Day 21 – All About Perches.

I’m running quite behind on these – so much for encouraging me to blog every day. To be fair, I’ve been busily preparing forms and paperwork and scouring the Internet for any information on importing pet birds. I think I have all sent the papers out now, but every time I say that I discover more!

Anyway, I’m going to skip day 20 for now because I’m on a borrowed laptop. I’ll probably do this one towards the end, when I can download photos onto Oli’s computer.

Instead, day 21 – my favourite kind of perch.

There are so many types of perches, and outside of forgoing cotton for sisal or hemp (y’know, after Mishka tried to kill herself with a spiral rope one), I’m not fussed about what we buy. It’s important to provide variety for a bird’s feet, as they’re on them constantly. We generally keep three types of perches per cage. All of them vary in width, and only a few are smooth. The abnormality in most branch perches helps prevent arthritis.

Personally, most of the birds gravitate towards our java perches. These most closely mimic a tree’s natural branches, and offer lots of places to sit and grip. You’d be surprised at which parts they choose to perch on.

In our collection, we have a rubbery perch that bends (Pip loves it), and several inexpensive ones that are made from flat, forked branches. There are a couple plastic perches and plain wooden dowels, which the birds generally avoid. These aren’t very good for them, either, so they tend to miss out on the rotation. Mavi does really like those cement and mineral ones for sanding parrot toes – and although we don’t provide these exclusively, he does choose to stand on them when he has others. The sanding perches have the added advantage of being both durable and uninviting for beaks, while the mineral ones make good toys.

Hemp/sisal rope is good for birds who have feet issues, though not particularly popular with our lot. Swings are also popular as a perch. Our canary, Charlie, used to sleep in his. Wooden ladders and bridges – although specifically toys – often end up serving as a sitting spot for the birds, too. There are some other varieties of wood that work nicely, too, like grapewood, manzanita, and dragonwood.

Out of all of these, though, the best one of all is a human shoulder or head. Particularly if you have to poop. I mean, you wouldn’t want to get your lovely cage dirty, would you?

What about you, what is your bird’s favourite perch?