Oily white powder?

[Firethorn]

My cockatiels seem to emit a fine white oily powder. I think it's from the cuticle of their feathers. It looks similar under a microscope anyway. Do all parrots do this? I offer them bath water every day and put an ionizer in the room. Are there any other ways to mitigate this? It makes it difficult to clean and makes my Mom sneeze. This stuff prematurely clogged up my IQAir unit. It's very costly to replace the filters. What's the best way to clean this shmutz? Am I doomed to live with this stuff as long as I have birds? Is there a safe kind of emollient I can add to their bath water or spray them with? My old boss (a vet) suggested glycerin but he has never seen birds before. Suggestions? Comments?

 

[getwozzy]

Cockatiels, cockatoos, and African Greys are what are called "powder down" birds~ they emit this fine white powder from special down feathers to help with water-proofing of their feathers. There's no way to stop it (I have two cockatoos and one cockatiel), but you can manage it with air purifiers, and frequent baths with plain, clean water-- no additives are necessary.

 

[Bandespresso]

Cockatiels are exceptionally dusty and require frequent baths to keep the dust down. You offer them bath water but do they actually bathe? Have you tried taking them into the shower and soaking them that way? Another very important thing is to vacuum daily. I definitely would not at all suggest glycerin. The only thing that I feel comfortable with spraying on my bird is plain water mixed with pure aloe Vera juice (50/50 ratio). Another way you can help them out is by mixing some organic unrefined coconut oil in their food.

 

[SilverSage]

TURN OFF THE IONIZER!!!

Very bad for your birds.

As stated tiels, toos, Greyson, and some other parrots produce the powder naturally. Here are some steps you can take
-heavy duty air purifiers with WASHABLE FILTERS (cheaper that way) near the cage. NON IONIZING!!
-clean the cage daily and dust often.
-don't just offer water, but shower your birds at least every other day

 

[WilliamKenyon]

Yeah just as the previous posts have said the oily white powder is perfectly normal to birds from Australia and Africa. The best way to combat this is to, when washing the birds make sure you get the base of their tales wet as this is where allot of this powder down stuff accumulates. With my cockatiel i also vacume using a dyson animal vacume (its a small handheld one, thats great for cleaning animal mess) to clean up the dust that comes off her feathers. Godd luck with your birds.