Trixies Fruit Holder

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clawnz
Posts: 148
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2012 9:59 pm
Location: Auckland NZ

Trixies Fruit Holder

Post by clawnz »

Have any of you seen these or even used them?
Image

Image

The story goes:
I had a lorikeet come in for boarding. and one of these was in his cage.
On closer inspection I see bad corrosion on the shaft. I thought this was strange and started to do some investigation.
Heavy Metal Toxicity is a very real danger to any bird. And yet here we have a chrome plated mild steel food holder that, when the acids from the fruit damage the chrome the shaft will then rust.
I took the fruit holder into my pet shop and asked them to show the rep next time they came in. Well someone threw it out. ASo that one was lost. Shame I did not take any photos of it. It was a in a horrible state.
I contacted Trixies and they were very good with their first reply and said they were assuured by the manufactor that they were made from high grade materials. And asked me to show them the damaged one.
I bought two new ones from the pet store, and told them I would run some tests. Thinking it may take some time to simulate the issue.
I scaratched the chrome coating and placed in citric acid. (Well it is a fruit holder) and the acids from some fruit will eat into the coating.
It did not take very many days before I had some results.
Image

This is what happened in just a few hours of putting an apple on the holder.
You can see the rust on the shaft. And see the apple has only just started to show aging from being cut.
No bird eat this after I used as a sample. I took it from Dexter as I had no others at the time, I wanted to test.
Anybody want to try and tell me this is not going to cause a bird any harm?

Anyway I sent them my results, but have not recieved any reply, yet.
If you buy anything I like this make sure it is stainless and good quailty at that.

I would advise! Be very careful with so called safe products.
AJPeter
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Location: Birmingham England
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Re: Trixies Fruit Holder

Post by AJPeter »

Thank you Clawnz, l have been using a fruit holder for nearly a year and do not have the corosion you speak off, a hang a quarter of Pomegranite on it every day, I clean the spike every day and do not have the corrosion you speak off, apples woulld be very easy to show marks. I bought my fruit holder from Northen parrots.
ringneck
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Re: Trixies Fruit Holder

Post by ringneck »

Wow, thanks for the pix! This is crazy! I can't wait to hear what they have to say! :shock:

Best Wishes,

IMRAN-C
MissK
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Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:46 pm
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Re: Trixies Fruit Holder

Post by MissK »

We have used two different skewers like what you showed.
The one from the rodent section in the pet store was rather cheaply made and did get rusty but didn't last long either because the screw-on bit was just a knob at the bottom and Rocky learned to remove it in very short order. (Isn't he fantastic?)

The second skewer we tried is much nicer. http://www.birdsafestore.com/Stainless_ ... jt-kb1.htm (**I am not endorsing this store, just trying to show the item.) It's actually stainless and plastic. The removable part is the plastic apple at the top. By some magic, even the screw hole in the plastic part stays clean and not rusty. I'd like to say it's fool proof, but Rocky did ultimately learn to disassemble this one too. (I *told* you he's fantastic!)

Side note: These skewers are just as good at holding beads, blocks, cardboard, drilled nuts, strings, balls, whatever as they are for carrots, apples, kiwis, melon, etc. When you've lost the washer at the bottom you can just make sure the first thing you put on is carrot and it will make a nice base for the rest of the foods. It seems a little hard to get real stainless washers where I live. Grrrrrr. Stupid big box stores.
-MissK
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