No more bells for my boy!!

Just had a really scary couple of minutes with McCoy. He chomped his way through this cat toy to get to the bell and got the bell stuck over his lower beak. He couldn't get it off. Had to towel him for the first time ever and my husband took it off with pliers.

Absolutely terrifying. All's well now though.

Hopefully I've got enough 'good mummy' credit and he'll forgive me.

Please please be careful!!

YIPES!

Warnings are always welcomed by me. We can never be too vigilant.

I'm glad things are okay!

Actually you should look at this as a really, really good thing that happened, because it's not just choking on those little metal bells that is dangerous to birds/parrots...It's actually extremely common for pet birds/parrots to suffer Heavy-Metal Poisoning from chewing on/playing with toys that have metal bells in them, and not just cat and dog toys (though they are commonly one of the causes of this in birds too)...There are unfortunately a lot of toys made and sold specifically for pet birds/parrots that commonly cause them to suffer Heavy-Metal Poisoning as well. I've seen this personally many times at the Rescue I work at, and we've had several members here who have also had their birds suffer Heavy-Metal Poisoning due to toys they have given them that were made for birds, cats, dogs, ferrets, etc. So it's best to just avoid giving your bird ANY toys or things to chew on, sit on, play with, or put anything near them or their cages/stands that have metal pieces/parts...So it's actually a good thing that you went through this with you bird, even though it was scary.

lol clark got a chain link on her beak once, and it looked like she went all goth with a nose ring....they are smarter than they look. sometimes they just get a little stuck. Relax, this is just a moment in time.

We had a member a few years ago whose cockatiel lost its entire bottom mandible through being stuck in a small bell. The bird survived but had to be hand-fed for the rest of its life on soft foods.

Another member had a nightmare few weeks of having her Amazon kept by the vet and treated for heavy metal poisoning. He had swallowed the tiny clapper from a cheap bell and nearly died several times. Bells are not that much fun for a bird and the danger is so great, I'd never have any! You can always replace them with a wooden or solid plastic bead to get the same effect.

Glad you were able to remove the bell from McCoy, great save!

Some parronts remove the clapper from bell to avoid injury or heavy metal poisoning, but I've removed them completely from my home.

Jottlebot said:

Just had a really scary couple of minutes with McCoy. He chomped his way through this cat toy to get to the bell and got the bell stuck over his lower beak. He couldn't get it off. Had to towel him for the first time ever and my husband took it off with pliers.



Absolutely terrifying. All's well now though.



Hopefully I've got enough 'good mummy' credit and he'll forgive me.



Please please be careful!!

Click to expand...

I made a ball with a bell in it, much like in the picture, for Consuela. She LOVES bells but does not bite them. The ball with the bell in it she will fetch again and again. Ask her to fetch a ball with no bell in it? She will look at me like I am stupid. The ball with the bell in it? She is closely supervised. Birds are all different.

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Being, like Gail, the Queen of Paranoia, I too have removed any cheap bell made of “mystery metal” as a precaution. But I do LOVE the sound when any of my little guys plays with bells so I scrounged around online until I found a reputable dealer who sells stainless steel ones. As an extra bonus they’re a long tubular shape too so that little beaks cannot remove the clapper. They have such a beautiful tone and sound so lovely along with Valentino and his gorgeous vibrato, I’d hate to have to live without those sounds in my home

I hate those cheap bells as they can also get metal metal poisoning. I now buy the larger ones and stainless steel.

Rule of thumb - it the bell was not made expressly for a parrot, done use it. Ball bells, like int the OP's picture, was never made for strong beaks, and they will bend into unpredictable shapes, one of which may fit over. under or thru your parrots beaks. THe only kind I can recommend is the tubular type, made of heavy stainless steel, and a recessed clapper. Other then these - its just a matter of time before your bird gets to them.

reading the post i immediately removed all the bells out of my burbs cages

Glad you rescued McCoy from the evil bell !!!

Arika has a nice heavy stainless bell with recessed clapper, stainless chain, and heavy stainless clasps that screw tightly together.

So far, she's mad a lot of noise with it and no damage to her or the bell.

Thank you for sharing this seriously important event! I do not usually visit this section since I have an Eclectus. However, I am alerted to topics that are 'all species relevant'. I hope others read this.



Thanks to Scott's advice in other threads, we have removed all bells from Ellie's play areas. I will look into those tubular bells spoken of here.