Securing Mirrors, Bells and Toys to Cages?

[Marianne Marlow]

I recently realised (stupid me) that the little metal rings and tiny clips that were holding the mirrors to my birds cages were showing signs of rust.

I had a big metal removal session!!

The bells are stainless steel by the way.

As a temporary solution I have used leather strips (ones that are not chemically treated and are meant for budgie toys) to tie on the bells to the mirrors and tie the mirrors to the cage.

Does anyone have any other solution? What do you do? I realise that the leather strips may not last very long.

Here are pictures of my handiwork:

[ffiscool]

All of bailey's are either on plastic or leather/rope (paper type not stringy).. but he doesn't actually bite them, so not had a problem, yet

[sweetpea]

Yes I used leather or plastic things. Teething rings & shower curtain rings are used here too but I suspect they may be too thick to hang those mirrors from.

[splodge]

I have a couple with "S" type plastic fastenings but the rest I have used leather or the thick paper string from Karen. He hasn't chewed them either, yet if I make him a toy out of the stuff it'll last just a few days.

Actually, now I think about it, we once came home to find him acting very odd and discovered his favourite plastic rings on the bottom of the cage. He must have chewed the fastening on that and the noise/shock must have been enough to stop him doing it again. Are they that clever?

[jellybean]

Plastic cable ties are good too Marianne, especially if you find that sometimes the leather is too thick.
Can I ask where you bought your Stainless Steel bells. I have looked online, even asked Karen at Natural bird co, but she has difficulty sourcing them too. I contacted Northern Parrots but the Stainless steel bells they sell are only suitable for bigger parrots.

[milliej]

Oh good ideas here, I My two still have a couple of toys that have metal chains, so I'll dig out my old shower curtain rings as we now have a walk in shower and try them Good work on the leather fastenings Marianne, they can be difficult to tie I've found.

[helenmat]

I bought a load of plastic string which I use or I have bought stainless key rings from a craft shop and used those

[Hezz]

Marianne Marlow, I use stainless steel key rings. You know, those little rings that allow you to take keys off and on easily? I get them from the hardware store, and you can get ones where the end doesn't stick out sharply, but rather the whole ring is designed with a bend in it so that the end is kind of tucked in nicely. Mind you, I have the others as well and have never had a problem with them - no scratches other anything like that.

For connecting the toys to the cage, mostly I use those baby teething rings that interlock.

[Hezz]

jellybean, S/S bells can be hard to get hold of, so when you are able to, get what you need. The link below is for the place I use here in Australia; they are very good, but I see that they are also out of their small liberty bells. The medium size is okay for one or two, but I would really recommend the small ones, once they are back in stock. There is someone on the forum who got theirs from here, I am fairly sure ...... The new ones they have (the more expensive ones) I have not tried ..... I have a good supply of bells now; I don't need any more.
www.myparrotshop.com/index.php?searchStr=bells&_a=viewCat&Submit=

[Deleted]

I use a little bit of the shredders stuff to tie things onto the cage.

[Marianne Marlow]

Jan 22, 2016 13:29:46 GMT jellybean said:

Plastic cable ties are good too Marianne, especially if you find that sometimes the leather is too thick.
Can I ask where you bought your Stainless Steel bells. I have looked online, even asked Karen at Natural bird co, but she has difficulty sourcing them too. I contacted Northern Parrots but the Stainless steel bells they sell are only suitable for bigger parrots.

I got my bells from a place in America a few years ago, cost me about £20 for 15 bells, but they don't seem to have them anymore either.