The following is a report from Lousiville about a sanctuary who tested their inexpensive cages and found lead.

I have sent my Parrotlet's cage paint off to be tested at MSU and suggest that people use the same lab or one that you KNOW to be good. Here's the info. It DOES make a difference where you have tests done, we know this from sick animals.

You have two options. You can send a piece of it, like the little dangly thing that holds the door shut all in one piece. Just use a screwdriver and unscrew it. It is not returnable since they dip in in the solution.

And/or scrape off paint from a safe spot like the bottom where the bird CANNOT chew it afterwards.

It must be at least the size of a fifty cent piece or over a quarter of a gram. They want it in a glass tube if possible because it's too hard to dump it all out of a baggie and get it all if you dont' send enough. I suggest you never rely ONLY on the tab thingy in the future because I wouldnt be surprised if some unscrupulous people decided to make THAT ONE PART safer than the other parts.

Regardless of the outcome, I will be replacing my cage with a Kings cage that I believe in, and have confirmed their cages passed when I called the Toxicology lab, Kirk Stuart. There are alot of knockoffs of Kings even though they have patents.

You download this form, fill it out, there's no specific place for "cage paint". I just checked off the right hand side. Kirk said to ask for Minerals Toxic (on the top right)

I sent the form to his attention. I will call and make sure he proccessed it correctly. I don't know the price but the tests are not expensive on the lab list.

There are mailing instructions. I followed the ones you use when sending bloods just to be sure they get it quickly.

I sent it Priority with a signature to make sure that it can't be questioned in case I have a problem in the future.

I am hoping that my Parrotlet male's agitated behavior as of late is more a factor of his environment than god forbid some health problem.

I think everyone needs to test their cages for their bird's health as well as to force a recall by the manufacturers if they come back bad.

MSU home page:

Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health

Submittal form:

http://animalhealth.msu.edu/Submitta...Toxicology.pdf

write in: cage paint test on the upper right, where it says:

Minerals, Toxic □ Feed □ Fluid □ Premix □ Soil/Sludge □ Water □ Other: _____________ □ Tissue: ___________________ (TS)

Address:

Clinical Pathology Laboratory, A215 Veterinary Medical Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1314

Phone:

Stuart, Kirk J. Toxicology 355-0281


You don't need an account, just send the test in and use a padded envelope so the tube doesnt break they sell them at the post office.

You can call for the price of the test, I forgot to ask.

PLEASE DONT ASSUME your cages or other things are safe just because somebody told you so. I can attest to it, from being in the business that you don't get any HUGE price break from people with the pet business or any really, for that matter. IF the price is too good to be true, it most likely IS, and there's a reason.

I hope all our cages come back at safe levels.





Sanctuary finds lead paint in Chinese-made bird cages

Sep 7, 2007 05:46 PM EDT


By Maira Ansari

LOUISVILLE (WAVE) -- WAVE 3 has uncovered a danger that is making some animals sick. A sanctuary in Irvington, Kentucky started noticing a problems with their birds and found that lead may be the culprit. WAVE 3's Maira Ansari has the details.

At the Broadbent Wildlife Sanctuary, you'll find just about every type of animal. It's a safe haven for animals who are sick, injured, or orphaned by wildlife. But, just recently...animal caretakers noticed something wrong with their birds.

"Several of the birds were getting thin and not acting just right," said founder and president of the sanctuary Mary Ann Tobin.

That's when Dr. Michael O'Bryan started suspecting the cages the birds live in.

"We all know that there have been reports of lead in the paint of children's toys, so we had some wondering is there lead in the paint of these cages that were made in China," O'Bryan said.

And his intuition was right. He sent off pieces of the cages and the test results came back positive for lead.

"Exposure to these cages over a period of time we may be dealing with a chronic form of lead toxois. Right now, we can't say for sure and the end result is death," said O'Bryan.

This positive test result could explain why one of their birds suddenly passed away Thursday night.

"He was a perfectly healthy bird and has been for six months and we walked in and he was just laying on his back dead and he has a mate and it just broke our hearts" said Tobin.

Now, all of the birds have been removed from their cages and their homes have been covered up.

"They can fly around into the wall into the light fixture" said O'Bryan.

Animal lovers here at the sanctuary want to let everyone know that they need to look into where their birds cages were made.

"We got to get it out there, otherwise we will loose a lot of birds and maybe other animals too because it will kill them" said Tobin.

Dr. O'Bryan says they are going to be doing testing on the rest of their birds, but their main problem now is getting new cages for the birds.

If you would like more information on the Broadbent Animal Sanctuary, just click on the highlighted link.

Online Reporter: Maira Ansari

__________________
Cindy

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
- Mahatma Gandhi

Has anyone posted the brand of cages with that has lead paint?

Not that I've seen. The sanctuary hasnt posted any updates to their bird testing either.

What concerns me is that I'm thinking it wouldn't be unusual for many manufacturers to use the same factory.

Even orange juice brands do that they process a few different brands in the same facilities.

I plan on calling Kings on Monday and asking about their testing.

All of my cages are from A & E, except for one of my zons cages. I am sending out samples on Monday,I know these cages are made in China so I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I have two HQ cages and am pleased with their quality. They are manufactured in China. I recently bought a new cage and I have no idea what kind it is. I am very disappointed in the quality. How do you find out what kind of cage it is? Even on my HQ I'm not seeing a name on it.

The statement on HQ's site addresses the zinc, but not lead.

This is something that has disturbed me deeply since the first report came out. All three of my cages are A&E, which certainly fall under the category of "cheap, Chinese made cages". I probably am going to have to make the difficult decision to forgo testing them, since there is no way I can come up with the thousands of dollars needed to replace them with a known safe brand (provided there is such a thing, other than the more expensive Stainless Steel brands). Even the less expensive Stainless Steel cages are known to have problems with corrosion and rusting. I can only take some hope from the observation that none of my guys are "cage chewers", preferring to make toothpicks out of wooden toys instead, which hopefully are free of lead paint, but who knows? I would love to hear that someone has tested some A&E cages and they turned out negative, but as has been stated, it is possible that all of these Chinese cages come from the same factory. Hopefully in time, I'll be able to put enough aside to start replacing them, and won't be slowly killing my birds in the meantime. Not a great feeling.

Karen on the cages that don't have a name the only way to tell is from surfing the internet for the photos and verbiage. You can usually tell because they have a SLIGHT difference in style. OR you can see the same photo like with a specific bird sitting on the cage on all the sites.

The disturbing part it there are multiple batches of paint and just because one time of year's cage comes back safe we can't assume all other cages made other years or time of year are.

Also my point was that there are MULTIPLE mfrs using the same factory(s) so you can't go by name or know what's going on inside there.

For me, the only way is to test them. The ones in my house.

I washed my grate today and left it "air dry" for a half hour while I was running around doing stuff.....usually I dont do that....and rust was flying down out of the sides of the grate. Not a great feeling........

i will test mine - and i'll do it myself as i have everything i need right here on campus and know how to use it... nate, i'll let you know

Also for me. We have a thread here on PC somewhere, I called the Rescue to see what make the cage was that tested positive for Lead. I was really bothered because I recently purchased a cage that I am questioning quality. I have brought a bird through Zinc Toxicity, it's not an easy thing to do to them and it's not something I want to see repeated.

This is the actual cage I have. The only thing I like about it is the lock. I have the entire top held together with zip ties. If I had a normal Macaw or used this cage for anything other than sleeping, it would be totally unacceptable to me. There are areas in this cage that the paint didn't even reach.

I would be kicking myself if something bad happened from this cage. I think I should put his double macaw cage back up.

I have the top held together with zip ties.


This is not chewed. This is how it came, rust and all.

I meant to add to my post that as soon as I received the cage I checked to see if it could be returned. The policies were such that it would have cost me more to return it than what I paid for it. I would have to pay a re-stocking fee, reimburse their freight cost and pay frieght to ship it back.