Safety of toys - IRN almost choked last night :(

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jmlw7
Posts: 179
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 7:58 am

Safety of toys - IRN almost choked last night :(

Post by jmlw7 »

Hi all, I've been posting about our 8.5 month old IRN, Remy, over the past few weeks as he has been with us for a month now. We've been really dedicating our time to making sure he is taken care of the right way with love, diet, time, cage size, toys, etc... and I realized the hard way that you can just never be too careful.

We have tons of toys for him - safe toys... and we've recently bought tons of toy parts to save on $. Hemp rope, veg tanned leather, paulie rope, plastic and stainless chains, etc, etc. Earlier this week I took some foraging toy ideas from here and other sites as inspiration and strung a natural pod cup onto a hemp rope and tied to one of Remy's perches (outside of his cage on his bamboo plant that he likes to hang out in), so he can pull it up and forage what's inside. He handled the one pod cup fine and caught on really quickly to the pear and apple inside.

So yesterday, on my day off I added another pod cup... so the hemp rope had two pod cups stacked directly onto each other.

Well, after a few hours of him playing and foraging and lifting one pod cup and chewing/lifting/playing/throwing the other, he somehow got one pod cup over his head and the other pod cup on the other side of him where the hemp rope itself created a weighted choking loop around his neck. I was in the next room and heard this awful screaming/growl and ran over when I realized he was choking to death.

I tried to unwind the rope by moving the pod cups at first but couldnt tell which way it was looped and tied around and he kept screaming and growling and choking and nipping at my fingers, until my fiance ran over with a pair of scissors. I was shaking so badly, but managed to cut the string and set him free. Remy immediately flapped around and ran/climbed up the plant to hide at the back of his cage. He preened himself for a while and was tweeting quietly and was so scared. It was SUCH a frightening feeling to know TWO pod cups and ONE piece of hemp rope were all it took to get him wrapped and tangled in it and almost died. If we werent there, or if I were in the shower or if it were IN HIS CAGE while we were at work, we would have come home to a dead bird.

After a few minutes, he was acting fine and stepping up and chirping and sitting on our shoulders and eating well and everything, but we are still shaken. He even tried reaching for the pod cups again, now on the table... So I decided never again for hemp rope to have that much length, or "weights" that can be wrapped around anything - and restrung the pod cups on a plastic short chain, with paper stuck between the chains for it to have no real movement other than to swing from side to side.

Just thought I'd post it here as I've read several foraging ideas of pod cups on hemp rope. If you have this, make the rope much shorter. and make it so its a foot toy. If you want it to hang, make sure it hangs straight and can only sway side to side and cant be looped up and around - or make it at least so it hangs above and not below where birds can wrap themselves it in if they climbs all over it or down it or to the side of it or whatever.

I was too upset to keep the photo of the original toy I made, I wanted no memory of it although now I think I should have posted it here so people can see what it looked like in all it's basic simplicity.

But I do have a photo of the new and improved toy that I think will be much safer below.

Image
MissK
Posts: 3011
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:46 pm
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Re: Safety of toys - IRN almost choked last night :(

Post by MissK »

That's certainly a sobering experience. I'm sure there is ample material for Rocky to hang himself in his cage at my house. It makes me think of fixing his foraging cup to not swing free. We'll see.

-MissK
-MissK
jmlw7
Posts: 179
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 7:58 am

Re: Safety of toys - IRN almost choked last night :(

Post by jmlw7 »

MissK wrote:That's certainly a sobering experience. I'm sure there is ample material for Rocky to hang himself in his cage at my house. It makes me think of fixing his foraging cup to not swing free. We'll see.

-MissK
If there is one foraging cup thats not too heavy, it might be fine with a shorter string. Just dont add more than one if the cups allow free movement on the string... that was my mistake.
MissK
Posts: 3011
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:46 pm
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Re: Safety of toys - IRN almost choked last night :(

Post by MissK »

I have to say, I really love seeing how you have wholeheartedly embraced every aspect of your Ringneck experience. It gives me a happy, reassuring feeling that somewhere things are right in the world. Thankyou for sharing so much of it with us.

-MissK
-MissK
jmlw7
Posts: 179
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 7:58 am

Re: Safety of toys - IRN almost choked last night :(

Post by jmlw7 »

Thank you, I have learned everything I know from you and the members on this forum, so thank you! I can only hope to help others the same way over time :mrgreen:
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