Bird Perches

Our pet birds are always on their feet.  They don't have the luxury to lounge on a sofa with their feet propped up. Now, imagine you must grip something firmly with your hands all day. Your joints would become pretty achy if they were in the same position all day long. Birds must constantly grip bird perches with their feet, so proper bird perch fit is critical.

Provide several bird perches for foot health

One of the best pieces of advice that vets give is to provide several bird perches with variable diameters and textures throughout the bird cage.  According to Dr. Larry Nemetz in California, your birds sleeping perch should be a perfect fit. He recommends that this bird perch in particular lets your bird wrap its foot about 3/4 of the way around the diameter of the perch.  This is the 75% perch rule. 

How to Choose the Right Sized Bird Perch

Choosing a right sized bird perch is important to prevent foot sores and arthritis in toe joints. The goal in individualized sizing is to reduce the strain on the series of joints in your birds’ feet.

“If the perch is too big, there is potential for pressure sores at the junction of the first inside toe (digit #1) and the first forward toe (digit #2) and for the birds to fall off their perch while sleeping because the toes are not grasping properly” says Dr. Nemetz.  Pressure sores can be quite painful and can easily become infected. 

 If the bird perch is too small the joints in your birds/ feet will become cramped and painful.     

Natural wood bird perches are highly recommended for all birds because they offer variability in the diameter across the length of the perch, thus relieving stiff, sore joints.  Rope bird perches are also very popular for two reasons.  Your bird can dig its’ nails into the cotton rope bird perch fibers which provides stability and rope bird perches are just plain old comfy.  And, the Thermo-Perch  Heated Bird Perch is very useful not only in winter climates, but in keeping an ill bird warm. We recommend that you keep a Thermo-Perch as part of your bird first aid kit. These heated bird perches tend to run big so that they offer warmth to the entire span of the foot.

Conditioning Bird Perches

We like to put one or two Sandy Bird Perches in each of our bird cages.  We put one Sandy Bird Perch by the food bowl and one high up in the cage for sleeping.  Please follow the 75% rule when choosing your birds sleeping perch.

Sandy Perches are made from a bonded sand compound that sticks to natural branches.  The sand is carefully inspect to insure that the individual grains are not sharp.  The sandy texture gently grooms the sharp edges of grown toe nail minimizing and even eliminating the need for manual grooming on many bird. We’ve used Sandy Bird Perches for years to minimize the need for manually trimming the nails and beak.  Our birds’ nails are gently rounded making it very comfortable to pick them up.  Plus, we find that nicely groomed nails don’t get caught in fabrics as much, saving our shirts.  We’ve probably used the same Sandy Perches for 10 years, so the investment definitely pays for itself in savings of grooming costs.

Read these articles to learn more about various varieties of bird perches:

• How To Choose A Bird Perch
• About Manzanita Wood Perches
• About Java Wood Perches