Wooden dowel perches?

[LeoTheQuaker]

So I poster a few days ago about the new cage which I bought for my Eclectus that I will be getting a Nov/dec. a lot of people were saying that the wooden dowels that came with the cage are no good and I am just wondering is there anything I could wrap round them to make them less slippy and more comfortable for the wee parrot.

 

[charmedbyekkie]

Vet wrap is a solution if the problem is slippery perches. However, most of the time the concern with dowel perches is that they don't provide enough variety of width for the bird, which can lead to feet issues, such as a bumblefoot or arthritis in the future.

 

[Laurasea]

I just ditch em. Usually not wide enough.

 

[wrench13]

Vet tape has a few drawbacks, namely f they get pooped on they are hard or aPIA to clean, and if your parrot likes, like Salty does, towipe his beak off on his perches, vet taped ones get yucky. A natural wood perch has varied diameters and cross sections, so your parrots feet get a change of pace so to speak. And make sure you get ones that are large enough in diameter.

 

[noodles123]

Yup yup- vet wrap isn't the most sanitary solution and it won't be a good long-term fix. The dargonwood/manzanita wood branches work--- parrotwizard.com also sells a nice variety of custom and pre- made non-dowel perches etc.
Bumblefoot is bad news.

 

[bill_e]

As stated above dowels can be an issue because they are too uniform in shape and cause the foot to have exactly the same grip and pressure points all the time as opposed to a natural perch which varies in shape and diameter causing different parts of the foot to be in contact with the perch depending on where the bird is standing.

That being said, I used dowels for my OWA for 39 years without an issue.

The reality is that good bird owners provide various places for their bird to perch and many birds spend more time out of the cage than in it.

So initially I wouldn't worry about it but I would be looking for a good sleep perch, be that a natural wood perch, a nail trimming perch or even a dowel which you attacked with hand tools to turn it into something that represented a natural perch. My Nike sleeps on a hanging rope swing and when she's in the cage awake spends most of her time on a Sweet Feet and Beak Safety Pumice Perch.

Looking at your cage pic it would be inexpensive to get a single ended natural or pumice perch to install as the highest perch in the cage (sleep perch) and leave the two dowel perches alone until it's time to replace them.

 

[18WheelsOfSteel]

My babies sleep on those nail trimmer perches, occasionally on the natural wood perch I put in there, they have one dowel perch that is cut to run the length of the cage and generally use it as a "main road" to get to other places in the cage, or to move from one toy to the next, all I had to do to encourage them not to roost on the dowel very often was to position the other perches higher in the cage than the dowel.

 

[itzjbean]

I use vet wrap on my wood dowel perches and my birds love the softness it gives to the perches. When they get worn, I just cut off the old stuff and wrap it with new vet wrap as it's super cheap so it works great for my birds. You can also use soft rope perches, my cockatiels like sleeping on them.