Toys in cotton rope

[SunTruth]

Hello everyone,

First of all I hope I am in the good part of this forum to post this (I am new here).

I take care of a Senegal parrot for two months now, and I am afraid I could have done a mistake and hopefully not too many.

I bought him two toys in cotton ropes and it was fine, he is rather quiet and apparently prefer to stay on my shoulder than his toys but anyway sometimes he was sitting on one of them.

Today after his meal in his cage I noticed he was walking strangely and put his feet in his mouth. Actually he had strands of cotton between his feet and was not able to walk normally or climb anymore. I was terrified but managed to remove the strands (it was really really not easy to do that).

Now I removed the toys from the cage because I do not want it to happen again but I wonder:

- do you think it happened because he has long nails (we never clipped them I dont know if we should) and maybe removes some strands of the nails?

- do you think toys with cotton ropes are dangerous in general? If so I have read that sisal or hemp ropes could be alternative. Anyone know if these ones are safe?

Thank you

 

[Shezbug]

Some cotton is worse than others and some birds really should not have cotton- it depends on how they interact with it. @Mizzely

 

[Mizzely]

I do not use cotton in my toys, nor do I give them to my bird. I do allow cotton rope perches because I find them to be a little less of an issue. However they can get snagged on nails and ingest fibers if they chew them. Sisal, abaca, manilla, and hemp are usually safer.

 

[SunTruth]

Thank you for your answers.

I know it is not he question per se, but it is related, do you clip the nails of your parrot? Because I feel it might be the combination long nail/cotton toys that could cause issue (beside chewing/cotton).

 

[Mizzely]

Depends on the bird. Some are good about doing it themselves, others aren't. If your bird is standing on a flat surface and their nails make their toes lift off the surface, their nails are too long. If they are super Sharp you can file the end of snip the end to make it a bit more blunt

 

[tka]

I don't need to clip. I give my birds a couple of really thick perches, and they also have textured shower and window perches. Between these perches, their nails get worn down to a good length.

 

[SunTruth]

Are these sandy perches?

 

[tka]

They are. However, I use them where my parrots don't spend a lot of time. A textured perch must never be your parrot's sleeping perch because the texture is too rough on their feet.

If I gave textured perches in their cages, I would use one that has a smooth top surface so that the bird's feet rest on the smooth surface, with only their nails gripping the textured part. Here's a post about choosing a suitable pedi-perch

Pedi-Perches

It´s no secret that I am a huge fan of pedi-perches - but only certain ones. I just want to post a thread with some info, so that I can reference it in the future instead of posting the same info multiple times and missing important parts. I stand by my pedi-perches, and only one of my birds...

forums.avianavenue.com

 

[SunTruth]

Thank you a lot!

 

[MnGuy]

I don’t use cotton perches or toys anymore for this reason. They can be dangerous and you can’t always be home supervising their use of such toys.

I use sisal rope.

 

[calibird]

Hello everyone,

First of all I hope I am in the good part of this forum to post this (I am new here).

I take care of a Senegal parrot for two months now, and I am afraid I could have done a mistake and hopefully not too many.

I bought him two toys in cotton ropes and it was fine, he is rather quiet and apparently prefer to stay on my shoulder than his toys but anyway sometimes he was sitting on one of them.

Today after his meal in his cage I noticed he was walking strangely and put his feet in his mouth. Actually he had strands of cotton between his feet and was not able to walk normally or climb anymore. I was terrified but managed to remove the strands (it was really really not easy to do that).

Now I removed the toys from the cage because I do not want it to happen again but I wonder:

- do you think it happened because he has long nails (we never clipped them I dont know if we should) and maybe removes some strands of the nails?

- do you think toys with cotton ropes are dangerous in general? If so I have read that sisal or hemp ropes could be alternative. Anyone know if these ones are safe?

Thank you

There are other options for ropes. You could buy different ropes or Stainless Steel Skewers and remake the toys.

 

[SunTruth]

There are other options for ropes. You could buy different ropes or Stainless Steel Skewers and remake the toys.

Yes I will try to find a circle ring stand in sisal but unfortunately the stores have very limited choices where I live.

 

[Wardy]

Flagstone perches from seriouslynutz are great for keeping your birds nails in check.

 

[MnGuy]

Yes I will try to find a circle ring stand in sisal but unfortunately the stores have very limited choices where I live.

Although I like to support local stores when possible, online shopping is best for hard to find items like those.