Picking up feathers, can it be done safely?

I sometimes pick up feathers I find on the ground that seem like special spiritual messages. For example the other day I was walking home feeling raw and sad and found a very soft, gray, fluffy feather. It was SO fluffy. Touching it I felt comforted. I think this was a baby turkey feather as there are a couple of families of wild turkeys that boss the roads near me.

I did take the feather and clean it with alcohol on a cotton ball, just in case. Now it is not quite as extremely fluffy but still very comforting to see and touch. I also do this when I find quill-type feathers and they don't seem to be harmed by it at all.

Is picking up feathers very risky (in terms of disease)? Should I just leave them? Is there a better way to clean them?

Sometimes birds have mites and they're extremely tiny little bits but they'll swarm all over your hand if there are enough of them.

I think it's safe enough to pick up feathers that are shed. But to clean them, I'd use a tiny bit of baby oil on a cotton ball. They need a sheen of oil to stay in good shape. Alcohol dries them out.

Ideally, to keep them free of tiny bugs, keep them in a cedar box. There are other little organisms not seen with the naked eye that will eat them if they're not treated right.

If you don't have a cedar box, just storing them with cedar shavings like you get for dog beds and pet litter will do the trick. The pests don't like cedar.

I believe Mi-shell said once (on the forum here) that she puts hers in the freezer for a few days to kill any bugs.

I've always been taught to store them in borax for a few days, also kills all the bugs and keeps them from degrading over time. I don't bother with this though, mine are just gross and buggy. Never been a problem for me.

Myrrha said:

Is picking up feathers very risky (in terms of disease)? Should I just leave them? Is there a better way to clean them?

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I've spent the last fifty years picking up feathers. I've never caught any diseases off them.

You are more likely to react to the toxic chemicals in disinfectants.

nisaba said:

I've spent the last fifty years picking up feathers. I've never caught any diseases off them.

You are more likely to react to the toxic chemicals in disinfectants.

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When I was a kid, we were picking up raven and eagle feathers and sticking them behind our ears, etc.. Found the feathers everywhere and we always had some. Never once got a bug. Nice to grow up where the raven and eagle are so common.

There is an eagle feather in my car right now. I found it in the back yard - I think the eagle lost it when grabbing a breakfast bunny. I miss ravens. Though ravenest seems a nice enough fellow...

Thank you all for the great ideas. I will get some cedar shavings and borax and also try the baby oil for quil-type feathers. not sure about that for the fluffy feather.

I handle a lot of wild birds. Feather mites and almost all insects that like birds aren't interested in people

When birds groom their feathers, it's like when people brush their hair--it distributes a small amount of body oil down the feather shaft. Other kinds of oil damages feathers. When you see a really dirty bird, like a dove, it's usually from bathing in puddles made oily from motor oil leaks. Oil compromises their ability to fly, dirt sticks to the oil, they injest it and are sickened--its all-around a bad thing. We use dawn dish detergent to clean them and it takes a lot of work. Sometimes people try to help injured birds with antibiotic ointment (instead of cream, which is best) and we have to get the greasy residue off their feathers so they can fly.

Like Mi-Shell, I freeze feathers for a few days to kill the mites. For bird nests, I microwave them twice, 30 seconds each.

Is this too much detail? I got carried away LOL

Yup, pop them in the freezer for a couple of days - no problems. Kills any mites (which don't seem to bother humans but make a big mess of any other feathers you have if they get loose) and other undesirable guests. However, there are few things that will kill H1 N1 or similar so don't worry. If you get a gut feeling NOT to pick this particular one up then go with that and leave it behind.

As Nisaba said, I've picked up feathers for years and have them all over the place.. I've never thought of cleaning them (I wouldn't pick one up that looked nasty) and I've never caught anything nor has anyone who has come into my house..