How safe are bird toys really????

the purpose of this post is if I can make bird owners aware of the dangers of chain links on bird toys.

right now this is a very sore spot for me.
As some of you know my Num Num was severely injured due to his beak becoming lodged in a chain link toy that was in his cage.

I know it was a freak accident, but it happened.

I am asking anyone who reads this post, please please stop what your doing and go and thoroughly check your toys.

Chain links are dangerous. replace them with a safe rope for birds, or wrap them up with vet tape.

If I can help save one bird from the misery my bird has gone thru because of a stupid toy that was suppose to be safe and most of all fun then I hope this post was useful.

GREAT post, Beth, thank you for reminding us all.

I'd like to add that a toy that seems perfectly safe today, may not be safe tomorrow, after your fid removed or chewed off some pieces. Ropes and chains can become a noose quite quickly. Check all the quicklinks, make sure they are closed all the way, as beaks CAN get stuck in those as well.

That's a great idea to wrap the chain link with vet wrap.

It's terrible what happened toy out poor birdie this is why forums are great, without them this news would never travel

JerseyWendy said:

GREAT post, Beth, thank you for reminding us all.

I'd like to add that a toy that seems perfectly safe today, may not be safe tomorrow, after your fid removed or chewed off some pieces. Ropes and chains can become a noose quite quickly. Check all the quicklinks, make sure they are closed all the way, as beaks CAN get stuck in those as well.

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thanks Wendy, I didn't want to go 'on and on' on the post.
well said.....and thanks for adding those really good tips.

reading the post about the original freak accident inspired me to give all our toys/cages a thorough once over, which I did first light this morning. Sorry that it had to be at Num Num's expense. I am worried about the pear links we use, and have inspected each one carefully. I also removed a couple of toys that had cotton rope in them that were getting a bit tattered and frayed. Thanks for raising all of our awareness....:31:

I'm really sorry about what happened to your bird!

I just recently bought some plastic chains to use for toys or whatever I figured out to use them for. Are these dangerous too? Or does it depend on the size of the links?

GreyG said:

reading the post about the original freak accident inspired me to give all our toys/cages a thorough once over, which I did first light this morning. Sorry that it had to be at Num Num's expense. I am worried about the pear links we use, and have inspected each one carefully. I also removed a couple of toys that had cotton rope in them that were getting a bit tattered and frayed. Thanks for raising all of our awareness....:31:

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I was going to post this today in a new thread today however I think that it fits well into this one. I came home the other day to find my rb2 Nigel hanging from his leg band on a pear link. What makes it even worse is that I think he was like this for about 6 hours. I have been wanting to post this however I have felt so guilty about how long he was like that. I came home in the early afternoon, walked by Nigels cage and saw that he was upside down in his cage. I simply thought that he was playing upside down (he was not screaming or flailing around) I said "look at you playing like a bat!" and went back out to run the rest of my errands. I came home hours later and went over to his cage to let him out and he was still in the same spot. I then said you love that toy Nigel! Well, he was caught up on that toy! His leg band had gotten hooked on the pear link. It had opened and his band was caught on it. I got him down and checked him out. His leg and foot were very swollen and he had a hard time putting weight on it. I was so upset with myself for not checking the toys better and for assuming that he was playing earlier. He literally allowed me to wrap him into a blanket and just rub his head. He was exhausted. He was much better yesterday however still just wanted to be held and cuddled. Please check your toys, links etc. daily. I am so upset to hear what happened to Numnum and I know that Nigel is lucky. My heart breaks for little Numnum, he is such a tough little guy, we can only do so much when it comes to taking precautions with the toys because our birds can seemingly get into so much but every bit of precaution we can do will help!

As a new parrot owner, can someone give me advice as to what I'm looking for in/on the toys that would be dangerous for my U2? I take it the OP is talking about an actual chain link- are they all bad, is it a link size issue, etc? Any advice would be appreciated so I can keep my girlie safe!

And I'm so sorry to hear about these incidents, but thank you both for sharing to keep everyone aware of the dangers. I hope your birds are recovering well.

Here's a bit of advice to all the folks out there ....... NO bird toy is 100% safe.

Bird toys ned to be checked every day, both in the morning and and in the evening and probably more if you have time to spare.

I learned this 2 weeks ago with my Goffin Cockatoo. I had a toy that I purchased 2 weeks prior to that that was made from a very well known (unnamed) bird cage manufacturer you're all familiar with. Why did I buy it? I figured if this company made it must be bird safe and appropriate. NOT!!!! We found our G2 one evening hanging with her foot in the air because her toe had become stuck in the heavy gauge wire that was threaded down through the middle of the wood pieces to hold it all together. Some how she got her toe wedged in the loop of wire on the bottom of the toy. Fortunately the perch she was on was next to the toy and she could stand there on one foot while the stuck foot was suspended in the air. She never screamed or flipped out. I only noticed it when I was making my rounds at feed time that evening. I thought to myself ... "wonder why her food bowl isn't empty?"
Duh ..... cause she wasn't able to go eat because she was stuck.

Here's a picture of the toy:


The wire loop on the bottom is where she got her toe wedge in:


As far as chains vs. ropes toys .... I've had finches get their toe nails caught on ropes toys and nearly break their leg trying to get free from it. So, no toy is really "safe".

Lesson learned ..... check, recheck, recheck, recheck ...... DAILY.

I agree 100%. Toys are never completely safe no matter how much thought was put into them...

This makes me think of Gilbert's C clamp incident back in November, when he unscrewed it and was chewing the clamp, managed to get himself stuck (under bottom of beak and inside mouth with the clamp). He was swinging from the clamp, screaming and i was luckily home to free him (and he was stuck pretty good--i had to really wiggle him around to free him). I have since used pliers on all clamps. I make them very tight and check frequently.
I tend to check what he has been playing with and how he has been playing with it to try to think of potential dangers and try to avoid them if i can!