Dear Parrots magazine,
Are cat balls safe?
I refer to Sandra and Ian's toy warning in the August issue and would ask that you do not buy cat balls for your parrot. I have an African Grey called Chalkie and I bought some plastic balls with bells inside for cats from the Pound Shop. She loved playing with them and chewing them. As soon as she had chewed a hole big enough for the bell to fall out I had to take the bell away from her. These too are made of tin.
Unfortunately, one day she got her claw caught in one of the bells and luckily we got it out safely. On another occasion she got her beak caught in one and she was very frightened. Again she was lucky and came away unscathed. After that we threw away all the plastic balls with bells inside. Even now she asks for Chalkie's ball and finds the balls without the bells inside boring and does not play with them for very long. She does, however, have several parrot bells, which are quite large and she loves them too. They are very safe and she hangs upside down from them.Gwen, Manchester