There is no doubt that perches are a vital part of the environment of any pet bird. You need to have different perches in the cage of your bird with varying surfaces and diameters.

Several Diameters and Surfaces

Your bird is standing when it is not flying. It is very seldom that you see your bird sitting or lying down. Hence, perches for your pet bird have a tremendous amount of importance. Birds use these perches for climbing, standing, rubbing, playing, chewing, cleaning their beaks, or any other kind of entertainment. These perches must be of varying sizes and offer the opportunity for your pet to comfortably and firmly grasp or grip the perch and not simply stand on it with its feet open. If stunned, birds are not very likely to fall or slip off from the perch that they can tightly grasp.

Perches of varying sizes offer better exercise for your bird’s feet and enable it to pick what is comfortable. You should know that birds tend to get sore feet if the diameter of the perch is the same all the time. Hence, it is necessary to have a variety of diameters where perches are concerned.

Best Types of Perch Surfaces

The following are some of the best types of perch surfaces that you can put in your bird’s environment to ensure the creature enjoys its time when it is not hanging out with its people. A good practice would be to have one perch of each kind in the environment of your bird.

Rope Perches

Rope perches are pliable, soft, and simple to shape so that your pet bird has a fun and unique place to walk on.

You may make these rope perches into different entertaining shapes for your pet to walk on, like twisting and turning them and making them into spirals or squiggly lines. You can even bend the rope into an S shape, which is what most bird owners do.

The softness of such perches is fantastic; it is similar to how we feel when we are walking on a nice carpet or soft grass. Your bird may get an irritation on the undersides of its tiny feet if you force it to walk on some hard surface all the time. Hence, having a soft spot for your pet to play and walk on is very helpful. Make sure you consider the thickness and size of the rope when you buy it.

Natural branches

Natural branches make for very economical and great bird perches. They offer a natural surface for the feet of the bird and provide several hours of chewing joy! Make sure that you clean and scrub the branch using a detergent and rinse thoroughly. Let the branches dry up under the sun or bake for half an hour in the oven at around 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Moreover, leave the bark on for chewing and texture.

Plastics

When it comes to plastic as a perch surface for your pet bird, there are generally two types here, PVC and acrylic. Both of these materials are very popular owing to their ease of cleaning and sturdiness. That said, Acrylic is a better choice between these two since this material practically everlasting. Bear in mind though that for some of the birds such as parrots, having a perch which they can chew is very vital. If you are making use of plastics,  be sure to add other perch options (that your pet can chew) to the environment of your bird.

PVC easily and too often ends up in small pieces in the stomach of a bird and that can result in some medical issues, along with boredom and slippery footing. Perches made of plastic are usually very slippery to be comfy (especially for wing-clipped and heavy-bodied birds), although a few perch manufacturers try to solve this problem by grazing the perch’s surface. If you would like to offer a plastic perch for your pet bird, you may do the same by using some sandpaper.

Mineral Perches

Almost each bird ought to have at least a single mineral perch also referred to as a cement or concrete perch. Its texture which is quite rough feels very pleasant underfoot, and its surface is ideal as well for assisting to keep the bird’s beaks well groomed and cleaned (these creatures very much like to use the rough surface to wipe their beaks against) and its nails blunt.