Teflon is only dangerous if overheated. I can understand your nervousness though. As long as you're not cranking the heat running it on the highest level or trying to heat a space that the unit isn't rated for, you should be fine.

Manufacturers design as to try and avoid melting the teflon and for good reason. It isn't good for human lungs either.

Just make sure the your pet doesn't try to use the heater as a perch, maybe keep him away in a cage until the heat gets fixed. Or at least until you know how warm this specific heater will get.

 

Thanks Darkel! The central heating is fixed now, it's only really girl emergencies in the future. I'm running it in another room right now to test how hot it gets

 

I only use my oil-filled radiator on low heat (it has 3 heat levels selectable by two lighted rocker switches.) Otherwise it will give off a 'hot' smell which I don't want anywhere near my birds. When planning on using an electric heater have someone take a look at your fuse box (if you have an older home) to make sure the proper fuses are in place and also identify the best place to plug in the heater. Electric heaters (oil filled and others) can overload household wiring and are a common cause of house fires in winter. The fires often occur behind walls and do tremendous damage. I am in an outlying area of NY City and there have many bad fires this winter already caused by heaters - within the city where there are mostly apartments it is even worse since people need to provide their own heat if a landlord is slow to fix the heating plant. Always use any heater with great caution. (NO extension cords, place nothing on top of them, place them a safe distance from fabrics, curtains, and furnishings, make sure they can't topple over, etc.) Heaters are useful but they are risky, too.

 

Thanks for that, TielBob, I had no idea about not using extension cables or anything like that! Luckily my landlord is pretty thorough and has all the wiring, fuses and appliances tested yearly. All of the buildings in my neighbourhood are around 150 years old, so being on top of safety is imperative. Of course I would only use the heater for emergencies and never whilst I was out of the room.

 

I've been using an oil-filled heater in my room (which is where Rocko stays) for several months because my room gets veerrryy cold in the winter. It never gets turned off, it stays at anywhere from level 1 to 3 (it goes up to 7). They're wonderful for maintaining a heat level, but don't expect to turn it on and have it heat the room immediately. They take a few hours to have an effect.

They don't have teflon and they're the most bird safe heaters there are. They also double as a poor man's humidifier - just fill a pan of water and put it on top!

Before using it in front of your bird, take it outside or into the garage and turn it onto a very hot setting. Leave it like that for a few hours. This is to burn off the paint smell that they emit when they're brand new.

For anyone wanting one of these heaters, avoid Honeywell brand. Ever since Honeywell was sold to a Chinese company called Kaz USA, there's been much higher frequencies of those heaters catching fire, leaking oil, and all of that crazy stuff.

Denlonghi is my favorite, I've never heard of Benross. This is the one I have and I ADORE it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009PHFT6O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Thankyou Amz!