I had these bells on a toy in my flight cage for many months, now. They seemed safe enough.

 

 

Until one particular hen took a liking to chewing the paint off of them, and this is what she uncovered!

 

Most of us know that copper is toxic to birds, and when we buy toys with bells, we probably check them. But who would have thought that the manufacturer was covering the copper up with paint?

 

Even looking inside the red one doesn't necessarily reveal the copper, but once I knew to look, I could easily see it on the green one.

 

 

 

 

 

So if you have bells on any of your birds toys, and you thought they were safe because they were not "copper" colored, you might want to check again, in case you haven't looked at the insides of the bells.

 

I re-checked the rest of my birds' toys, and these were the only ones with copper, thankfully. And to my knowledge, none of the birds that were in that cage look like they have been poisoned, so I think they are fine. Although I will be keeping a special eye on the hen who chewed all that paint off.

I rarely buy that kind of thing in a petstore as there is no guarantee that it is actually bird safe. Almost all of it is made in China, and if we cant' trust baby formula not to be contaminated, I wouldn't think of trusting anything for birds, which is way less regulated.

 

All my bells, chains, quick links, kabobs etc are made from stainless steel, bought on line from a place I trust.

 

 

 

 

 

Finnie, I have seen copper bells promoted in a pet store as being "copper bells for large parrots, and copper bells for budgies" etc. Even with stainless steel bells you do have to watch as sometimes the clapper or the ring holding the clapper will show signs of rust very quickly. Stainless steel is supposely safe but there is stainless steel and there is stainless steel.

 

Thank you for bringing our attention to bells and their possible side affects. I have a couple of budgies who are bell-bashers and even though I turf out any with rust, I still worry when I see these two "worrying" the bells.

Wish I knew about this sooner, poor little Nibbles died because of this. It disgusts me that people sell bird toys that are toxic to birds

Most of the suspect bird toys are made in China where standards for pet toys are either non existent or very lax. Even these bells can come out of bird toys and stick onto a birds beak either damaging the beak or making it impossible to eat if not noticed immediately.