The dander factor, is there anything more I can do

[tatdmommy]

Hubby is having a hard time with allergies recently. He thinks it's the bird, since she is the newest addition to the two dogs and cat we have. He is taking a daily allergy pill but has had allergies that flair up for many years. He gets hives and can't breathe through his nose at night. Once or twice his face swelled up pretty bad but that was from swimming in a pool with pollen on the top of the water.

 

We have 80% hardwood floors in our house and the rest of the flooring is travertine. No area rugs to speak of. I dust pretty often. I vacuum/sweep 1-5 times a day depending on the bird mess or dog mess. I also have the roomba's run around.

 

I am bathing her more often now that he is having stuffed up nose issue's. Before his allergies getting mad I was bathing her about 3 times a week.

 

Here come the questions.

 

Pumpkin doesn't appreciate getting wet. She will let me wet her feet and her front a little bit but that's it. I usually steam her about 30 minutes. Is that as effective as a bath?

 

I don't see dander on my cloths or anywhere else. I usually only see things fly when she is preening and does some shaking during/after the preening. If she had bad dander wouldn't I be able to see it on my clothes?

 

I also clean her cage 1-3 times a day and totally take it apart and clean it every two weeks.

 

We are looking at the getting one of these filters for the house to maybe help him.

 

http://www.rabbitair.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=49

 

Does anyone have one of these filters? If so do you like it? We also have a special filtration system already on our heating and cooling system that helps with dust and allergies. My daughter had severe allergy related asthma when she was younger, she is doing much better now though. I also have allergies and some flonase fixes me right up.

 

Sorry if I am all over the place with my post, lol.

 

If anyone has any other suggestions of what else I can do to keep things cleaner please let me know.

 

Thanks!

Heather (self proclaimed neat freak)<br><br>Post edited by: tatdmommy, at: 2009/01/20 03:28

[LisaM]

Maybe he could move into the garage?

 

Just kidding. I don't know about those particular air filters but I have heard a lot of people find them helpful.

 

I don't think the steaming is going to help much unless you can tell that it dampens her quite a bit. Even then I think it would still just be getting the top level of feathers wet though. My CAG doesn't particularly like showers, but I give them to her anyway (she has developed a "tolerance" through the past 2.5 years). I make sure to get the water under the feathers (not easy as it wants to just roll right off). I use a hand-held on light spray (not sharp spray though) and actually hold it under her and it goes up and then falls more gently on her. Then I spray her back from various directions to try to move the feathers and get some water down to the downy feathers.

 

Some others use a spray bottle with success. Also, spraying with 100% aloe juice might help. I know it helps their skin but I don't know if it does anything from a dust/dander perspective.

 

The only time I find dust on my clothes is if I'm skritching her, otherwise she doesn't leave much dust in her path either.

 

Boy, it sounds like you keep your house and her cage pretty clean (better than I do!) so I don't know if there's much else you can do there other than try the filter and the showers.

 

Maybe others have allergies and some more ideas...

 

Lisa

[LisaM]

Just checked out your flickr pics. I can't believe she doesn't want to spend as much time in that shower as possible! Heck, I want to come over and use it right now!!!

 

Awesome dogs, cool tats and gorgeous daughter, too!

 

Lisa

[tatdmommy]

Thanks Lisa. She doesn't get to use our shower. LOL

 

When I take a shower in there she sits on the door and make holes in the towels. She gets to shower in my daughters bathroom since it has a shower curtain rod for her to sit on and a hand held shower for me to spray her. It also has a cool Ikea rack for hanging towels on the wall in the shower, which doubles as an awesome perch. Pumpkin has let me spray her on the back a few times, but it just rolls off. I can't manage to hold the sprayer fend her off from jumping on me and move her feathers at the same time. Maybe after this becomes a daily or every other day routine she will "just get use to it!". :evil:

 

I absolutely love and hate my shower. I designed the shower, omg my brain almost melted figuring out what I wanted to do in that bathroom design wise. Travertine is great but a lot of work. I had to spend many hours spread out over 3 days to strip it, clean it a few times, let it dry and then re-seal it. That was hell on earth. Plus I didn't get to shower in there for 3 days, I went through withdrawls. I do love the double shower head design it saves time when hubby and I are both getting ready.

 

Thanks for the compliments on my daughter and my ponies. They are big but they are sweet as pie. The grey one is stupid as a rock, I call him special Ed a lot.

[Dave007]

I'll try to give you some answers and explanations although they won't be in the order that you asked it in.

 

1---no one can decrease the amount of dander that a Grey or TOO has. It will always be there and it will always be messy. But people do a worse thing by increasing the amount of dander that's on a bird. That comes from dry skin, rooms that have low humidity, being near heating vents etc plus of course, the minimal amount of bathing.

Dander is not dust as you think of dust. Part of it is very light weight and part is very heavy.

 

"""I don't see dander on my cloths or anywhere else. I usually only see things fly when she is preening and does some shaking during/after the preening. If she had bad dander wouldn't I be able to see it on my clothes?""""

 

No you wouldn't unless you laid down your clothing near the bird and not disturb that clothing. The heaviest concentrations are on and in the cage and the surrounding areas near the cage. You'll also see it on nearby furniture that's somewhat close to bird's living area. The much lighter dander is still heavier than dust and will float farther but will also drop onto something that's stable but much more quickly than normal dust does.

 

In your special situation, it's important that your bird be in an enclosed room. That's the only way any type of purifier will work. having air being pulled to the purifier from all outside areas doesn't allow that machine to work properly. When a person purchases a purifier, there's specific measurements on the box that explain how big an area that particular machine can cover. Those measurements apply to enclosed rooms. Different size machines mean different sized rooms. Ywes a purifier can work to some extent but you should really get an inexpensive humidifier for that bird room. Drug stores sell them for between $35 to $50. They're the type that can have Vicks mixed in with water or just water alone.

 

Purifier/ Birdroom.----There is no purifer out there that will purify a bird room. Other rooms that have normal floating dust? Yes the machine will work on that type of dust but that dust isn't dander. These machines simply act as vacuums and pull in light particles/dust that eventually get close to the machine. The only dust that a purifier will pull in is the type that stays afloat in the air without falling.That type of dust is located in every other room that doesn't have a bird in it. When a grey flaps it's wings, dander can be seen coming off the bird but most of it is heavy and simply falls down. Any lighter dander stays afloat a little while longer but also falls much more quickly than normal dust does. If you compare the feel of regular dust and bird dander, you'll see that the dander feels different because there's a microscopic amount of oil in it which protects the bird's external feathers. That's why a grey has waterproof feathers which makesit even more important that when you bathe him, your focus should be on all the feathers that aren't waterproof.

There's a better percentage of that lighter dander getting grabbed by the machine if the room is enclosed and outside dust from other rooms doesn't mix in.

 

One way to help keep the heavier dander close to the bird is by spraying him every day with water but the reason is to simply wet the external dander on the body which will cause that dander to fall straight down when the bird flaps.

 

"""""Pumpkin doesn't appreciate getting wet. She will let me wet her feet and her front a little bit but that's it. I usually steam her about 30 minutes. Is that as effective as a bath?"""""

No it's not. The area which the dander comes from is located on the skin of the body. The bird constantly preens and pulls and scratches those areas and eventually, the dander works it's way up to the outer feathers.

You need to take a different approach concerning bathing. The easiest way to start off is by using a mister and misting and squirting the bird in between the wings and the body. You'll need to get close to the bird, he'll be squawking, nipping at you and the mister. That mister should be no farther away than 15 inches. Stop for a second and let him bite the mister and then continue. This process should take you at least 20 minutes to complete and as time goes on the bird eases up and gets used to it. The more you do it, the quicker he'll get used to it. Soft supple skin doesn't create as much dander as quickly as dry skin.

80% of greys don't like bathing and in your situation you need to take a more aggressive attitude because people's health is involved.

 

Dogs/cats---both have dander and that dander is being kicked up into the air by people's feet and animal's feet.

 

I won't comment on the machine you're referring to. If it were me I would consult my specialist and asks what he/she suggests.

[LisaM]

Dave - I learn something more from every one of your posts. Now I know why I actually like the "feel" of Kenya's dander. It's kind of silky.

 

Also explains why no matter how wet I get her skin/downy feathers, she looks dry when I get her out of the shower.

 

Thanks.

[tatdmommy]

Thanks Dave! I appreciate the time you took to write that response.

 

I will look for a humidifier and get a squirt bottle. Let the battles begin. lol She probably won't talk to me for a week.

 

Here is a tricky one for ya. We have soft water does that make any difference on birds skin? I know it does wonders on ours.

[Dave007]

Soft water--fine

Decent drinkable tap water--fine

Distilled water---fine

 

Stay away from water has has heavy amounts of calcium in it. Normally that type of water comes from wells that aren't taken care of by the county or water department. But you would know what that type of water is just by tasting it. It also smells.

[EFGriffith]

I WANT YOUR SHOWER. Hubby and I will be designing our first home and building it in about 4 years if things go as planned. I will NOT forget how beautiful yours is.

 

Sorry I can't help with the dander issue :whistle:

[DavidH]

Really cool photos of you and your family (including dogs and parrot, of course)! Good luck on the dander issue. Looks like you got some good advice from Dave and others.

[Jane08]

I must admit we have some sort of air purifier. My boyfriend has dust allergies and we were told to make sure it was a HEPA (High Efficiency Particle Arresting) as this removes particles as small as .3 microns. So this means bird dander can be caught in the HEPA and it also needs to run 24 hours a day. Some of the zoos use these in their aviaries. So it does need to be in an enclosed space that the air purifier is designed for.

[Twosteph]

We have an air filter in our living room, and although we vacuum, dust, mop, and everything in the above, our filter picks up SO much hair and dirt in it, its amazing.

 

The first week it picked up a thick layer of dog hair and cat hair. :blink:

 

Our house is 90% wood, and 10& tile.<br><br>Post edited by: Twosteph, at: 2009/01/20 16:55

[Twosteph]

Dave007 wrote:

Soft water--fine

Decent drinkable tap water--fine

Distilled water---fine

 

Stay away from water has has heavy amounts of calcium in it. Normally that type of water comes from wells that aren't taken care of by the county or water department. But you would know what that type of water is just by tasting it. It also smells.

 

 

I live in Florida, we have very very very hard water. Is this going to be a problem in the future when I bring my bird home?

[tatdmommy]

Thanks everyone for all the responses.

 

I am glad my shower is getting some love. I worried I was over personalizing the shower and bathroom. I am a pottery barn wh*re. I love their stuff. I sorta copied the floor design from a catalog of theirs. Picking colors and making sure everything would tie together was the hard part. My contractor took me out to buy white tile....haha. Much to his dismay I was able to do this shower for very minimal cost.

 

Thanks again everyone!

[Janfromboone]

What are flickr pictures? I want to see this bathroom.

[DavidH]

Jan, go to Tat's profile and click on the Flicker link she provided.