Happy Holidays!

Goodness it has been a long time since my last post; time always seems to get away from me! It has been rather busy here, and I hope for things to calm down in the new year.

It is always rather frustrating for me to buy parrot products, like toys, food, perches, etc. I much prefer to buy from small, more personal stores, but all too often products from such places arrive smelling strongly of scented laundry detergent or some other fragrance. Needless to say, I can not be around them, and neither therefore can my birds. I used to try ordering one or two items from a store, to see how they were, but after several failures, I decided it was not an economically feasible plan. For a while I kept with two stores where I was able to find most of what I needed. Last year, when one of those started arriving smelling like cigarette smoke, I decided I needed to find some new places! Feeling brave, I tried emailing a few online from-home bird stores to ask if they used scented laundry detergent. Although I explained myself, I am sure it was still very confusing for them to know how to answer, and most of my responses reflected that. Only one of the stores came back with an understanding response, as she herself had some chemical sensitivities. As of now, I have three stores I know are safe and scent/smoke free:
The Bird-Safe Store
Grey Feather Toys
Hello Bird

They are all quality stores. The first and last carry mass brands and most common products, and I get most of my food and the planet pleasure toys from them. The middle one is the one run by a lady with some sensitivities herself, and it is full of incredible handmade toys and toy parts, as well as good organic food; I am simply thrilled that I can buy her products! And in case anyone reading this is interested in a great dog/cat store that is scent/smoke free, I use Olive Green Dog.

While I am sure most people reading this have never given any thought to what their bird products arrived smelling like, I hope you can at least understand how irritating it is for those of us that must consider it. I recently won a very nice climbing net through an online contest, something which I was quite excited about! Unfortunately, it arrived smelling very strongly of some fragrance, so I am sure I will never be able to be around it. Quite a let down, needless to say. I am trying to see if it will air out enough that my parents can use it with their birds, and if not, I am not sure what I will do with it. Sometimes I think moving to Canada might be a good idea- I hear they are not only stricter on which chemicals can be used, but are also are creating fragrance (including bounce!) free buildings, businesses and towns. Not a bad idea!