I went to the factory where the Pack-O-Bird is made today, to pick up my unit. First off, if you order from them direct, you get basically a custom made pack. There are lots of options, which I'll get to in a bit. First I said hello to their test pilots, Sunshine and Fluffy, 2 very active Sun conures. Celltei uses a med one for their night time cage, so it gets a lot of use. Then I looked at the R&D area, where they have the experimental models that they are still developing. Yes, I said R&D, Cell ten takes their products very seriously. They brought out my unit, and it took a good 15 min to go over all the features they have developed on what you would think would be a very straight forward product.
As they were explained, I couldn't help but think 'Wow, a lot of thought and familiarity with parrots and how they act went into this thing'. Things like corner seams and zippers protected on the inside with very heavy gage high density poly-something or other, non-toxic, of course. Multiple positions for perches. D rings inside to attach toys,, so they don't bang around when you walk and hit your birdie. The edges of the stainless steel mesh used are all covered over by heavy layers of the nylon canvas that is the carcass of the Pack. Talking about quality (a subject near and dear to my heart, as a Quality Control Manager by day), both the canvas and mesh is sourced from either Canada or the USA, because they found the Chinese versions of both to be of inferior make. In fact the only China made materials used are the washers and wing nuts. Thoughtful features like multiple anchor points for the padded straps let's you carry the Pack on your back or chest or over your shoulder, briefcase style. Well engineered zippers and velcro let's the entire Pack be laid completely flat, for cleaning, or packing into a suitcase for travel. The Pack had loops in the back, so you can seat belt it in , like a child's safety seat. The bottom of the Pack has a high density panel that is removable, for easy cleaning and it is easy to remove, too. General impression is one of a well made, well engineered product, in fact my boss was pissed that they don't make something for small dogs. The factory was clean and busy and we'll organized. So that's the initial review, Salty and I will be using ours a lot this weekend, by Sunday I will have a better idea of what the Pack-O-Bird is like to live with.
As they were explained, I couldn't help but think 'Wow, a lot of thought and familiarity with parrots and how they act went into this thing'. Things like corner seams and zippers protected on the inside with very heavy gage high density poly-something or other, non-toxic, of course. Multiple positions for perches. D rings inside to attach toys,, so they don't bang around when you walk and hit your birdie. The edges of the stainless steel mesh used are all covered over by heavy layers of the nylon canvas that is the carcass of the Pack. Talking about quality (a subject near and dear to my heart, as a Quality Control Manager by day), both the canvas and mesh is sourced from either Canada or the USA, because they found the Chinese versions of both to be of inferior make. In fact the only China made materials used are the washers and wing nuts. Thoughtful features like multiple anchor points for the padded straps let's you carry the Pack on your back or chest or over your shoulder, briefcase style. Well engineered zippers and velcro let's the entire Pack be laid completely flat, for cleaning, or packing into a suitcase for travel. The Pack had loops in the back, so you can seat belt it in , like a child's safety seat. The bottom of the Pack has a high density panel that is removable, for easy cleaning and it is easy to remove, too. General impression is one of a well made, well engineered product, in fact my boss was pissed that they don't make something for small dogs. The factory was clean and busy and we'll organized. So that's the initial review, Salty and I will be using ours a lot this weekend, by Sunday I will have a better idea of what the Pack-O-Bird is like to live with.
