But under the reviews section all the people are saying it was one of the best things they ever purchased for their bird and shortened the amount of sicknesses they had and that the birds loved them. Could it hurt?
Please don't take this as any kind of slam, because it certainly is not meant to be, but welcome to the world of 'Ringer' advertising.....in many cases advertising departments write their own 'reviews' then post them & if an E-mail address is required to 'validate' the 'review' posting, those are as easy to come by as the home grown 'reviews' are.....
With owning parrots (any specie or size) you will read a lot of information that is good and bad, along with a lot of information that is blatantly false.....in the United States (other countries have, in some cases, much better regulations) there really is no "truth in advertising law," so almost anything can be said to get you to buy a product.....similarly, there are a lot of things sold in pet stores and on pet related websites that are bad and even dangerous for pets, but because the manufacturer and the pet store are in business to sell their products, they are not required to let the consumer know of these dangers.....
It is a good thing you came to the forums to ask about the heated perch, I will admit that people do buy them for their birds, but their birds do not really need them...and...to explain a little more about things being sold that may be dangerous to our pets, the supplement industry (in the U.S.) is not regulated by any government agency, so it is big business.....here's something I posted back in January:
Be careful with vitamin supplements. Giving your bird too much can cause overdosing, where the buildup of vitamins will begin to act as poisons.
For the majority of us, the subject of supplements is a guessing game. We guess at which supplements our feathered friends require. Since there is the multitude of supplement options – which one do we choose? What if your Pesky Parrot is allergic to a particular supplement, will you know? What will you do?
After we decide on a type and brand of supplement, how do we get Pesky or Pollyanna to consume the supplement? Do we sprinkle it on their food or do we mix it in their water, do we mix a solution and feed with an eye dropper?
Because there has been relatively little study done on specie specific requirements (birds), many of the supplements offered are the same as those offered we humans.
We often hear of tainted foods and product recalls in our own food chain as well as in the pet industry.
The supplement industry is, as of this writing, an unregulated industry in the United States. That being the case, how do we know what is safe and what is not To be honest, we don’t. You may want to ask your veterinarian about a particular supplement and/or the brand before offering to your feathered friends.
In commentary about the ingredients used in supplements, Susan Weiss, president of Ark Naturals, a supplement manufacturer, said:
“It can be a real challenge, even for manufacturers, to get to the reality of ingredients. Manufacturers buy raw materials and get a certificate of analysis. The supplier basically warranties the quality, but how do you know? There is no authority that warrants that the COAs are valid.”
Eve Adamson, writing for Pet Product News International, August 2008, wrote:
“If a manufacturer can’t even be sure that an ingredient is what it says, how does a retailer, and then a consumer, trust the label?”
Weiss goes on to state:
“You can’t test every single lot of every ingredient you buy. Both the time and cost would be prohibitive. So 100 percent oversight over ingredients is impossible.”
Considering Weiss’ statement, my birds will never receive any products from an industry that cannot concern themselves with properly testing the raw materials that are used for their offerings.
Just because it is on the shelf in your favorite pet store or in the catalog of an online vendor does not mean it is necessary for companion birds. Remember, the pet store, online vendors and the supplement/additive manufacturer are in business to sell product and make money, they are not necessarily good sources of medical advice. Just because they make and sell a product to the pet bird market, do they really know if that product is of a benefit to the birds?
I mentioned earlier that it was good that you asked about heated perches here. As Stewards/caretakers of our feathered friends we have to make the best decisions we can for our feathered friends, based on the best information we have at hand. In forums such as this, we often find new information about a topic we may not have found/known otherwise, like my above posting about an industry that holds costs above someone or something's safety.
Did you know that some automotive defects may go unpublicized because it is cheaper for the company to make individual repairs than to recall thousands of vehicles.....their theory is that while they will repair the defect, it is much cheaper for them than it is to recall all of the affected vehicles.....
Thanks for your post.....
