Are these safe?

[Strawfrawg]

A recent mention of rope perches and fabric got me reading about ingestion of foreign bodies. Now I'm getting paranoid. Are sisal ropes okay?

What about these toys? I would hate to get rid of these. Marvin LOVES them both.

[mrbowlerhat]

They seem just fine and natural to me, especially the yucca one seems great. If you're worried about the first one, you could always cut the little "tail" off the bottom and keep him from chewing the rest of the rope piece, since I assume that's cotton?
I'd think sisal ropes are all good, since there's no little fabric pieces/particles to be accidentally ingested, and it's all natural, but I'm certainly not an expert. It just feels okay to me. I really prefer sisal ropes over cotton ones.

[rebcart]

I think the main problem with cotton/wool/felt is that the tiny fibres get pulled and twisted together into tiny but long fluffy strands. Naturally long fibres like sisal and wood are also much thicker, and so get chewed and fall apart rather than fluffing and being swallowed. So, sisal and yucca are fine.

[Pajarita]

I agree. Sisal and yucca are fine. I am not particularly fond of cotton ropes but it depends on the bird, some of them won't touch them while other would chew them all the time. I read recently about a budgie getting impacted with paper and I have given mine rolled up magazines to chew for years with not a single problem...

[marie83]

No toy is safe. Some are riskier than others though and we cant deprive our pets but those toys look pretty low risk to me.

[Eric&Rebecca]

I agree with Marie, no toy is completely safe. The closest thing closest to completely safe is the chewing bark I give my cockatiels. I've seen these toys on the natural bird shop I go to online so I would say these would be as low risk as you can get. Just watch out for fraying and choking hazards during the use of the toys and I'm sure you'll be fine

[Strawfrawg]

Thanks for the feedback, everybody. I guess I'm just paranoid after reading about the dangers of rope toys, having had three in my bird's cage at the time. The packaging reads "bird safe", so I always assumed the toys were fine. Grrrrr.

Rebecca, I'd love to see the link for the online shop you buy from. I wouldn't mind paying international shipping for good quality toys. I'm mostly finding the same old stuff lately.

[Eric&Rebecca]

http://www.naturalbirdco.co.uk/ourshop/ ... rches.html

This is the website