Maybe her way of questioning was wrong, but the topic quickly changed from it being NOT OK, to her trying to find something to do with her keet.

Either way, you didn't have to be so harsh, there are many other ways to put it that are still just as effective.

When I was little I thought the pest poison just killed bugs. Perhaps she was just thinking it killed bugs and not animals. I thought that when I was young

Even after the house has been sprayed you'd need to keep the bird away for a while until all fumes are gone. Even fly spray can make a bird sick. When I had my keet I used to take him outside when I used fly spray and left him there for a few hours.

Remember how miners used to take canaries down the shafts to see if the air was clean? If the canary died they didn't go in.

Update...

We had a change of plans last minute and I had nowhere to bring him while the bug man came, so I just left him outside for a few hours during/after the bug man came and then brought him outside. And he was perfectly fine, I watched him very, very closely. He is still alive and it's been a few weeks.

Thanks for ya'lls concern, i appreciate it. And thanks to the people who knew that I wasnt trying to be reckless with my bird.

Lisa, my parents paid for 'the poison'. And the bird was my responsibility. Please, everyone else on this post understood that I meant well with my question, so please do not talk down to me about it anymore. After all, I am a first time bird owner, and 'the poison' has never bothered any of my other pets. How was i supposed to know?

Every bug poison I have seen has explicit warnings on it that ALL pets need to be moved from the house before using it. Every bug exterminator I have ever spoken to has made this very clear to pet owners. If your bug exterminator did not make this CRYSTAL clear to you and your parents - and if he actually let you leave pets in the house on prior use - then the BBB needs to be contacted. Your other pets *easily* could have been made sick and died. That horrifies me, that you left pets in a home that was being exterminated.

If you were pregnant and had a baby, and your parents brought a poison into the home, they *and* you would be responsible for the death of your child. You need to look at this logically and not defensively. It's not a casual situation. This is death we're talking about. Or are you saying that pets are expendible while babies are not? That was my initial statement, that pets require equal responsibility.

This isn't a matter of "talking down to you". As a pet owner - which you say you were before you became a bird owner - it is your responsibility to talk to a poison vendor bringing poison in the house. That is your responsibility to get that information directly. You should never wait nor trust a far off website for the answer. That direct talking is your responsibility as the owner of a living creature.

Again, what happens when you become the parent of a human child? Would you leave the child in the home while poison was being sprayed in it, because your parents paid for the poison? Would you send email off to far-away websites and ask if it was OK to subject your child to poison? Wouldn't the answer always be "no"? It doesn't matter that they paid for it, and not you personally. Someone in your household paid for it, and if they paid for the death-causing chemicals, they are responsible for the consequences.

I feel pretty strongly about this, as you can tell. Poison isn't something to joke about. It damages and kills living creatures. That is its purpose. If your keet didn't fall over dead, it doesn't mean that something else was not damaged by the poison. People smoke for years and while they are still alive, they are certainly not "healthy".

I highly recommend you take your keet to a vet, if you brought your keet into a home that was bombarded with pest poison, and you only waited a few hours. I hate to tell you this, but the air system of a home does NOT cycle in a few hours.

Here's something for you to read -

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2005/03/21/childrens_cancer_and_pesticides.htm

"Dozens of studies have now shown that several classes of pesticides are associated with brain cancers and leukemias in children"

"the risk of Wilms' tumor and lymphoma was elevated with professional extermination use during childhood and brain cancer was elevated with termite extermination during pregnancy"

"A recent study of pesticides and childhood brain cancers has revealed a strong relationship between brain cancers and compounds used to kill fleas and ticks"

These are with HUMAN BEINGS who have large bodies. Little tiny keets only need a tiny speck of poison in their system to have disastrous results.

Take this stuff seriously - not only for your keets, but for yourself. I would NEVER walk into a house that had been exterminated only a few hours ago.

Remember those kids in the Philippines who died after eating food? It turns out they died because there were still pesticides on the food -

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/news/daily_news_archive/2005/03_16_05.htm

And pesticide use is now tied to causing asthma in children -

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/news/daily_news_archive/2003/05_29_03.htm

OK just one more post and then I am going to go make an entire section of the parakeet site dedicated to this topic. It really scares me that ANY pet owner of any age can think it's OK to expose any pet of any size to poison.

http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2000/02/front.080200.pesticide.jhtml

"A family has brought a lawsuit against an extermination company, claiming that a pesticide used in termite extermination in their home in 1996 is responsible for health problems among the family members--including difficulties breathing, persistent fever, and miscarriages. Tests run in 1998 by the state of New York and a private lab showed traces of chemicals used in the extermination job of two years earlier. The family moved out of the house."

That is TWO YEARS LATER. Poisons don't just "vanish" in 3-4 hours.

Well i guess i'm glad I inspired you to make a new section on your little site. thats kinda flattering.

i know you meant well, but the problem has been solved. my house is pest free and there is nothing wrong with my parakeet. he's eating, drinking, and pooping just fine, and i'm even improving on the hand-training.

lisa, due to your rudeness in adressing my problem, from now on i will discontinue my support for your website. at first i found you and all your members very supportive but i'm sad to say i was very offended in the way you repeatedly talked down to me. No question is ever a dumb one. consider that...

thanks to everyone else, and to lisa for initially helping me out. its been a joyride learning from ya'll but now i'm off to a different, less rude forum. bye!

peace.
amanda