HELP! Food colouring from toys rubbed off on Berry’s feathers!

[reeb]

Hi everyone,

My darling cockatiel has gotten into a pickle (although I guess it was my fault). She had a bath, and then the dye (food colouring) of one of her coloured toys rubbed off all over her feathers. I made this toy, and I did seal the colouring with rubbing alcohol. The toys have been on their gyms for weeks, and all the other colours haven’t run under water, so I have no idea why the red toys have done this. She has now gone from a cinnamon cockatiel to a scarlet breasted cockatiel!

I am thinking of wiping her with a damp cloth, but I am not sure if this will work. Shall I just leave her be and let her preen the feathers clean (if they can even get clean)? Or should I try to get the colour out? I know this is non-toxic and nothing to worry about, but I just want to help her get the colour out.

Thanks!

 

[Allee]

Several of my birds have worn food coloring costumes from time to time, I think the best option is to tell your red breasted cinnamon girl how pretty she is and let the color wear off.

 

[SailBoat]

Red has had a very bad reputation over the years and the manufacturers have worked to make it safer for Human use! The down side is that it now easily carries /transfers from one surface to another.

Rubbing it will only have it all over the place! Let time do its thing, as stated above. The combination of time and the next bath will continue to reduce the amount of Red on your Bird.

This is one of the reasons that Red is becoming less common.

FYI: "I did seal the colouring with rubbing alcohol" Rubbing Alcohol would cause the Red to be held on surface even more, as it does not truly seal the surface, more likely to open the surface-up and cause the colour to bleed even faster.

 

[Scott]

A fairly common problem with active birds! Several of my Goffins have been rendered bizarre mutations with various red, blue, and green streaks!

I just bathe them a bit more, and in the extreme cases the coloring remains until the feathers naturally fall off.