My Feet My Feet Fix My Perches

By: Ryleigh Cantrell Click author's name for more of his/her articles

To busy to even perch for just a moment so you have spent the entire day on your feet.

You feel like your poor feet have walked you around the world and back again. Now if you will take just a moment and imagine its bed time and you have to sleep standing up and on your feet. A miserable thought right.

Can you imagine life like that? It isn't to difficult to imagine the foot and leg problems that could incur? Your parrot faces that exact problem. It's up to us as owners to be certain we do everything possible to provide comfort through options to our pet birds.

The wild version of your bird is free to roam how and wherever he wants. Your bird is able to pick his perches as his wants would indicate. However this is not so for the bird living in the living room cage. His perches are all up to you. Your pet bird needs options just like the wild birds.

Things To Consider About Perches.

1. The Circumfrence Of The Perch:

Pay attention here. The perch is to large if the birds feet are to flat on the perch. If the birds feet wrap around the perch and toes touch the perch is to small. Varying the sizes, shapes and materials of your perches allow birds to pick their comfort zones according to their needs and wants at any given time.

2. Commercial Wooden Dowels:

There is nothing wrong with the commercial dowels other than the consistent shape and uniform circumference. The use of which gives the bird few options. If you must use commercial dowel perches make sure there are several sizing options available for the bird.

It is a great idea to have a perch of hard wood, maybe the highest one. This will provide a stable platform for sleeping. If you can find a suitable hard wood tree branch to hang from the top of the cage having several different size branches they make excellent perches and will help.

3. Concrete Perches Have Their Place:

The concrete will help keep the birds nails trimmed. Concrete perches are not a naturally comfortable perch for birds and should only be used when there are a multitude of wooden perches available. Perch material is nearly as important as the size.

4. Perch Placement:

There should be plenty of space between the perches and they should use the entire heigth of the cage. Going upward from the level of bowls and dishes. In order to avoid injury to the bird make sure of adequate spacing between the perches. Most birds prefer sleeping on the higher perches. Leave room up high making sure the birds head is not crowded against the top of the cage. If your bird has long tail like a macaw be sure the perch placement does not allow the tail contact with the cage or other perches.

Providing proper perches is left up to us. It is important to the birds health and safety. The sizes and shapes of perches are important whether your bird is large or a tiny finch. So take some time and learn to pick them right.

Article Source: ABC Article Directory

About The Author: Ryleigh Cantrell has owned his blue and gold Macaw (Shadow) since 1978. There are two guesses as to why the birds name.The two are inseperable. To learn more about blue and gold macaws.