The OC blog - The Our Cockatiels Blog

Cockatiels make a wonderful hobby and wonderful pets! For those who want to handle their birds often, we suggest hand-tamed Cockatiels. Please research through reading, the internet, and asking questions of pet shop clerks before purchasing a Cockatiel. The more you know and understand about these wonderful birds the better relationship you and your Cockatiel will have with each other. If you click on our photos; you will have a super close-up.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Local Pet Shops & Safety for your pets.

Not long ago, I received an e-mail implying that most everything found in pet shops are dangerous for animals and especially dangerous for birds in the parrot family.

I was told by a person who seemed to have much experience with birds
that this concern was when the lead scare about China's imported toys
and other products (pet products) was first a concern, but not anymore.
I think it is not a problem anymore because
1. it has been resolved on the Chinese side and
2. on our American side; their imported products are going through stricter quality control from the American distributors of those products.

Of course as another bird owner pointed out that you have to know your
bird or any pet for that matter and what is safe for them.

My example:
All Cockatiels chew.
If you ever got your bird a wooden ladder you will notice that
eventually many of rungs are chewed off.
Here is one example where the bird's safety depends on it's habits:
If you get your bird a plastic toy and chews on that;
you should remove the toy because plastic has too many chemicals for any bird to take into it's body.
Unpainted, unvarnished bird ladders are definitely safe!
As much as my birds are chewers, I never had any problem with them
chewing on their plastic water cups and plastic feeder cups.

If our birds were chewing on them:
1. I might try getting them more chewing toys and if that did not work
then
2. I would try other kinds of watering devices for birds and probably
use glass bowls at the bottom of the cage for feeders.


My conclusion:

Local pet stores in general sell the appropriate products for our pets, our birds and yes even for our Parrot birds like Parakeets and Cockatiels.

However as I already explained in detail, we need to know our own pet's specific individual behavior to know if something normally safe is safe or not.
With new pets, new Cockatiels, trust that the product labeled safe for your pet is safe and just observe your pet, your bird to make sure it is safe even if your animal chews more then most, is more energetic etc.

Also, if you hear from a reliable source and not only from a hyped-up advertiser that a certain item or food might not be safe then adjust your judgments accordingly.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Thanks so much for posting this. I have also resorted to finding "other" toys for my cockatiel because I have worried about some of the toys being offered by our smaller pet stores and online. I noticed that one of the toys we purchased had paint chips that flaked off, and although it may have been food-grade dye, you just never know.

My bird loves to play, and I have found that he enjoys multicolor plastic spoons - the heavy duty kind - available at the dollar stores, a good old fashioned clothespin, a hotel key card (the shinier the better) or any "gold" card - haha - an empty toilet paper roll wrapped in a ribbon that I have tied securely in a knot, a small children's heavy-duty hanger, a tissue paper rose (easy to make), and an all-plastic corn cob pick - not the sharp kind - one that is all plastic with a knob - makes a good foot toy. I only give him the toys when I am around unless I am 100% sure he will be fine with some of them without me - and I take them away and introduce them to him on various days to keep up his curiosity.

For anyone not sure about the toxicity of toys coming from China (which although there is a new law, it does not apply to pet toys, only children's toy), Etsy.com is a great way to meet other bird lovers who are making toys with food-grade dyes, safe ropes and wood and they are all handmade.

Tweet!

March 23, 2009 at 11:35 AM  

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