Spending a little extra money now can save you alot of money, as well as heartache, later. Buy a high quality cage from a reputable manufacturer only. Please, please, please be careful when purchasing a cage for your bird! Beware of generic, “no name,” and imported cages sold at bird fairs and stores. He told me that the owner of Parrot Playstands goes through a broker who goes through another broker that works for the other company.We are extremely fortunate that we still have our Too. When I asked if he had the name and/or contact information for the manufacturer he said no. He then said he didn’t actually make the cages, but rather imported them from China. I told him about our bird getting lead and zinc poisoning from the cage. When I asked him who the manufacturer was he said he made them himself. An employee of Parrot Playstands in Florida said the cage I described was one of theirs and that he did alot of business in Tennessee where the cage was purchased. Through a great deal of research, I eventually found the company that sold Spike’s cage. The only marking was an engraved rabbit on the latching mechanism of the cage door. Spike’s cage had no manufacturer information on it whatsoever. I cannot emphasize enough how emotionally and financially draining this ordeal has been!

Four months later we are still making frequent vet visits and medicating our beloved pet with oral doses of Cupramine in an attempt to get the zinc out of her system. The lead poisoning had somehow resolved itself, unfortunately, the zinc poisoning had not. The vet determined that Spike had most likely suffered both lead and zinc poisoning. After getting this information, I took Spike back to the vet for heavy metal toxicity tests. I just couldn’t believe that in this day and age any company would still use these materials in the metal and paint of an animal cage. You can only imagine my shock when the results came back showing that the cage contained 2,000 ppm of lead and 145 ppm of zinc. I honestly did not expect the tests to show anything. It was most likely a petit mal seizure.After routine blood work came back normal I decided to have her cage tested for heavy metals just for peace of mind.

She was uncoordinated, blind, and deaf for approximately 45 minutes. A short time later she appeared to suffer a “neurologic episode”. She was treated with antibiotics and I kept an extremely close eye on her. At the time it was thought that she may have done so due to an infection. In November 2003, Spike self-mutilated her preen gland. The Cockatoo, Spike, was being housed in a one-year-old cage which we continued to house her in ourselves. In February 2002, my husband and I purchased a wonderful Moluccan Cockatoo from a family who could no longer keep her due to respiratory problems. E-mail us to add items or stories that relate to any items already here.Īerosols, Air Conditioner, Alcohol, Balls, Beads, Bedding/Litter, Cage, Cage Covers, Carpet, Cats, Candles, Chains, Chocolate, Cleaners, Clips, Coffee, Common Household Hazards, Cooking Bags, Cooking Oil, Cotton Candy Toy, Cuttlebone, Febreze, Foods, Glue, Halogen Lamps, Happy Huts, Leather Sprays, Mineral Blocks/Lava Rocks, Pens, Plug-In Air Fresheners, Pine-Scented Items, Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Potpourri, Rope, Salt, Scented Tissues, Swing Incident, Teflon, Toys, Toy Size Issues, Zinc Avoid these items to prevent your pets from becoming a statistic in the growing evidence that these substances or objects are harmful to them. In our opinion, you are better off safe than sorry. Since very few scientific studies have been conducted on the effects of these items on birds, anecdotal evidence is often all that remains. Please keep in mind that many of the warnings on this page are based only on my personal experience or that of others who keep parrots and other pet birds.

Rose breasted cockatoo bird swings