Rope toy safety

[ZivaDiva]

I recently purchased several toys for Ziva that are made out of rope and the ends are knotted and frayed and bushy. I was reading somewhere that toys that have any kind of strings should be removed. The picture showed the kinds of toys I purchased for Ziva. Are they not safe?

[judygram]

You have to watch any toy that has any kind of rope or fabric for frayed ends and such, it would be best not to put those kind of toys in the cage but use them on playstands or places that your grey plays when out of the cage and is supervised. They need to be trimmed off when getting frayed on the ends and if they do manage to get themselves tangled up in it at least someone will be around to extricate them so they don't hurt themselves.

[ZivaDiva]

Thanks. I was afraid that was what you were going to say! I wish they wouldn't sell toys that are dangerous. I won't use bells because of birds getting caught in the clapper part. There are a lot of other toys that make me nervous and I just didn't think about it when I saw the rope toys. She came with several but they were dirty so I threw them out and bought some more.

 

I'll save them for the playpen. Or maybe I just won't use them at all. I wish I'd kept the receipts.

[BaxtersMom]

Don't throw them away. You should do like Judy said...Let Ziva play with them on a play stand or when you are near by. They might even be considered a special treat to Ziva since she can only play with them on certain occassions. I have several rope toys and didn't know about the dangers at first either. They still have some and play with them, too but I don't let them play with them unless they I am nearby.

 

If they have not been used, perhaps you can let the store you know about your concerns and see if they will exchange them for other toys. I don't see why they wouldn't if you just said you don't feel comfortable using them. It's worth a try anyway.

[BaxtersMom]

Don't throw them away. You should do like Judy said...Let Ziva play with them on a play stand or when you are near by. They might even be considered a special treat to Ziva since she can only play with them on certain occassions. I have several rope toys and didn't know about the dangers at first either. They still have some and play with them, too but I don't let them play with them unless they I am nearby.

 

If they have not been used, perhaps you can let the store you know about your concerns and see if they will exchange them for other toys. I don't see why they wouldn't if you just said you don't feel comfortable using them. It's worth a try anyway.

[Storm_2007]

are they just frayed at the ends? i have had some like that and i just cut off the frays

[Acappella]

One of Dorian's favourite things is a rope swing. It's a circular wire wrapped with cotton rope suspended by three cotton ropes tied together at the top. One day when he was still in thepet store and I was working I heard the worst sound in the world. He had a talon caught in some of the frayed rope, and he was screaming. (This was before I'd started to research grays and realized there was a lot wrong in the way he was being cared for.) I managed to get him untangled and calmed down, mostly because he'd already started to transfer his affection to me and chosen me as a trusted person.

 

Because I wasn't his owner and didn't really have any power to make changes for him, I carefully trimmed Every stray and frayed rope in the whole cage. When he came home with me I took the rope swing out and re-made it with some Supreme rope. It's a safer rope that pulls apart more like a cotton ball than a frayed rope. I always have extra on hand so I can do repairs on his swing when ever I think it needs it, and I'm getting ready to move it outside his cage in the near future since he's started perching on it less, and beating the #$!* out of it instead:evil:

 

You also have to watch the type of chains that come on store bought toys. I was surprised to see how many things come with chain that isn't made of welded closed links, because they can get their talons caught in them as well. They're like kids. You can make everything as safe as possible and they can still find a way to hurt themselves. It's all part of becoming an educated parront!

[ZivaDiva]

Yes, the ends are frayed on purpose and it's a HUGE toy so there are zillions of knots that are frayed.

 

AND, I also bought her a boing. My lovebird, JP, has one and it's his favorite toy so I bought one for Ziva. I never even thought about the boing being made of rope. I'm guessing they aren't safe either? Insert cuss word here. I haven't put it in her cage yet as it's huge and I'm letting her get used to seeing it in the room first.

 

I do watch out for welded links as I know they can get their talons stuck.

 

What do people do regarding rope perches?

[Acappella]

Dorian has rope perches and a boing. Just keep loose threads trimmed and you"ll be fine. Just look at store toys critically. Even then you can still get caught. Dorian's boing had a bell hanging from the bottom. Now, this is a toy made for a bird, and people know bells can be dangerous, so therefore bell on bottom of boing should be bird safe, right? Wrong. Dorian got the clanger out of it anyway:evil: Now I've attached a heavy-duty bird bell to the bottom!

 

I've started to make most of my toys, and save my toy $ for heavy duty acrylic toys I can't make. Being a worry wart, I have stainless steel bells, links, dowel screws . . . here and I swap out anything that I'm not 100% sure of. An ounce of prevention!

[ZivaDiva]

I'm the same with the stainless steel. I did take the bell off my lovebird's boing and have taken the one off of Ziva's. I have a link somewhere for safe bells and have been thinking about ordering some but am not sure I want to deal with the noise.

 

I buy the heavy duty acrylic toys from the bunny shelter. The bunny toys make great bird toys.

 

I hate that pet stores can sell things that aren't safe. I know what's not safe for rabbits and rodents but am still learning for birds. I had bought a chewable/eatable perch from a pet store and one of the ingredients was string. I took that back! I'd seen it in Bird Talk and thought it was kinda cool, then realized it wasn't so great.

 

The pet stores sell all kinds of items that are toxic for rabbits and rodents so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they sell dangerous toys foro birds. What does surprise me is how many bird stores sell things that aren't safe.

 

Thanks for all the advice. I'm going to go home and stare at their cages again and see if I'm missing anything else. I don't want anything to happen to them and I really don't want anything to happen while I'm gone all day.