# Is the smell of gouache dangerous for budgies?



## Daniela Demyan (Dec 14, 2021)

Hello! My budgies live with me in the same room and now I paint a lot with gouache. Is the smell of gouache dangerous for budgies?


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

I would not expose budgies to any paint with an odor, are the paints oil or solvent based?


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## Daniela Demyan (Dec 14, 2021)

Cody said:


> I would not expose budgies to any paint with an odor, are the paints oil or solvent based?


Thank you very much! I don’t know what the paints are based on because they came with the painting by numbers.


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## srirachaseahawk (Sep 5, 2021)

I wouldn’t risk it. 
I suggest that you paint in a different room from them, they have a much more advanced respiratory system than we do.


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## Aozane (Sep 23, 2021)

Channeling my art school education from another lifetime ago: Gouache is a water-based paint—sometimes it is considered a “thick watercolor” or else it can behave a bit like acrylic paint (which is also water-based). It includes either a natural or artificial gum binding, which enables it to be water-soluable even after it dries. Depending on the manufacturer, it can also contain chalk (calcium carbonate), will contain the color minerals themselves, and sometimes color “normalizers” (like titanium white).

In terms of fumes, gouache is not nearly as dangerous as oil paints, which are quite a danger to humans, let alone to birds. HOWEVER, gouache can still include toxic materials. (A few specifics if you decide to purchase gouache paint in the future: The first thing to check is whether any of the paint labeling gives a toxicity warning, which is required. Second, look for some of the classic toxicity perpetrators on the ingredient list: formaldehyde, benzene, xylene. Third, keep in mind that specific minerals like cadmium and lead, used to achieve certain paint colors, are toxic and require careful handling.)

The most dangerous situation would be accidental ingestion, but according to my research, humans still occasionally report headaches from gouache paint fumes. While the incident rates of these headaches is low, it still happens, implying that gouache does have a potential fume toxicity. So I agree with what Srirachaseahawk says above, given that birds have a much more advanced respiratory system than humans—“*I wouldn’t risk it.*”

Hope this helps in some way.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Please do NOT paint in the same room with your budgies. Keep them in a separate room with the door shut and a towel rolled at the bottom to prevent fumes when you are painting.*


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