I never have been sure how pesticides affect birds, like if it's a they eat it and keel over thing or more of a long-term exposure thing.... I do tend to err on the side of caution though and buy primarily organic fruits and veg (which sadly excludes ultra expensive produce like cherries due to needing to buy more food in a week than a few pounds of fruit lol).
I think it's a long-term exposure in general. Most of the research has to do with damage to organs over a period of time, but it greatly depends on the pesticide used and what the aim of the research is. This is a quote from an abstract of a paper released recently (2011):
"The excessive generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) causes damage to all vital macromolecules including lipids, proteins, and DNA. This study was aimed to investigate the genotoxicity and cytotoxicity of CPF, MPT, and MLT when given singly or in combination. The DNA damage was measured by alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis or comet assay and expressed as DNA damage index. The results showed that both acute and chronic exposure with CPF, MPT, and MLT, caused significantly marked DNA damage in rat tissues namely, liver, brain, kidney, and spleen, when measured 24 hour posttreatment. It was also observed that MPT caused highest level of DNA damage and brain was maximally affected by these OP compounds. When these pesticides were given in mixture, the damage was not the sum of damage caused by individual pesticide, confirming that these pesticides do not potentiate the toxicity of each other. When the DNA damage was measured 48 and 72 hour posttreatment, the damage was partially repaired. Pesticide exposure also caused histopathological changes in rat tissues."
The focus was mainly of what damage COULD be caused IF an animal surpassed a particular threshold - this kind of damage wouldn't be caused immediately in commercial food cases, but could occur over an extended period of time if continuously exposed. Most of the time what I buy is organic (simply because of where I shop for the birds), but when I'm at a generic grocery store for my boyfriend and myself, I find the organic section pretty much sucks. I tend to stay away from things that are sprayed heavily and I peel basically all of the food, but things like cherries and grapes are things I find that my birds don't actually eat the skin of either if given the opportunity, too. So I think it would be fine if you decided to just take the skin back since you're taking out the pit anyways... the tend to get all mushy after that after all
Just wondering if washing is sufficient, or should I probably just not offer them to Kiwi?
)and I'm never too overly concerned about organic versus non-organic simply because organic still hold the potential to have been sprayed or treated or GMO'd to contain pesticide... the only way to know for sure is to contact the actual producer or to buy from a store that knows the protocol of who sells what. That being said, everything I buy I soak in ACV with GSE in the sink for about 20 minutes so ensure that everything has been removed from the surface, and then I rinse them with water in the strainer. 
I just thought Kiwi would like some
