Question on heavy metal

[Jeepgirl51190]

Ok, so tomorrow im going to get my new budgie. Today i went out and bought a cage and accessories, but i could not find a cage that didn't have the lift type doors for the food and water dish. Im afraid that my budgie will learn how to open it and escape and land in the deadly hands of my 3 dogs. So i found a really small lock that was used on a luggage carrier and im thinking about locking the food doors with it, but im concerned that it could be toxic? I've read heavy metals are toxic to budgies. I think that its silver, but im not sure if that's a heavy metal or not. Does anyone have any suggestions?:S

[Budgiekin]

Perhaps you could use plastic clips to hold the doors down? I am not sure about metals other than stainless steel which is safe for budgies and other birds.... Anyone else have any suggestions?

[Budgie Master]

Sometimes I look after my mates dog, or my uncles dogs when they go away. What I do is leave the budgies cage high up in another room (typicaly on the top of my wardrobe)...I then keep the door shut.

This way, if the dogs decide they do want to wander into my room (which they don't do anyway, because I always keep the door shut...
they can't get to the birds...nawmsayin?!

I let the birds out when I take the dog out for a walk to give em thier exercise n stuff, or when the dogs are out in the garden....or even if my brother is playin with em in the living room....I'll let them fly around my bedroom and keep an eye on em.



I didn't mention stainless steal or other types of metal in this thread lol..but I hope u found some of my babblings helpful lol.

[Celyste]

My best suggestion would be to contact the manufacturer of the lock and ask them. I've seen some websites that will tell you that if the metal is metallic then it's not safe (not always true) or that if it's shiny then it's not safe (under today's technology, again not always true. The manufacturer is the only on likely to know for sure. Common heavy metals would be zinc and lead. Zinc is mostly used to keep metals from rusting.

There is a sure test that can be done using HCl... however it can also damage the metal if it's not done correctly... and you would need to thoroughly clean the object before you could use it on the cage again, even if it was proven safe.

One opinion I saw recently was that the bird would need to chew A LOT (nearly eat the whole piece) before it would cause damage... I'm not sure I'd want to test that theory though.

[Celyste]

sorry... that should read, if the metal is magnetic...

[redpigtails]

i honestly thought this was going to be about heavy metal music!

[Babyluv12]

I would not use that lock- it is most likely not safe and to try and find out would take so much longer..Mine had lift doors for a long time and they never tried to get out but if you are worried then try some plastic clips.