There's practically no variety in perch brands here. I think there's Penn Plax and one other.

my cement perches are wood in the middle instead of metls do you think i should remove them?

There's practically no variety in perch brands here. I think there's Penn Plax and one other.

I think I'll spend today sending out some emails. Maybe I can find contact info for Penn Plax as well. We get a lot of their products here.

 

my cement perches are wood in the middle instead of metls do you think i should remove them?

Are you sure it's wood? If so, I would think they're fine.

bea i have the pen plaxx and i saw it in a pet store all eaten down and it was wood but maybe i was mistakend? i also just bought 2 new cement perches 1 lovely swing and the other a really cool perch thing

 

well it looked like wood ill see if i can look into it to

That's a bit weird, how could it be wood if it's screw on? How does it attatch to the cage?

i THINK that its wood becouse i saw it all eaten down but it was a while ago i think they put a screw into the wood im not sure though!so dont take that serios im not sure

If feel there's a bit of scaremongering here.

 

Yes there are some very dodgy products on the market, mainly cheap unbranded imports or unknown brands however most of the premium brands are safe with regard to the calcium perches.

 

I know that most of the concrete perches on the market will have a metal bar inside them which is how they are made. This can also apply to the wooden one's and they may even pose a greater risk as anyone can just add a fixing from any household store and this will probably contain a nasty chemical like Zinc.

 

I source perches from Polly's http://www.pollyspetproducts.com/ which is a premium brand. I'll make some enquiries as to what metal is used, I believe it's steel but will check. The other calcium perches I sell are made by Prevue Hendryx I don't think they contain metal middles as they are moulded out of calcium/shell http://www.prevuepet.com/main.html

 

Another thing is that with the concrete perches they should be removed if the birds are eating them as they are not designed to be eaten as they act as a pedicure. It is therefore the owners responsibility to remove any item which is worn as nothing lasts forever.

 

Hope that helps and I don't think you need to remove any calcium perches unless the metal pole is showing (if it has one), my budgie has had his for months, loves sitting on it, nibbles it and I would never put him at risk.

If you can find out what type of metal is used, that would be very helpful. If you ask a company "is this dangerous" they'll of course say it isn't. It's best to simply figure out what materials are used in their products so that owners can make up their own minds. Personally, I am going to avoid buying these things unless I know 100% that the rod is a safe metal. I wouldn't want to risk poisoning to my birds (and I know no one else here does either).

 

I'm not sure how you can say that most unsafe products are not premium brands? I've seen bad products under many well-known and respected brands. I also don't see how you could make the generalization that "most of the premium brands are safe with regard to the calcium perches" without knowing what is inside of those particular perches.

 

I wasn't intending to scare anyone, just prevent accidents from happening. The girl who shared her story on the other board is not the type to dramatize a situation just to scare people up. She's very knowledgeable with parrots and has a lot of experience. Her stories and the stories from others who have lost their birds to heavy metal poisoning need to be taken seriously.

 

I'm not saying that all of these perches are dangerous, just that we should be careful and know exactly what is going into our birds' cages. I'm going to try and contact a few companies to see what responses I can get. Maybe together we can compile a list of companies who only use safe metal in their perches (wood, calcium, and cement)?

Edited January 10, 200619 yr by eterri

I have one calcium branch, never like the idea of cerment ones, didnt think it was smart to let them near cement at all incase of chewing. But they don't eat this one they simply stand on it. I have cuttle fish which they all enjoy eating instead.

i have a calciam swing and perch cement thing witch is ment to be eaten and it is wood i took scissers and dug a hole in it and it was wood so thats good but im not sure about the bigger ones ill see if i can find out

Thankyou for bringing this to our attention eterri. i had heard something similar before, but did not know enough about it to make any judgements.

 

i dont have any edible calcium perches - but i do have a manzanita branch and a wooden cholla perch that has clay covering parts of it. i dont think the manzanita will be a problem because the metal doesnt run the whole way through the branch and i dont think my birds will ever chew it down, they just scrape their beaks on it.

 

i will be eagerly awaiting feedback from the suppliers on this. very wise advice to check before you buy.

Pixie, mine like to nibble the clay from those cholla perches. Do yours?

I sent an email to Pennplax yesterday, I'll let you know if I get a reply

Must say thanks to this thread I went out and check my Perch and noticed there was rust showing on the bit that held it to the cage, in easy reach for the birds to chew at. So it was removed then and there. I might have missed it with out this fresh on my mind.

cool thats great lani i could be mistaken and its good to here what they say i know lani have you got your budgie yet?

I got distracted from this the other day but I'm going to be sending out emails (or letters, depending on what kind of contact information I can get) today. Does anyone know of any companies in particular that they'd like me to write? I know lani is doing Penn Plax so I'll leave that one to her.

Pixie, mine like to nibble the clay from those cholla perches. Do yours?

 

i dont know about nibbling, its more like 'lets attack it before it moves!'

 

i only put it in the other day and they have been biting it to shreds! they seem to like it a lot, and they actually do eat some of the clay - i think it is a mineral supplement or something?

I am having a bit of trouble finding contact information for some of the companies I want to write to. But so far, I've gotten one response from a representative of Perchfactory.com. He seemed a bit evasive of my questions but I did get a helpful tip. I'm not sure how accurate it is but intend to look into it more.

 

He said that most stainless steel is nonmagnetic so you can test your perches with a magnet. Basically, if the magnet doesn't stick, it's quite possibly stainless steel. (Never thought about that...) I'm not sure if nickel plated stuff is magnetic or not but I'll look into it.

 

What I didn't like were the reasons he gave for "the vast majority of products available for parrots" not being made from stainless steel. He said that one reason was that parrots don't usually play with the metal and the other reason was the cost of using stainless steal. These are horrible reasons for not striving to use a safe product. Lord knows they charge us enough for a wooden stick or slab of concrete with a rod stuck through the middle.

 

At any rate, he did say that if I was interested in one of their products, they could test it to make sure it had stainless steel parts before I placed an order. He was also very speedy in his response, not to mention honest.

Edited January 12, 200619 yr by eterri

I'm contacting Polly's Pet Products, Prevue (Hendryx) Pet Products & also Wagner Happy Bird (don't hold much hope with a reply from this one as they are in Germany and never respond to me enquiries).

 

Once I have details I will post the information.

 

Does anyone know whether steel goes rusty?

I've contacted Polly's Pet Products as well but no others as of yet.

 

I'm thinking stainless steel doesn't rust. At least not easily...but don't quote me on that.

Well my calcium perch was magnetic....sort of, it stuck for a bit then fell off (the magnet fell off). BUT my whole cage was magnetic!! That wont matter unless the plastic blue stuff comes off will it?

Terri, I think that guy was pulling your chain... (won't make any assumptions though)

Here is a website about the properties of stainless steel...

http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=1140

 

My husband works in the steel industry also so I can ask too too.

Edited January 12, 200619 yr by lovey

Well now i don't know what to think!!! This is sooo annoying!

Also here is a great article from Winged Wisdom, they have excellent articles http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww14eii.htm

 

I think what we need to do is take a deep breath, not panic and just do some simple research on the net. Pet stores, manufacures and others will do whatever they need to say to NOT bad mouth their the company they work for. This is their livelihood and who pays their paycheck which in turns feed their family.

 

I am all for debunking a myth and getting the facts!

Edited January 12, 200619 yr by lovey

My head hurts.

 

BUT my whole cage was magnetic!! That wont matter unless the plastic blue stuff comes off will it?

It should be fine as long as the coating stays put.

Edited January 12, 200619 yr by eterri