from mammals.

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Have to agree with you, it bothers others that it doesn't faze me in the least! A colleague that I work with that used to have a pet parrot, commented that I had bird s$$$$ on my back! My answer? Duh, so what! At that point, I realized he used to have a 'pet bird' and not a parrot companion!

Have never used gloves... never occured to me, but it's interesting.
When I have to retrieve something from the cage and Rb is on attack, I use super-long barbecue tongs, which he's used to.
When I have to get him into or out of the cage or carrier, I toss the coveted green chile and he follows as if mesmerized.

I love watching our world-class avian vet when he deals with the Rb. No gloves. Just expertise. It's like watching a magician.

Taw5106 said:

When I collect the cage liners and pick up debris from my three fids cages I wear nitrile gloves, usually blue or purple depending on where I buy them. None of my fids like gloves proving they see colors for sure. Once I take them off, all is right with the world. Just an interesting tidbit.

I also use gloves to cut peppers like jalapeños and habaneros. Mainly to make poppers, and salsa. I do this because the pepper juice will soak into the skin and I've been victim to my fingers and my eyes. I always cut extra peppers and feed to my fids. They will not come to the bowl until those strange colored hands leave, lol!


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I dont use gloves for the bird poo but I should probably use them to chop peppers. I chopped up some scotch bonnets then handled the chopped bits with my bare hands. I had a sneeze attack and instinctually wiped my nose and both eyes. That was one of the worst nights of my life and I sat under the shower with it spraying my face for about 90 minutes just sitting under the cold water in excruciating pain. I say "should" use gloves because I probably won't not being a "learn from my mistakes" kind of person. Hehe.

Scott said:

For some reason, bird droppings don't disgust me as do turds from mammals.

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Same here! His area never stinks, even if life gets super crazy and I go a couple days without cleaning. Healthy parrots never produce stinky droppings unlike most other pets, which is a huge plus for keeping them as indoor companions IMO!

To my knowledge, unless a parrot is sick themselves with a disease that can be infectious to humans, their poop doesn't contain much in the way of dangerous of bacteria to us. Probably not something you'd ever want to get in your mouth or eyes, but also not worthy of busting out the hazmat suit either

I've never used gloves, haven't thought of it! I wash up afterwards.

Not that we can get gloves here easily or cheaply...

I have three dogs, two rabbits and a bird. Every morning I have poop clean up duty up to my ears. Gloves? Pffft.

I've permanently got cuts on my fingertips through chewing (I think I'm worse than many pluckers on here!) and not once in my life have I thought of using gloves to clean up dog, cat, bird or hamster poo. Just a quick clean after getting the poo in the outside bin. I think the only time I ever used gloves was when my mum's German Shepherd (who's the size of a great Dane) had an upset stomach and set off what I can only describe as a "poo grenade" in a white tiled bathroom! I had to use pure bleach to get the tiles clean which is why I used gloves

No gloves here. Clean the cage with a blast from the hose and periodically I give it a good going over with a steam cleaner.

The only time I wear gloves is when I have to medicate my birds . And by gloves, I mean a knitted winter glove.

As for cleaning the aviary, I don't worry about their germs. Sometimes, I even scrape poop off with my nails . However, the one time I was scrubbing the aviary, I cut my finger open on some sharp poop. There was blood and everything >_<. It hurt so much! If I really get into cleaning the aviary, it's not uncommon for me to have poop smeared all over my face, legs, and arms. However, if I'm cleaning a quarantine cage, I become paranoid about spreading potential pathogens to my other birds, so I shower and change my clothes, scrubbing every inch of my body with soap.

I have a funny story to share. One night, Noah was cuddling on my shoulder like he does every night. He started caressing my neck and face, nuzzling me. I found it adorable that he was being so affectionate, but then I felt something cold and wet, and noticed his beak felt unusually cold. I reached over and touched my neck, then looked at my fingers. They were covered in poop! I went over to the mirror to see what the heck was happening. I had poop smeared all over my neck and face, and Noah's beak was covered in poop! It turns out he pooped on my neck, then stuck his beak in it while he was cuddling with me! He was so happy and cuddly, so I just left him on my shoulder and waited until later to clean up his beak and the poop all over me.