New perch- really confused!

[Eric&Rebecca]

I got a Few new perches for Eddie, he's nibbled away at most of them and I wanted to give him some new textures to play with. I bought a few, a java branch, a rope and this Hagen perch. However, on the label it says dont allow your bird to ingest portions of this product. Birds chew perches.... Why an earth are they selling a branch if its in anyway toxic!!!

It's like a ceramic perch thing, the rest are real wood. It doesn't seem as if he could bite it and I certainly won't be putting it in his cage!

It's a Living World Natures perch by Hagen.

[Eurycerus]

I'm confused too. If it's this one http://www.amazon.com/Hagen-Living-Worl ... B0035HCVUW it specifically says it's safe to chew. o_O It could be that they're saying don't let your parrot eat the wood, as that is dangerous, not that it's toxic. I just heard a sad story of a parrot that was chewing up wood toys and due to some sort of emotionally imbalance (or something) was ingesting the pieces, got an impacted crop and died... So maybe they're just covering their behinds from lawsuits, by the lawsuit happy people in the US.

[GreenWing]

Eric&Rebecca it sounds like the manufacturer just wants to cover its bases in the event of a possible lawsuit, just "in case"

[marie83]

I agree with the others. Nearly ever toy I buy says "do not let the parrot play unsupervised" or something along those lines, yet we all do (and indeed should) leave them in the cages whilst we go out.

My way of thinking is look at each toy/perch or other accessory individually and use your own judgement. I sent a toy back a few months ago because it had gaps in the chain. I wont leave rope type toys in the cage, only on the playstand. I once looked at every single parrot toy with a bell on in pets at home and rejected every last one of them but my birds still have plenty of toys in and out of their cages.