{"id":93346,"date":"2021-05-08T17:54:23","date_gmt":"2021-05-08T22:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/windycityparrot.com\/blog\/?p=2152"},"modified":"2021-05-08T17:54:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-08T22:54:23","slug":"hundred-safest-bird-toys-made-today-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/?p=93346","title":{"rendered":"The Hundred Safest Bird Toys Made Today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">It amazes me that a lot of bloggers have a hard time coming up with ideas. I have an <em>inventory of ideas <\/em>for our Sunday morning get-togethers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\"> Ideas are constantly finding me from all sorts of sources.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">A comment was left on one of our toy-making videos saying a particular toy we were demonstrating was using a piece of chain that was unsafe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Not 20 minutes after that in a blog post from a respected bird training site, we read that a bird toy from Wal-Mart allegedly poisoned the bird because of lead paint on the toy. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">We have not fact-checked that and there are a couple of red flags in the story.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">The first being, quality bird toys do not get painted, they are typically colored with bird-safe food dye. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">The second is that Wal-Mart is known to pay its due diligence in terms of the safety of the products it sells. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Their fiduciary liability is too great not to test everything that can be ingested by animals or humans. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">With those stories as a backdrop, I decided to make a list of the top 100 safest bird toys.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\"><strong>&#8220;There is not ONE 100% safe\u00a0<\/strong><strong>bird toy<\/strong><strong>,<br \/>\nbirdcage nor captive bird accessory&#8221;.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/gifs\/5VKbvrjxpVJCM\">via GIPHY<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\"><br \/>\nEVERY ITEM you put in a large cage including the cage itself is engineered to be bird-safe &#8211; by humans. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Birds are great engineers too. Unfortunately, they are what we call &#8220;reverse engineers&#8221;. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Anything you put in front of them will be reverse engineered until it no longer exists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">This makes everything you put in a bird&#8217;s cage a <em>potential danger &#8211; some examples.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">wood toys can split, a toe can get caught<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">threads can unravel from a sleeping hut or fabric perch &amp; a toe can get caught<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">plastic toys, food dishes can crack, stainless steel dishes can get punctured leaving sharp edges<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">even the food itself can get stale and get contaminated in a pantry<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">the pantry moth traps on top of the refrigerator your bird gets caught in the adhesive<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">a toe gets caught in a loose leather knot or some sisal.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Wal-Mart did not kill that bird. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Not knowing that paint on a bird toy is a red flag &#8211; did.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Our plastic chain is not dangerous to your bird. You not checking the chain\u2019s integrity regularly &#8211; is dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">The birdcage manufacturer whose cage &#8220;came apart&#8221; and your bird escaped in the middle of the night injuring herself with a bite through an extension cord &#8211; is not responsible for the injury.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Saving $200 on a cheap birdcage and not knowing your bird has the ability to chew through the wire, break some welds or walk out through a feeder door &#8211; is dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Please don&#8217;t lay &#8220;this is a dangerous___ fill in the blank bird accessory&#8221; at the feet of manufacturers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">This all is on you &#8211; the caged bird keeper.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">With more than a 100-year history of caged bird-keeping information and feedback to draw from, no manufacturer of substance is deliberately negligently making things that will hurt your bird.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">You also have us as a buffer\/retailer because there are other caged bird-keeping paraphernalia on the market being sold. That we feel poses a danger to a bird regardless of degree or intention, thus we don&#8217;t carry it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">So it&#8217;s is up to YOU, the Caged Bird Caretaker to ensure that the bird has a safe environment. Daily checking of all toys and perches is imperative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Every birdcage, toy &amp; accessory we sell is designed to be bird safe. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">As mentioned before our birds unintentionally re-engineer these great designs. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">We know<a href=\"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/Your-Birds-Beak--What-You-Didnt-Know_b_459.html\"><strong> how a beak works at 250 psi<\/strong><\/a> squeezing 2 V-shaped sets of razor blades. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">We know how birds&#8217; feet work and very strong legs in proportion to the size of the body.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\"> People &#8220;outside&#8221; of caged bird keeping just assume bird toys are there for decoration rather than life-enriching entertainment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">We know the toys are there to entertain but they are also there to challenge and provide foraging opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\"> We are cognizant that our birds will re-design and ultimately destroy said toys.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h6><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Toys from household items<\/span><\/h6>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Cornhusks<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Adding machine tape<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Toilet paper roll<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Nuts hidden in nested paper cups<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Phone book slipped through cage bars<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Wrapped straws cable-tied<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Cable Ties<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Fortune cookies with wrapper<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Saltine cracker packet<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Junk mail<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Cotton swabs<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Doggie rawhide<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Shoelaces strung with beads or Cheerios<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Breakfast-food bowl with newspaper taped to top<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Perfectly round or square pieces of bird-safe colored wood can quickly become unveiled traps because of a crevice or large splinter left by chewing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">My intent was to capture your attention and not disappoint. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Consider this a reminder that however much interaction you have with your bird, it&#8217;s your responsibility as a caged bird keeper to be the building, water &amp; health department inspector for your bird&#8217;s small world &#8211; Every day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Written by Mitch Rezman<br \/>\nApproved by Catherine Tobsing<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\"><strong>Gary M wrote:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Hi Mitch:<\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Had a freak, very serious accident last week.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">My Eclectus speared himself on an open toy hanger.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Somehow, he got the thread hooked inside his beak.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">The end with the nut on it literally penetrated the soft membrane under his chin and was visible inside his beak.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\"> It was a fairly heavy one, so no way I could bend it. I didn&#8217;t want to try to &#8220;double plier&#8221; to twist it.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Fortunately, it didn&#8217;t result in anything besides the scare. No problem with pain, no trouble eating or drinking, no infection.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Ran him to an emergency vet with the hanger attached to a toy which was attached to an acrylic-sided portable perch all hanging off of him.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\"> Fortunately, he took it incredibly well.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Never a biter, the only time he&#8217;s broken the skin has been due to the sharp edges of the beak, not from any serious pressure.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">He let me hold his beak from the INSIDE while I supported the toy with my other hand all the way to the vet. Once there, they wanted to towel him.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">I convinced them he was doing fine and held him throughout. It took the heavy-duty 18 inch bolt cutter to finally get the thing cut off and release the dangling perch.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Then, no big deal backing out the piece in his beak because the nut didn&#8217;t get all the way through to where we&#8217;d have had to get the membrane stretched to let it out.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Thought you might be interested in this story.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">Thanks.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It amazes me that a lot of bloggers have a hard time coming up with ideas. I have an inventory of ideas for our Sunday morning get-togethers. &nbsp; Ideas are constantly finding me from all sorts of sources. &nbsp; A comment was left on one of our toy-making videos saying a particular toy we were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_mo_disable_npp":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[195,210,249],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-parrot-care","category-bird-supplies-info","category-ringnecks"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ringneck-bell-toy-blog2-7.jpg?resize=600%2C445&ssl=1",600,445,true],"list":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ringneck-bell-toy-blog2-7.jpg?resize=463%2C348&ssl=1",463,348,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ringneck-bell-toy-blog2-7.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1",300,300,true],"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ringneck-bell-toy-blog2-7.jpg?fit=600%2C600&ssl=1",600,600,false]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/ringneck-bell-toy-blog2-7.jpg?fit=600%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phcfkq-ohA","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/95478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.windycityparrot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}