# Mammal saliva to birds?



## Kare (Feb 13, 2015)

Hi all, there's a heated debate in our house today of the dangers of mammal saliva to birds. (Not sure if this is the right place to post this so if not sorry, please feel free to move)
After much googling I can only find articles of people saying their vet tells them not to share food, utensils, let them lick their mouths etc. I know myself not to let them, but the people I'm debating with only agree that cat saliva is toxic and maybe dog saliva. But they don't want to agree about human saliva posing a danger to birds. 
I was wondering if anyone has any links to any scientific papers done on it, etc, so we can settle it?

Thank you


----------



## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Most scientific papers simply reference "mammalian" saliva but don't specifically point out "human" saliva.

Obviously, cats and dogs are referenced most often as they are the animals likely to attack (bite) a bird. 
Given that humans are mammals, the general consensus is that human saliva potentially contains bacteria which may cause sepsis in the avian bloodstream.

As such, most veterinarians and avian websites caution against allowing one's pet birds to come in contact with human saliva and reference it as being toxic.

The first article below specifically references human saliva in Item #8

Top Ten Bird Killers

This paper also references toxicity of human saliva in relationship to birds

http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/1st-october-1881/25/the-poison-of-human-saliva

This is a series of articles indicating the toxicity of human saliva. 
Simply reading the content of the bacteria and levels of mercury in human saliva, it's easy to see why
many people consider human saliva as toxic to birds.

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?...a=X&ei=zfZAVdvrIrDmsASCyYCoAw&ved=0CBsQgQMwAA

*


----------



## Kare (Feb 13, 2015)

Thank you very much, Deb!! :urock:


----------

