# Raffia killed my Penny - Please read



## gregnmel (Dec 14, 2011)

Hi....As hard as this is to talk about I wanted to share this so others don't go through what I went through.

When i got my beautiful Penny I spent ages making her toys. I used Raffia to hold things together or hang them and also to tie sticks onto her cage.

About a month ago she started getting very sleepy and didn't seem herself. We took her to a vet and he said she had stomach problems and gave us medicines for her....we used those for about 2 weeks but she was going down hill. We were finally able to track down a bird vet in our area and she immediately recognised that Penny had something stuck in her crop. 

The next day she died in surgery - she was just too weak by then. The vet pulled out a big ball of raffia. She says that she sees lots of birds with the problem - either raffia or string caught in their crops.

I feel so bad because i used the raffia thinking it would be safer than string and my decision cost my little buddy her life.

Please don't risk using this in their cages.


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## Simbah (Feb 9, 2012)

I am so sorry for your loss, Ive removed all the Raffia in my Tiels cages.
Thank you for sharing your heart aching expierence, hoping to help other tiel owners here.
God bless, I hope you and your family is holding up well. 
You and your family will be in my Prayers.


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## enigma731 (Aug 12, 2011)

Unfortunately just about any non-food item can cause an obstruction if the bird ingests it in large quantities. This is something we need to be aware of as 'tiel parents, and judge when an item needs to be removed from a bird's cage. However, I don't think it's a reason to deprive all birds of a material that is generally safe just because one bird had a problem with it. There are examples of birds that eat string, cardboard, plastic, wood, even wicker from certain toys. If we completely removed any item that had ever caused a problem for any bird, we would be keeping our 'tiels in empty plastic bubbles. That would be very sad. 

I'm very sorry for your loss, and I hope others will take this as a reminder to constantly evaluate the individual safety of the items in the birds' cages.


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

I am so sorry for your loss, that is heart breaking.


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## northernfog (Dec 14, 2010)

I am so sorry about your loss. Please don't put the blame into yourself!  This is indeed really sad!


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

Im so sorry for your loss


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## Annie (Nov 20, 2009)

So sorry to hear about Penny. Please don't blame yourself. Thank you for sharing this with us so that we can be aware that we must use raffia with caution. You have probably saved the lives of may tiels by sharing this. Take care. :flowers:


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## sunnysmom (Sep 23, 2011)

I'm so sorry for your loss.


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