Fluorescent water dye

[Bill]

Hi, does anyone know about the health risks of these dyes? According to the blurb available on them they are not harmful to fish at the levels normally used. I'm wondering what effect they would have on birds if mixed in with their seed on the bird table.

Reason being that I'm fed up with white streaks on my windows, the local birds seem particularly adept at pooping accurately onto the glass as they fly over, so at least mixing a bit of colour into their food would make the streaks a bit prettier. Failing that maybe an assortment of food dyes could be used?

If nothing else it would confuse the heck out of my neighbours :-)

[John Williamson]

I doubt you'd see the difference, unless it works the way that human p155 turns pink after too many beetroot.

[Jabba]

Bill scribbled...

Try not feeding them, they won't have a reason to hang around your house.

[Bill]

In message , Jabba writes

The main problem is caused by a couple of nests in the roof, they appear to poo just as they come in to land at the nest, hence the poo hitting the wall and windows.

[S Viemeister]

Our neighbours had a mulberry tree. We had a white garage and a white van...striped with purple.

[Chris Hogg]

If that's the main problem it will solve itself in a week or so as the young birds fledge, leave the nests and get fed and poo elsewhere.

[Bill]

In message , Chris Hogg writes

Very true, I did want to see the neighbours reaction to fluorescent poo though :-)

[polygonum]

I'd want to use glow-in-the-dark substances, or luciferin bacteria...

[Brian Gaff]

Not sure about this one. I'd have thought some kind of window coating to stop them sticking was the way to go. Brian

[Reentrant]

If you're thinking about fluorescein, reactions in people include "sudden death".

[polygonum]

I always think that is a rather extreme reaction, can they not stop short of that?

Like medicines where death is a side-effect.

[Bill]

I wasn't planning on giving it to them intravenously :-)

I certainly don't fancy the tests that they suggest either!!

"A simple prick test may help to identify persons at greatest risk of adverse reaction"

How do you explain that to your wife?

[Bill]

A friend of mine has just been diagnosed with something terminal and nasty. The medics have ruled out all 3 of the possible treatments as they would kill him sooner, not good :-(

>

[Martin Brown]

It is almost the soft fruit season for pink and purple bird poo. YMMV

Be aware that at strong colourations the fluorescent water dye fluoroscein like its analogue phenolphthalein is a laxative.

You may live to regret wanting highly coloured designer bird poo. See:

Sodium fluoroscein is astonishingly easily detected at insanely high dilutions which is why it is used for tracing water courses.

[Mr Fuxit]

Coloured additives to bird food will not change the white deposits. The white that birds excrete is calcium, which is removed by their kidneys to prevent their bones becoming more dense, and therefore heavier.

[Huge]

Total c*ck.

[Martin Brown]

Tell that to the elderberries and blackberries.

Absolute rot. It is mostly uric acid that gives it the white colour:

[John Williamson]

What comes out of the bird is in fact a mixture of their equivalent of urine and s*1t, both coming out of the same hole.

[Johny B Good]

The reality is that almost without exception, medicines are poisons where the side effect is medicinal when administered in sub lethal doses.

[Tim Watts]

40 pints of water drunk as fast as your system permits will also kill you.