Every warm-blooded animal produces dander; and Cockatoos are no exception. These tiny flakes of dead skin become detached as new skin replaces it. This process is indicative of a healthy bird and will continue over the lifetime of your pet.

In the wild dander goes airborne into the air and dissipates, or the bird flies miles away. Neither of these things can happen with a bird in captivity.

Because they are in an enclosed area-your home-dander has no place to go, and the bird cannot move away from it. So unless you actively remove dander from the air, the bird and its humans are forced to breathe air with high concentrations of dander.

This can mean big trouble for your bird. Their air passages are so small that it doesn't take much to clog them. Once clogged, they often become ill with disease and infections that are hard to cure. With people, there is generally an increased sensitivity which often produces symptoms such as sneezing, coughing, or congestion.

And for people who already have respiratory issues such as allergies and asthma, the protein in the dander can trigger flare ups that make it all but impossible to keep the bird.

In addition to dander, Cockatoos, who are powder down birds, also produce a white powder to help keep their wings soft. This powder from their feathers is easily sent into the air with movements from the bird and the people who love and care for them.

And this powder and the dander are in addition to all the normal pollutants generally found in a home-dust, dust mites, dander from other pets, mold and mildew spores, as well as seasonal pollutants such as pollen.

Giving your bird clean air has to be a top priority if any of its other care is to matter. And the only way to insure that these particulates do not ruin your health or your bird's is to continuously removing the particles with HEPA filtration.

High efficiency particle arresting (shortened to HEPA) by definition removes particulates as small as.3 microns which is exactly the type of filter that is needed to remove bird-related and household pollutants.

And to be designated as such it has to have demonstrated that it can remove 99,997 out of 10,000 airborne particulates that are.3 microns or greater, with a micron being defined as one millionth of a meter.

Going on the offensive by constantly filtering the air will significantly lower the dander and dust in your air.