Homemade Parrot Perch

In the wild parrots are agile climbers, their feet grasping everything from thick tree limbs to small vines, enabling them to move rapidly through trees. Providing your pet birds with a variety of perches helps to replicate this experience, exercising the muscles of the feet and keeping your bird healthy. Perches are easy to make at home. As they become soiled or worn you can replace them with new ones, which is much easier and more sanitary than cleaning them.

  1. Design

    • You should outfit your pet parrot's cage with several perches of different sizes and materials. The variety allows him to choose the perch that is most comfortable for him at the moment. Different perches can serve different functions. Parrots like to chew on natural wood perches and strip the bark from them. Uneven perches of varying diameters, such as pieces of tree branches, exercise your bird's feet.

      Perches can extend all the way across a cage or only partway. If you choose natural wood, look for gnarled and twisted branches to add interest and variety. Don't choose perches that are too narrow. Your parrot's feet should be able to comfortably grasp the perch, not wrapping all the way around, but reach halfway to three-quarters of the way around the perch. The perch shouldn't be too smooth. If you use a smooth object or material such as a dowel, sand the perch to roughen it up. You can even router grooves into the dowel to add texture.

    Material

    • Parrots like to chew, so any perch you make must be made out of nontoxic material. If you cut branches out of your yard, be sure to use a tree that hasn't been sprayed with any kind of chemical. Avoid peach, apricot or cherry wood, since the inner bark of these trees contains cyanide compounds that can be poisonous. Don't use painted or treated wood.

      Choose soft woods your bird can chew. Apple, pine, dogwood, and willow are among the types of wood that make good perches.

      Disinfect the wood before using it for a perch by soaking it in a solution of 2 tbsp. bleach to a quart of water for 10 minutes. Rinse well and allow to dry completely before you place the perches in the cage. You can also bake branches in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. Allow them to cool completely before placing them in the cage.

    Hardware

    • Attach perches firmly to the cage. For perches attached on one side only, drill a small hole in one end of the perch and insert a lag stud. Slip on a washer large enough to span two bars of the cage. Insert the end of the lag stud through the bars, add a second washer and secure everything with a wing nut. Use stainless steel hardware.

      If the perch extends all the way across the cage, cut a slot in each end of the perch and wedge the perch between the bars.