Touching a bird feather

[user19888891]

DH came home from work and I’ve had the kids all day. We’d been out in the garden and some of the toys were lying out. Almost instantly after looking out the window he says ‘I hope they weren’t playing with that feather’. To which I said ‘why?’ And he said ‘because it’s fucking disgusting’. So I said yes they had and it’s not a problem. He then said he wasn’t talking about it any further, or words to that effect, then proceeds to go out to the garden straight away to lift the feather with a bit of kitchen roll and put it in the bin. To be clear, this was a loose feather found in the garden, appears to be from a seagull. It wasn’t from a carcass or roadkill etc.
I really don’t see this issue? The kids are young and like exploring and they cleaned their hands when they got in. I think his reaction is quite odd because he seemed to think I was being outrageous for allowing this to happen? Who is being unreasonable?

My dh is the same

The things my kid picks up off the floor, a bird feather wouldn't even register.

Mine brought home a badger skull.

We kept it outside the front door and purely coincidentally, never had another visit from Jehovah's Witnesses again.

What? Finding feathers and collecting them is absolutely fine! No different than touching grass or picking up a leaf.

What do you no touchy lot do if you find an injured one?

Mine played with rodent skulls and bones, feathers were run of the mill and used for all sorts of arts and crafts😂

I don’t think it would cross my mind to do anything? Are we talking sparrow or swan? I’d call someone about a swan..
Id bring my own pet chickens into my home if they were my own pet.

It’s only ever Pigeon feathers round here though and we all know they are flying rats, maybe others on here have better quality birds 🤣

My DH is weird (/disgusted) about bird feathers as well. I played with them all the time as a kid.

That said, there is avian flu not far from us so we're a bit more cautious atm.

How to help a sick or injured bird
Bird flu is still affecting many birds across the UK. If you find a sick bird, don’t touch it at first and read our bird flu advice before you do anything else.

This is what I'd do^

I thought that kind of thing was a very normal part of childhood.

I work in the infant dept of a school. Your kids touch, pick up and even lick far worse than a feather.....

Yes, obviously! How else would the feather attach to the bird?!

How on earth are youngsters going to survive life not being able to touch anything that has a virtually zero chance of doing serious harm?
Poor kids!!

I still pick up bird feathers and even stroke them. I love feathers on birds or off.

I think its OTT of DH, we have a fine collection of feathers collected on various walks with the DC, little nests and eggshells too, along with the more usual random selection of rocks that look like other things. We also only really encouraged them to wash their hands if they were filthy.
I used to collect barely squished roadkill and sell it to the local taxidermist as a primary school child for pocket money, so my bar is set pretty low though

We used to clean bird skulls with Colgate as kids so I certainly wouldn’t fret over a feather.

(Just to clarify they would be skulls found in the wooded area of the garden, I wasn’t killing and butchering them with own hand!)

I would consider a feather to be no different to picking up a stick, or a rock, or a leaf. It's good that they're interested in natural things - and feathers are fascinating imo.

In fact, just this weekend DD picked up a scruffled up crow feather and gave it to me, she was fascinated when I 'combed' it with my fingers and got it all to lie flat and neat again. And no, we didn't wash out hands until we went to the loo later on, didn't even occur to me that we should. But then, I don't routinely wash hands as soon as I get home, and I sit on the bed in my normal clothes, so it's a miracle we've all survived and not caught bubonic plague I suppose. I even ate some haribo I dropped on the patio earlier. 3 second rule, innit.

What a loon! Is he normally so paranoid?
I keep a few hens so I'll acquire the occasional feather stuck to me. If I see a nice feather when I'm out at the beach, I'll pick it up and take it home. I like to use them for various art activities. 😂

Your husband seems to have led a sheltered life. Does he realise that some people have birds and animals that live in the house with them?

This is a pet though, totally different!
like having a pet rat Vs a rat in a sewer

DS and DD each had one short episode of illness ( a couple of days ) through their entire primary school days, ( and no I never sent them in ill, they just didn't get ill ) DD had none in secondary and DS only had one when he had covid, the symptoms lasted less than 24 hrs.
They both grew up surrounded by horses, chickens, barn cats, dogs etc , scrabbling around in the dirt, being slobbered on, hugging random animals, putting stuff in their mouths they probably shouldn't etc.
Never mind mites, headlice were the real bane of my life through primary !

I got ill with psittacosis (the illness you get from parrots).

It nearly bloody killed me!

To add insult to injury, I hadn't been anywhere near a parrot for years- but apparently, less than 1% of wild birds carry the bacteria. I'd recently stayed at a Centerparcs, so I blame them 😁

Anyway, I wouldn't freak out but I'd definitely ask the kids to leave the feathers alone and wash their hands.

Oh and we now keep chickens so it hasn't scared me off birds for life.

When I was a kid I remember being told that feathers were dirty and not to pick them up. Looking back I'm not sure why but it's fairly ingrained in me and I don't like DS picking them up now...