DEADLY TOY

[jmfleish]

You are right and I apologize. Many people do not know that PVC pipe is toxic to birds if ingested. Do you think if this is repeated enough people will throw away their play stands?

I just realized something and feel like an idiot. The picture of the perches were not clear and I took it for granted that those perches were the concrete not the calcium. While talking to Dennis this morning he was talking about the concrete ones which collaborated with my thoughts.

I'm just curious, how is a bird going to ingest PVC?

 

[Shyra]

I agree Polly's is a great company and at one time talked to them in length about the type of calcium they used in their perches. They were great about explaining to me why they used the type they do in comparison to other types and they put my fears to rest. Most places just want to tell you what you want to hear to get you off the phone, Polly's wanted to be sure I was going to be a happy customer.

Years ago pvc pipes and talk about ingesting them being dangerous was brought up and one of the manufacturer's was contacted for their input. Schedule 40 PVC is very safe to use as playstands provided your bird isn't eating or ingesting it from chewing on it constantly. Using end caps helps keep this from happening. The dust can become a problem if a lot is ingested but most birds do not chew on pvc perches and if they do then it should not be used with their birds. The same when it's used in toys which we do see quite a bit of. If it were toxic for birds to stand on or even get small amounts of dust on their feet it would also be very dangerous for us to use as a way to carry our drinking water. There are other types of pvc, some of it comes in a form of vinyl and is toxic to birds. Some of the rubber ducks and other vinyl toy parts used in toys do contain it. I stopped buying from Oriental Trading because a lot of their vinyl toys are made from a type of pvc and they wouldn't provide me any kind of safety information about the items I was interested in. I think when people hear pvc they automatically think pipes and don't realize it is used in so many different ways.

 

[Gypsy]

I checked out Polly's Pet Products for an update on the perches and copied and pasted the test results:

October 28, 2014:
Our independent lab results are finally complete for the testing of Polly's Cuttlebone Calcium Perches. Polly's and our customers are concerned about the zinc content of our Cuttlebone Calcium Perches. So we contracted an independent U.S. laboratory facility to conduct tests to show the composition of our cuttlebone calcium perch. The instrument sensitivity used by the laboratory to test the Cuttlebone Calcium Perches are capable of testing down to 12.5-147 parts per million which is far more stringent than government requirements. The testing done by the laboratory showed that there is NO LEVEL of ZINC detected at or above the 12.5 parts per million level that their instruments are capable of measuring. So essentially the samples tested, passed with flying colors and did not show ANY measurable ZINC at even these incredible stringent standards.
Dennis Knick, Owner Polly's Pet Products, Inc.

Pollys Pet Products