Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rice!seawolf.rice.edu!gamble
From: gamble@seawolf.rice.edu (Ben Gamble)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: INDOOR--Converting a Basement
Message-ID: <1990Sep21.191755.26066@rice.edu>
Date: 21 Sep 90 19:17:55 GMT
References: <902@cfiprod.UUCP> <26FA40F8.23F2@intercon.com>
Sender: news@rice.edu (News)
Organization: Tennessee Ernie Port Authority
Lines: 41

In article <26FA40F8.23F2@intercon.com> ooblick@intercon.com (Mikki Barry) writes:
|case they escape and chew) will help with oxygen supply.  You may also wish
|to purchase an air purifier.  We use the portable smokemaster units.  They
|are electrostatic cleaners that are easy to clean.  With cockatiels and/or
|cockatoos, the powder created can be considerable.  It can cause MAJOR
|respiratory problems.  You will also want a dehumidifier to keep the
|basement dry.

I was just going to post a question about air filters, and here it
comes up in conversation.  So much the better.

My girlfriend likes my cockatiel very much, but is unfortunately
allergic to him.  (She gets terrible headaches anytime she sleeps in
the same room with him.)  An avian-vet-student friend of ours has
fingered cockatiel powder as the culprit, and we are now looking for
some sort of filtration scheme.  The state of my information on the
subject is this:

1. Air filters work passably well but will eventually burn out on
cockat{oo|iel} powder.

2. Electrostatic dust precipitators are very effective and durable,
but also quite expensive (~$500 is too much).

I would very much appreciate any and all information anyone can give
me on this subject (specs, models, prices, likely sources), especially
information that points to something that a college student can afford
and is reasonably effective for one cockatiel.

I will summarize any interesting material I receive by email, but I
have been reading news long enough to know that people are much more
likely to post, no matter what I ask for.  So let your conscience be
your guide.

TIA.

--
Ben Gamble                | "It is unworthy of great men to lose hours
gamble@owlnet.rice.edu    |  like slaves in the labor of calculation."
Malcolm@someMuds          |            -- Leibniz? Babbage? Who?
Disclaimer: This posting opinion-free.  All opinions may be reached