Boing/ropes Warning

[marie83]

Please ensure all rope toys are properly maintained, safety checked reguarly and if possible only use them under supervision, even the natural fibre ropes, as these may not break properly with small birds as they wont have the strength necessary to free themselves should they get caught.

I have known this for a while and although I keep ropes out of the cage I do allow my birds to have them outside the cage as it means I am home should anything happen. You cannot prevent every single possible accident from ever occuring but there are some toys which are risky than others. I know from experience having had a peach fronted conure that nearly hung himself by his beak on a bell chain that had seperated over time, despite being checked, he never recovered fully from this ordeal and died soon afterwards.

I've just seen a horrendous image of a bird from Ollies breeder on another forum which has upset me a fair bit. I will not post the photo as it is distressing but I have included the link incase anyone wishes to see how so called safe toys can become a death threat

http://www.parrot-link.co.uk/topic/1053 ... /?hl=+gary +boing

Please remember there is no need to panic and deprive your pet of things they love, there is no 100% safe toy but on the whole well designed toys are safe. As always, safety check reguarly and supervise play with certain toys. Also if you aren't sure about a toy ''if in doubt, throw them out''

[DustyTheGrey]

Thank you for the warning message.
I think all toys need to be regularly checked and I dont even think there is such a thing as a 100% safe toy.

[Michael]

They said it was just a baby. Do you think inexperience was the cause whereas an adult could have chewed itself free? Also how long was it since the bird was last supervised? In other words if you left your bird in the morning and this happened, would it really be dead by the time you came home from work? That doesn't even look like a fraid boing which is the worst part.

[hooligan]

Someone on that forum said the sisal kind of spiral rope perches are okay because they break instead of fraying. Does anyone have experience with these?
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=7522

I have two of the cotton kind, and Scrubby loves them. If sisal perches are safe, then I'll order some, but I've never seen these in stores in my area.

[marie83]

Sisal does break but a small bird may not have the strength in his struggle to actually break it.

When George caught his beak in his bell chain he could have been there anything up to 6 hours, he was fine when I left for work, my mum checked on him before she went out. When I got in he was hanging, severely weakend, with no fight left in him at all. He could have been there the full 6 hours, how long does it take a wildly thrashing, screaming bird to weaken himself to that point? maybe he was only there an hour? All I know for sure is he died shortly after being rescued.

Of course that is completely different to the rope issue but I think if a bird is stuck then panic will take over, I don't think it would occur to them to think logically about it and try to chew the rope off, I think they would just thrash and scream like a wild animal caught in trap no matter how intelligent the animal was or how old it was. Unfortunately this is not the first warning I have heard of about the danger of ropes, but I guess with the picture being so upsetting it hit home a bit more than normal that no toy is 100% safe but we cannot deprive our birds either.

I guess what I am saying is weigh up the pros and cons and make your own descision. Out of all the research (which isn't that extensive, nor scientific) I have done ropes and bells seem to have the highest accident rate. I put this on another post too but I once went into the bird section of one of our local petstores and examined every single bell they had in there on different toys and different brands and I wouldn't have bought a single one of them as they all had gaps in them which were screaming dangerous to beaks and toes.


My biggest point I was trying to make is CHECK TOYS REGUARLY, once a week was not enough to save George but I feel it is the minimum that should be done.

[hooligan]

Yeah, that picture was pretty horrendous to take. I was thinking about coming home and taking out those rope perches all day. I just wish there was a safe alternative. :/

[marie83]

I would say sissal is definitely safer than the man made fabrics without a doubt. Sometimes you have to find a balance between things. Safety? or obsession? Tbh I can see flaws with most parrot toys but it wouldn't be fair to remove them all. Ollie absolutely loves his boing and I would love nothing more than to leave it in his cage, that picture could easily have made me throw it away completely just like Ollies breeder did. My compromise was putting it on his play tree as when he is out on it, I am never far away to intervene if needed.

You would think after what happened to poor George I would never have a bell or metal chain again. Believe me that option was tempting for a long time but they are by far the best loved toy by all the birds I've had. I cannot take that degree of fun away from them. I choose bells very carefully now, check them thorougly weekly when I full clean cages and a brief spot check when I spot clean the cage each day.

[Mangoismybird]

Oh my gosh, that is so horrible.

Rope perches have always been a favorite of mine since they are so long, and so easily adjust to any cage size and space. I was aware that you should closely watch your rope toys for loose threads ect. so that a bird doesn't become tangled, but I didn't know that having a claw tangled could be fatal. A broken toe, maybe, or a torn claw, but I don't see how it could kill a bird?

Sorry if I'm being ignorant, but maybe could someone PM me with the specifics? I know it sounds morbid and I'll probably become scared, but I just really want to understand how to best prevent this and how it happens for the sake of my birds.

[marie83]

Basicly they struggle and struggle to free themself until they become weak.
The extended period of being frightened will not help things.
Possibly if they are hanging upside down for a long time then that will clearly not be good for them either as they are not designed to hang like bats so that may weaken them further.

I would think the broken toe/claw scenario is a much more likely outcome than hanging themselves to death but having already lost one bird to a toy, I cannot justify the risk unless I'm there to help if things go wrong.