Arika's short lived new Boing toy

Well, Arika really tore up her old Boing toy, but she had fun with it, we kept the fibers trimmed, but Macaws have a habit of shortening the life of many toys so it finally had to go.

We ordered a new Boing from Bonka Bird Toys. It had a bell, 1.5 inch diameter Sisal rope, and a swivel at the top.
The swivel looked to be sturdy enough but the bell was very flimsy, with sharp metal edges and it had to go. That was removed before we went any further.
We waited for a day where we could install it in her condo (with her supervision of course) and ensure everything would be good with her new Boing.
We gave her a bath and blow dry this morning and had her help us put it in just the right place. After we made sure all the SS hardware was tight we moved on to other things.


Her she is checking out her new Boing before we installed it:



We checked in on her a few minutes later and she was enjoying the bouncing of the Boing so we left her with her new toy and continued working in the kitchen on our stew.

About an hour later we went to check on her. We could tell she was very happy, she was laughing, scenting, playing, and her entire room smelled like flowers. Her Boing however, had not fared so well.

The top of the rope was pulled out a little from the plastic cap but the most alarming issue was that the top loop of the metal wire was completely out of the cap and the sharp cut end of the wire was exposed. We were very lucky, the end of that wire was very sharp and capable of easily causing an injury.

Her new Boing after only 1 hour:



We pulled her out of her condo immediately and removed the new Boing.

We know Macaws are very destructive, but expected a $29 Boing toy to last longer that 1 hour. Also, we did not expect a failure to reveal a sharp piece of wire like that. That never happened with her old Boing toy.

So, where do we go from here?
Do we go back to the manufacturer, return it, write a nasty review.... No.
We post the facts here in a pleasant way and make others aware of just another danger that can lurk in your feathered friends house or play area.

So what do we do to make it usable again?
Me being the guy that spent all those hours de-burring every sharp edge on her condo, straightening the bent frame, improving the wheels, etc some part of my demented Engineer oriented brain is presented with a challenge.
I keep hearing whispers of "We can rebuild it, we can make it better".

I have some ideas on how to make it similar to her string toy with the braided rope and large SS rings. Whatever the end result, the material will not go to waste, it will be as safe as we can make it for our baby Arika, and we will happily share any improvements and ideas with the members here. If anyone else runs into a similar issue perhaps our modifications will help other members make a toy better and safer for their babies.

The next time Arika has the pleasure of seeing her new Boing toy, it will be a much safer one.

Updates to follow.

When you think about it, the end of the Boing is its weakest point. There is a number of ways of making an end in a length of rope. One of them is that at the cut point (either side of the cut point), the rope coil is glued or rapped, which holds the rope's coils together. The lengths are cut, and this is repeated over and over again.

There are a number of end /connecting devices used and they will have an effect on the cost. The wire end will cost much less than the threaded peg with nut and washer(s). Most manufactures (not all) will inject glue in the cut end to increase compression. Once that is completed a cap is commonly placed on using a glue or heated prior to installation to hold it in place.

As a general statement, the product is not designed to have its ends exposed to the power of the Parrot's Beak!. Manufacturers' commonly will show their product mounted in a 'U' or '90' shaped application with both ends affixed.

Hope this helps.

Nasty review may not be necessary, but a factual review so that folks outside of the forum are aware of the danger would be appropriate.

Arika is gorgeous.


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SailBoat said:

When you think about it, the end of the Boing is its weakest point. There is a number of ways of making an end in a length of rope. One of them is that at the cut point (either side of the cut point), the rope coil is glued or rapped, which holds the rope's coils together. The lengths are cut, and this is repeated over and over again.

There are a number of end /connecting devices used and they will have an effect on the cost. The wire end will cost much less than the threaded peg with nut and washer(s). Most manufactures (not all) will inject glue in the cut end to increase compression. Once that is completed a cap is commonly placed on using a glue or heated prior to installation to hold it in place.

As a general statement, the product is not designed to have its ends exposed to the power of the Parrot's Beak!. Manufacturers' commonly will show their product mounted in a 'U' or '90' shaped application with both ends affixed.

Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

Steven,
This toy was made as simple and as cheap as possible. Definitely not designed with even a small parrot in mind, much less a Macaw. The rope is stuffed into the plastic PVC end caps, wire fed through one hole and then looped back into the next. I made the assumption that the wire loop was fastened securely under the plastic cap and it was not. Problem is, as the rope moves, twists, shrinks in length from unraveling just slightly, the sharp end of the wire comes out of the PVC cap and is exposed. I should have known better that to even try it without thinking it through more carefully. Fortunately no harm came to Arika and that is the main thing.
We always make sure we will be home for the day when adding / changing anything in her condo in case something goes wrong.

It's not the horizontal type of rope perch, it is actually "marketed" as a springy Boing toy which is designed to be hung vertically, swivel on top, and have the bottom end swinging free. It was not manufactured with any glue on the ends (which I would rather see no glue than some potentially toxic adhesive). If we have to extend the plastic end caps beyond her reach, we would need something about 4 inches thick to keep the end away from her cage. Still "toying" with that idea in the event it becomes necessary.

Arika's massive "stringy toy", 4 ft long, consisting of numerous strands of twisted and braided Sisal rope, wood blocks, leather strings, etc has a very large SS ring at the top and the ropes are braided and tied multiple times over to that ring.
I must say, she gives it a workout including chewing on the knots but has not succeeded in causing any major destruction to the point of a dangerous failure.

Anyway, the thought is to "peel" back some of the rope (enough to allow for knotting later), remove the sharp edges from the wire, and give it a few turns around the ring.
Then braid / knot the ends of the rope up around the ring where the wire is wrapped, provide multiple layers of knots, and hang it with a large SS screw link. Basically making it look similar to her "stringy toy". I just need to break out my book of knots to ensure we have the correct end terminator for multiple strands and a ring and pull the knots tight with pliers.

Hmmm, Sailboat.... any knot recommendations

If this works, we'll post some pics of the modifications.
What we won't do for our babies

Inger said:

Nasty review may not be necessary, but a factual review so that folks outside of the forum are aware of the danger would be appropriate.

Arika is gorgeous.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I believe they have a review area on their website and the plan is to leave a factual review in hopes that they can improve their product and make others aware of any potential dangers.

Thank you for the compliments on Arika.
Sadly, no positive comments on my arm and hand.... sigh
She always steals the show.

Maybe I'm naive, but a polite letter to Bonka Bird seems like a good place to start.

Ask them if you were misguided in purchasing this product for a macaw. Could they guide you to the proper line of products as this was either flawed or not designed for large birds.

With this type of rope, one can use Elmers Glue. I like their Wood Glue series as it dries a bit faster. The dry time can be fairly long if you use large amounts of it, but is will lock and seal the rope's wraps into place.

There is a product used to wrap (whip) the ends of this type of twist rope. It is a thin line commonly coated in a water proofing honey wax. Today, it is very specialized to 'Old World Sailing,' since all new lines are high strength poly products.

Using knots to stitch this type of twist rope ends together commonly requires unraveling a longer length then you would want and the resulting knots near triples the size of the twist rope end.

If the strands are stable, you can untwist the stands, set the 'wire' and braid it back together. This would be the same as setting a thin splice into a twist rope.

You can use tape to hold the section(s) of twist rope you do not want to unwrap while you are working with it.

Have fun with it!

Thank you Steven,

I was unaware that Elmers Wood Glue was safe on parrot projects.

We shoot target bows occasionally, maintain our own equipment, have the string serving equipment, knowledge, etc.
So we are familiar with using serving to terminate a rope. The problem with serving the rope ends, it still needs to be protected from curious beaks.

I also have a set of rope fids but admittedly I'm not fluent with their use. I have only attempted creating an eye splice once in a triple strand twisted rope and failed miserably This was to be used for an antenna tower climbing safety belt but opted for the commercial one instead

If I can get the hang of it, I'll try to put a nice tight eye splice on the ends and have that cover the wire wrapped on the SS ring. As soon as I have a chance I'll give it a try and post pics if successful. I'm thinking this may be the best way to go.

Thanks for the info.

It has been over forty years since I set an eye splice. Congratulations on your attempting that mind numbing cluster.

I had to smile wryly at the "engineer brain" comment. I am the only one of my parents children who is NOT an engineer. That said, I still have a mild case o engineer brain , I am just not overwhelmed by it like my siblings, at least half of the next generation, and my Dad, uncle, cousins ... etc. ...

What a beauty Arika is - and she has the "take it apart" mindset down perfectly!