A&E Cage Co. Wins Award for Best New Product

Click on image to enlarge A&E Cage Co.’s new bird stands and toys won Best New Product at the 2012 SuperZoo show.

A new line of bird toys and stands developed by A&E Cage Co. of Burlington, New Jersey, captured first place Wednesday in the SuperZoo 2012 Best New Product Awards in Las Vegas.

An anonymous panel of media judges chose the winners from among the numerous new products on display. Brilliant Pet’s FroliCat Flik cat toy took second place and Angels’ Eyes new shampoo line came in third.

The stands are the first in the industry to use the wood of java trees, said John Lance, owner of A&E. The wood undergoes a curing process to keep it safe for birds.

“It’s a highly dense wood, which is good because the birds don’t chew it,” Lance said. “And the idea of having the dense wood is that the birds therapeutically exercise their digits on it.”

The line includes two sizes of tree stands, a bird “javarium” — a java stand inside an aviarium — and a series of toys designed for use with the stands and made from materials including coconut, woven wood and rope.

The FroliCat Flik is a white, disc-shaped mechanism that repeatedly flicks a string out from one side. Dubbed an “automatic teaser” by the company, it’s meant to encourage a cat’s instincts to stalk and pounce on prey, said Alan Cook, CEO of Chicago-based Brilliant Pet.

The new line of products from Angels’ Eyes of Sunrise, Florida, includes a wide spectrum of ingredients and scents designed to last for several weeks. Each product is named after a geographic region, such as the Heartland Meadows hypoallergenic shampoo and Southern Comfort oatmeal shampoo and conditioner.

SuperZoo attendees voted for the new products they liked best.

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