When was the last time that you changed your birds perches ? The same old perches can become boring for your African grey. I did a tour of my fruit bearing trees this morning to find the most exciting branches to put in my greys cage. If you watch the birds in your garden you will see that the wild birds don’t always land on the sturdy horizontal branches. They fly to vertical branches, thin and fat. You should be trying your best to keep your grey stimulated and alert and a change of perch just might do the trick.
Most new cages come with dowling rods for perches, these should be changed as quickly as possible when you get home. Birds need natural wood to perch on — like they would in the wild. Different sizes and different textures should be used in your greys cage, of course this applies to any bird kept in a cage.
To keep toe nails in good shape there should be different size perches in your birds cage. Remember wild birds don’t get their toe nails clipped or filed so why should our captive birds be subjected to this treatment.Talking about keeping birds toe nails trimmed, I hope that you don’t have sand paper wrapped around your perches. Can you imagine what that must feel like ? Sometimes we should try these things out before we give them to our birds. I can’t think what it must feel like to walk around with sand paper in my shoes all day long.
Textured branches from your garden or a friends garden are much better. Your bird will (should) go straight to the new perches to explore them, feel them, and chew them. Most captive birds can strip a branch of bark in a day and this should not be punished because this is how he will keep his beak in good condition. Perches should be changed regularly, to keep your bird alert.
Remember to use fruit tree branches that are safe for your bird to chew and strip, if you are unsure if the branch you are looking at is safe or not don’t use it.Check with a garden nursery near you about what is poisonous and what is not poisonous in your garden.
Remember that when you clean your birds cage which should be done regularly that perches need to be scrubbed as well.
A happy bird is found in a good size, natural, exciting cage with a happy favourite person who will take him out and cuddle him and play with him every day and with a healthy diet of vegetables, fruit, sprouts, nuts and cereal offered every day.
I hope this helps you become a little more adventurous in choosing perches and keeping your feathered friend happy and alert.
Remember captive birds depend on us for everything, so we should be trying our best at keeping them happy.