- Hey, everybody,
Jamieleigh here with BirdTricks,
and today's video is going over the dangers in toys,
what to look out for when you're shopping online
or in person, and what questions to ask,
especially when you're asking them
to small toy distributors,
and asking what materials the toys are made out of,
so on and so forth.
So, here helping me today,
I have my blue throat macaw, Jinxy,
who's also demoing some awesome toys that we have,
and I actually have Sunny on this tree,
but he's not close enough to be in view.
Hopefully, he joins us and gets in this.
But yeah, let's get started.
(toy rattles)
(bright electronic music)
Really thought about filming this without any birds
that might jump on my back, but...
'Cause I really wanna get you guys your info,
not be super distracted by your cuteness,
so just stay over there.
Stay over there and play with your toys.
Trying to put it up there, so that it'll stay.
(laughs) Oh my gosh.
Totally pointless try to do that.
All right, perfect.
Many years ago, I used to pick out toys for my birds,
and I just got tired of it because I realized
I was kind of buying for myself more than for my birds.
So I thought it would be awesome
if I could just give a website my budget
and have them surprise me with toys each and every month
so that I was offering variety to my birds.
So then I went on the lookout for somebody
that I could trust to do this,
and I never found anybody,
so I created that system for myself.
And that's what my toy line
and my toy bundles are all about.
And I'm always on the lookout for safe toy places
that have the same safety standards
that I do when it comes to parrot toys,
which is few and far between if I'm super honest.
So, some of the toys that you are seeing
on these plays stands that Jinx,
oh, you disappeared,
that Jinx and Sunny have are from toy lines
that I personally love,
and I go through great lengths
to find the safest toys available
as well as having people create them exclusively for us,
so what you saw Jinx playing with earlier is called
our Cressi Cardboard Cruncher,
and it is from parrotJOY,
who we recently teamed up with,
and she is making exclusive toys just for us,
and they're based and inspired around our own birds,
so I'm really excited.
Jinx doesn't know,
he doesn't quite have his own toy design yet,
but we're working on it.
So, I think over here,
is this still in the frame?
This is our Three Suns toy.
We really love that one,
it's based off the sun conures,
and actually, Blueberry is a huge fan of that one.
So, let's talk about what to look for
as far as dangers go with toys.
If you find yourself at any point overwhelmed
with the information in this video,
and you just don't even wanna worry about it,
(chuckles) feel free to get one of my toy boxes,
either as a onetime purchase
or save 15% and get a subscription,
so it comes to you every month
without you having to think about it.
From August 20th to September 20th,
we are going to be featuring our new parrotJOY toys
in every single one of our toy boxes.
I'm so excited for you guys to check these out.
One of my favorites from parrotJOY is
our exclusive Bondi's Busy Board.
This stuff has, this one has so much going on on it.
It'll definitely keep your bird busy.
And the cool thing about this toy is
you can mount it anywhere on the cage,
so you can mount it on the side,
you could even mount it on the ceiling.
However, (giggles) you wanna do it on your bird's cage.
It gives a little bit more variety
to just the normal hanging, dangling toy.
But every day we're going to have a daily winner,
and that person will win a $10 gift certificate
to my online store at birdtricks.com
as well as a surprise pin.
So you guys are gonna have to check your boxes
because if you got a pin,
means that you're our daily winner!
So you get not only a gift certificate,
but you're gonna be surprised
with one of our Hyper Finch collaborative pins,
and you don't know which one,
so this is just four of the designs.
We also have Comet, Cressi, ChiChi.
We have Blueberry, but my Blueberry pin hasn't got here yet.
So you'll have to check it out.
Definitely tag us on social media,
let us know which pin you ended up with
'cause I'm really excited for you guys
to get your hands on these.
'Kay, finally, the other part of this promotion
that is my favorite part is
that we are making this a fundraiser.
So the way that we're turning this into a fundraiser is
for every box purchased during this timeframe,
we are donating one toy per box
to Ronie's For the Love of Bird Parrot Rescue,
which, by the way, if you didn't already know,
when you go and you treat yourself to a pin,
100% of our proceeds goes
to Ronie's and the rescue birds over there.
So, we love you, Ronie's!
We want you guys to feel great
about your purchases over at birdtricks.com
and know that you are supporting rescue birds
through a lot of your purchases,
so I cannot wait to see how many toys we have at the end
that we get to send to the rescue birds there.
And hopefully, we get lots of pictures and video
of the birds over at the rescue enjoying these toys.
A lot of the times, bird rescues are given (blows),
surprises (laughs),
are given not only the bird,
but the cage that they came with
and also the toys that they came with,
which often are not usable by the rescue,
so the rescue is then in charge of having to come up
with another cage that is safe for the birds
and supply even more toys,
so helping them out with
at least toys makes me feel really great,
and I hope it makes you guys feel great too.
All right, Jinx, you gonna help me
or are you gonna be super distracto up there?
By the way, Jinx pins should be here soon.
(mouth clicks) Stay on the lookout.
Yours are so handsome.
All right, so my top list.
I don't, haven't even added up how many things
I've come up with about things to avoid
with toys in general.
Number one is that there should never,
ever, ever, ever, ever be a painted surface.
You never want somebody actually painting
your bird's toys with paint.
So be super mindful of that and make sure
if you ever have any questions
about somebody using paint versus something else,
that you ask those questions or you see if it chips away.
Paint is incredibly toxic to our birds,
so if they can just chip at it and ingest it,
you got a toxicity issue,
so please stay away from any toys that use paints.
Thanks for fixing my hair,
it does need some fixing.
Leather toys.
So making sure that the leather used
in any toys is veggie tanned leather.
Now, veggie tanned leather is actually tanned
with the tannins from, and it is all plant-based,
whereas commercial leather is tanned
with harsh, harsh chemicals,
so there's a huge difference between the two.
Make sure any leather going into any of
your bird's toys has been veggie-tanned.
Metal hardware.
Always making sure to ask the toy manufacturer
or producer what type of metal
or hardware is being used in the toys.
Should always be stainless steel or nickel-plated.
(lips smack)
Mojo, bubs. (blows)
He kissed me and got my own hair in my mouth. (chuckles)
Great.
The other big one that I find
almost causes arguments on forums or even talking
with toy producers is the type of rope used.
A lot of people are okay with multiple types of rope,
including cotton rope.
I am anti cotton rope.
One of the reasons is my good friend Patty,
whom if you have seen the Morgan series yet,
she is Morgan's owner,
(Jinx huffs) and what are you doing?
(chuckles) And she sadly had an umbrella cockatoo,
a female umbrella cockatoo pass away
from getting wrapped up in a frayed rope toy.
Do you wanna go somewhere?
Oof, I knew this was gonna happen.
Look at that, even pulled out my hair in the process.
Not that it's hard to do, but you know.
You're back.
(Jinx squawks)
(chuckles) That didn't last long at all!
Perfect, oh, Sunny's coming into the frame now.
Okay, so the other part of the whole rope debacle is
that some rope that frays can cause an entanglement problem.
Now, I had a friend whose cockatoo got entangled
in a rope toy and bit its own leg off
in order to try to get out and bled to death.
It was a horrific scene
'cause it was done while she was at work,
so she came home to that horrific scene.
I hate to even bring it up.
There's tons of horror stories when it comes to toy safety
and the dangers of bird toys,
but it's just one of those things
where I really feel like people should avoid rope
that can be frayed.
Now, the other argument that I see is that people are like,
"Oh, you can use cotton rope and things like that
"because it just comes off in puffs."
The problem with that is that birds will ingest it.
They'll chew on it, they'll take off the puffs,
and they will eat it and ingest it,
and there's a ton of stories on Facebook
that are incredibly sad.
I remember specifically seeing a cockatiel's open body
and a vet pulling out all the parts
from what was ingested from not only a rope toy,
but also fabric toys.
So that brings me to fabric toys.
Please avoid fabric toys.
It's the same ingestion problem,
which also happens with cage covers. (chuckles)
Did your head feathers just go all spiky?
Couldn't tell.
Anyways.
So avoiding that and making sure
that if you do use a cage cover,
that your bird can not get to it and just start chewing it.
A lot of them will reach out with their cute little feet,
pull in the cage cover and just start eating it.
Are you happier on my hand?
♪ Ba ba ba ba ba ba ♪ (Jinx squawks)
(giggles) Trying to teach Jinxy to sing,
but I don't have a good singing voice,
so it's not going super well,
but he did recently learn.
What's so funny? (Jinx laughs)
He's laughing on cue.
Okay, seriously though.
Man, he's just gonna jump on me again, but it's fine.
Let's see what I can talk about in the amount of time
that it takes Jinx to jump to me.
(claps) No using glues.
Okay, so that's another one.
It should be obvious, but it's not.
A lot of people that make toys
are comfortable using Elmer's glue and hot glue.
Please don't use any toys or give any toys to your birds
that have used that.
Especially with the hot glue,
they can literally pick it up, uh,
and eat it, 'cause they can just peel it right up.
These beaks can get to anything.
But please just avoid all glues.
There are ways to make toys without glue at all,
and so please look for toy people that do it that way,
and keep it super natural and safe.
Alright, so dyes.
I think it's really just the human eye
that wants toys to be pretty and colorful.
I don't think that birds care all that much,
but I do know that when it comes to pellets,
and some clients of mine that have had birds
on fruity pellets, they have said that
they specifically pick out certain colors.
So maybe color matters to your bird,
but I like, personally, keeping it pretty natural looking.
So when it comes to dyes,
make sure that those people are using veggie dyes.
Anything else is not up to par with me.
That little foot.
Oh my gosh, your cute little foot.
Your cute little face,
your cute little everything. (babbles)
(lips smack)
Oh, oh, oh! (Jinx squawks)
Bub bub bub!
I actually have never cued you like this.
What's so funny? (jinx laughs)
(laughs) He still laughs.
Well, that's good to know.
Okay.
Seriously, stay there for more than five seconds.
Sunny, look how good you are, bud.
Sunny's being good.
Not Jinxy.
Nah, Jinxy's still being good.
He's just being Jinx.
Okay, I think the last one that I have to talk about is
charms, plastic beads, and rubbers.
Oh boy.
Shouldn't have said it like that.
Not those kind of rubbers, but (giggles) rubber.
Okay, so I've seen people using rubber ducks
and things on toys,
and maybe that's fine for super small birds
that can't actually penetrate the rubber.
They can't break it apart or something,
but I just don't see the point.
If they can't destroy it, why give it to them?
So the thing that drives me nuts is
somebody who's being like,
"Oh, they've had that toy in there for 15 years.
"It's their favorite."
If it's lasted that long,
it's probably not their favorite.
So giving birds something
they can actually destroy is super ideal.
You want them busy,
you want to give them actually something to do,
some simulation, some things that they would be doing
in the wild as far as picking things apart.
(Jinx squawks) Yeah!
And stuff like that.
And with that little foot.
Oh my gosh, it's the cutest foot.
Hey, what are you doing?
Distracting me, you're distracting me.
Oh, all right.
The other thing with the charms is that
it's kind of the same thing,
where the bird can't actually destroy the charms,
and if it can, it's going to be making some sharp edges
for like this guy, he'd be able to break charms
and then I'd be worried
about it actually slicing him and cutting him.
So that's why I stay away from all sorts of charms,
plastic beads, all of that stuff,
and especially plastics.
I hate when people use the plastic chains
and plastic balls and all sorts of things like that
because I really don't believe
in giving our birds plastic to play with.
So, I try to stay away completely from anything
that isn't naturally derived.
So that's why I'm a huge fan of the toys that we use
because they use oyster shell,
they use palm leaves, they use bamboo.
Things that birds can naturally play with and destroy.
And I almost forgot bells.
So the reason that I hate bells (laughs) is one,
the little clacker on the inside,
birds can usually detach that
and it can cause a major issue.
And then also, my galah Bondi,
she's probably one of a kind on this,
but it actually makes her super hormonal to have a bell.
She will actually try to regurgitate
into the inside of the bell.
So I find it as a hormonal trigger for my birds,
so I try to avoid it.
I also don't really like just giving them metals
to play with and chew on,
so that's kinda my thing with bells.
All right, my camera died.
I think I,
think I ended up cutting you out.
Not that it matters because you're jumping
into the scene anyway.
(laughs) Why do I even try?
All right, we're just gonna bring it back.
'Kay.
Oh, what else?
Jinxy, is there anything else I'm missing?
I'm checking all my notes to make sure
that I included everything.
If you guys think of anything that I have forgotten,
please add it in the comments.
What, bubs, ah!
Cute face!
Uh, yeah.
You think of anything, Jinxy?
You think of anything, Sunny?
All right, guys,
so those are all the dangers that I can possibly think of
to be aware of when you are doing your online
or in-person bird toy shopping,
so if you think of anything that I might've left out,
please leave it in a comment below.
And (chuckles) don't forget to tag me in social media.
if you end up with one of our pins
in your boxes, and our winner,
because remember, we're gonna have daily winners all the way
(Jinx squawks) (giggles) from August 20th
to September 20th.
And I know you're excited about this Bondi Busy Board.
Again, we are teaming up with parrotJOY,
who is now making exclusive toys that are gonna be found
in our toy boxes that entire time.
As you can see, they are a hit,
even though this is not one that is designed after you.
Hopefully, we'll have a Jinxy one soon.
But let us know what you guys think
of our parrotJOY collaboration.
We are super excited about it.
Lots of good things happening.
And apparently, this toy is not gonna last
as a demo toy after today.
Also, don't forget that
your purchases are helping rescue birds.
So, really excited to give you guys those updates,
and I can't wait to see how many boxes we sell
so we can figure out how many toys we are sending
to Ronie's For the Love of Birds,
so thank you guys for teaming up with us
and supporting birds in all sorts of ways.
Don't forget that if you want
to send a box of toys to Ronie's,
you can do that via our website.
Just go over to Ronie's website, get their mailing address,
and you can mail them directly to Ronie's
if you want to donate some toys directly to rescue birds.
But every purchase goes towards those birds,
so we are super excited to be teaming up.
Thank you guys for watching.
Thank you for demoing.
(Jinx laughs) (laughs) You are funny.
Hey Jinxy, what's so funny?
What's so funny? (Jinx squawks)
Oh, that was weak.
What's so funny?
Bubs, bubs, bubs, bubs.
Can you do the singing thing?
Can you go.
♪ Ba ba ba ba ♪ (Jinx sings)
Ah!
That was the first time!
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
You did it, Jinxy!
You did it!
You sang a little bit.
So we're working on singing.
You know, 'cause that has everything to do with toys.
That's fine.
Can you do it one more time?
♪ Ba ba ba ba ba ba ♪
(Jinx squawks)
No, that's not it.
I'm trying to teach him.
♪ Ba ba ba ba ba ba ♪
(Jinx squawks)
Jinxy, are you paying attention?
♪ Ba ba ba ba ba ba ♪
(Jinx squawks)
♪ Ba ba ba ba ba ba ♪
No, now I just look stupid.
Bubba, Jinx.
Jinx, Jinx.
♪ Ba ba ba ba ♪
(Jinx sings)
(laughs) It was kinda close.
It's kinda weak, kinda close.
Kinda little bit of everything except for good.
Try again.
(Jinx squawks)
♪ Ba ba ba ba ba ba ♪
(Jinx squawks)
(Jamie giggles)
♪ Ba ba ba ba ba ♪
(Jinx laughs)
(Jamie laughs)
♪ Ba ba ba ba ba ba ♪
No?
Jinxy.
♪ Ba ba ♪ (Jinx squawks)
♪ Ba ba ba ba ba ba ♪
(Sunny squawks)
Sunny is trying to fly,
so it was a little distracting.
Are you distracted, Jinxy?
Finally!
Finally, Jinx has somebody to distract him back.
Ha-ha!
♪ Ba ba ba ba ba ba ♪
(Jinx squawks)
Yeah, forget it.
Well, we'll keep working on it.
(upbeat electronic music)