Viewing post #448811 by flaflwrgrl

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Jul 12, 2013 7:12 PM CST
Name: Ann ~Heat zn 9, Sunset
North Fl. (Zone 8b)
Garden Sages Region: Ukraine Native Plants and Wildflowers Xeriscape Organic Gardener I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
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I just found this forum & thread today.
Someone asked where I got the info. on the copper pennies from. To the best of my recollection, it was in the newspaper one Sunday in one of those gardening columns. It specified to use pre 1982 pennies b/c they had a higher copper content whereas after that time they had a lot of zinc in them.

Many of you know that we moved north about 400 miles. When we put out the bird baths up here I just decided to get some copper tubing that was rated for use in homes where drinking water would be running through it. I felt good knowing that the copper in the bird baths was the same thing running through our home & what we drink from.

I am as concerned as the rest of you about this. One thinks it would be fine as there are bird baths out there made out of copper & no hue & cry has been raised. There are bird feeders made of copper. There are fountains made of copper where birds drink & bathe. But all these things do not automatically mean copper is safe for birds right? However, once again, I would think someone somewhere would have spoken out & let the world know this is not safe for birds if it wasn't.

I have been researching this today & came up with this:
http://www.atlasobscura.com/pl...
Of course this is highly acidic water with enormous amounts of not only copper but other heavy metals in it.

Then there is this:
Copper............

Is a potentially toxic metal to birds, but less common in the bird world, let the water run for a few seconds before you give the water from your tap to your birds, if they are copper, the water lays in the pipe for a while and copper acidic taste is given off

Causing sickness in the bird.
From:
http://www.manyhoots.org/index...

And there is this:
Copper is also potentially toxic to birds although avian toxicity from this metal is less common. Acidic foods stored in copper containers may leach out copper, and occasionally copper piping for water is a potential source of increased copper in the diet if the water is slightly acidic and has been allowed to remain in contact with the piping for some length of time. Allowing the water from the tap to run for a few minutes before filling the water dishes will prevent this problem.
From:
http://www.multiscope.com/hots...

The 2 links above seem to be dealing with the water being acidic or something acidic having a reaction with the copper allowing more copper to be released.

And this:
http://www.birdclinic.net/avia...
But this one seems to be dealing more with birds eating pieces of metals.

I am not satisfied with the info. I have found. I am going to continue to research this to try to get a concrete answer one way or the other. In the meantime; I am removing the piece of copper tubing in my bird baths just to be on the safe side. I could not live with myself if I thought I was responsible for poisoning birds.

As Arnold says:
"I'll be back". Smiling
I am a strong believer in the simple fact is that what matters in this life is how we treat others. I think that's what living is all about. Not what I've done in my life but how I've treated others. ~~ Sharon Brown

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