Perches!

So I've looked at the timeline of Merlin's visit to the vets for claw trims and it's roughly every 1 and a half months. eurg! it's £20-£25 per visit! ($30-$37)

Now Merlin has a couple of perches:
A cotton type 'boing'.

A concrete type perch.

Another cotton type perch.

A calcium perch.

A java perch. (Currently in Charlie's cage, so Merlin hasn't used it yet)

A large spinning toy type perch.

A big 'large bird' wooden perch with bark on for stripping.

A wooden ledge for Merlin to 'rest' on (bad leg)

and a play ladder that's hung across the cage


We have more perches, but they're in Charlie's cage and are essentially the same. We're going to rough up the java perch as best we can as Merlin wont be able to perch on it and Charlie is slippin' and slidin' all over the show on it too.

Where am I going wrong, why are his claws getting so long so fast? His cotton and concrete ones are in his travel cage and his blue calcium perch is where he generally settles to rest. He tends to 'play' more on his ladder and his flat perch, or the cage floor.

Do I need to be getting more perches for his claws? If so, specifically what type of perches? Calcium, concrete?

Should I lower the ladder and offer higher 'rough' perches?

Advice please! I honestly don't mind paying for him to go to the vets, but I need to arrange travel with a friend (harder than it sounds *sigh*) and obviously, that's £25 ish that could be better spent elsewhere. He does get full checkups on his leg and stuff whilst he's there so it's not all bad, but if we could at least push it to 3 monthly type visits, that'd be great.

Just snapped this of him resting on his ladder perch too. He likes this because his bad leg sticks out backwards, so he can use his good leg on one of the 'perches' and his bad leg on another behind it.

I've been using these ones (Product) in the hope of making Alice's nails a little less like those of a peregrine falcon, but so far I'm not convinced. She likes them as perches but no sign of any improvement in the state of my forearms. Most of her perches are Java branches, and if she finds it hard to grip on a particular spot she roughens it herself with her beak.

Jayyj said:

I've been using these ones (Product) in the hope of making Alice's nails a little less like those of a peregrine falcon, but so far I'm not convinced. She likes them as perches but no sign of any improvement in the state of my forearms. Most of her perches are Java branches, and if she finds it hard to grip on a particular spot she roughens it herself with her beak.

Click to expand...

I'm considering them type, but I'm not entirely sure if I should invest in some, hence asking here! Let me know if they do start to work for her though!

I'm not much help on this subject. I just wanted to pipe in and say, you have some great perches that I hadn't seen before. I think it's time to shopping!

Jowelbg said:

I'm not much help on this subject. I just wanted to pipe in and say, you have some great perches that I hadn't seen before. I think it's time to shopping!

Click to expand...

Haha, thanks! We also have a 'shower perch' too, but we don't use it (for Merlin) so thought it was irrelevent. There are so many types and styles of different perches out there which is why I'm looking for advice!

I'd suggest finding a good online store or a huge store that seems to have everything and having a good old mooch around. So many fun perches.

We have loads of different sizes and types, biggest reason is because of Merlins splayed leg (thus, flat perch, huge perches, 'ladders') etc.

Good luck and happy hunting!

You have an AWESOME selection of perches, Cat!! I honestly don't know what to tell you about his claws getting so sharp so fast. I understand he's got one handicapped leg, so adding more cement perches may not help, unless he actually uses them quite a bit.

I have one idea: The flat piece of wood you have, is it possibly to add some sandpaper to it, so when he stands flat on it, that could perhaps help making them less sharp.

Have you ever tried the safety pumice perch? Rosie used to have a cement perch but it seemed to sharpen her nails, the safety pumice perch keeps them dull and at a good length.

JerseyWendy said:

You have an AWESOME selection of perches, Cat!! I honestly don't know what to tell you about his claws getting so sharp so fast. I understand he's got one handicapped leg, so adding more cement perches may not help, unless he actually uses them quite a bit.

I have one idea: The flat piece of wood you have, is it possibly to add some sandpaper to it, so when he stands flat on it, that could perhaps help making them less sharp.

Click to expand...

We did consider that, but Merlin basically drags his 'knuckles' over surfaces, so we'd be creating skin wounds by sandpapering any of his flatter surfaces.

I always thought my selection of perches was quite bare/dull to be honest, nice to hear compliments haha!

Copperarabian said:

Have you ever tried the safety pumice perch? Rosie used to have a cement perch but it seemed to sharpen her nails, the safety pumice perch keeps them dull and at a good length.

Click to expand...

Will look and see if I can find this in the UK. You're happy it's worked with Rosie? I don't really want to waste my time going through perch after perch trying to find out what does and doesn't work, but I'll happily trust reviews from you lot.

Edit: Appears they don't do those perches in the UK. Will see if I can find American sites that will ship to UK for reasonable prices, but *sigh*

Will await more reviews on that perch, or more suggestions but it looks like I can go through mysafebirdstore. Kathy apparently ships internationally to the UK for $15 or so, which is approx £10. So if I have to I'll order two from there. It works out only £3-4 dearer than ordering two perches of a similar price with shipping etc (although these work out at £7 and the cheapest decent pedi perchs I can find in the UK are £8-9!)

£21 from my normal supplier. £24 from Kathy, so!

So I guess it's not that much more expensive to go through Kathy. Will probably have to wait until payday now though, but with any luck if these perches do work, we'll be cutting down on vet bills anyway, so they'll essentially be paying for themselves!

What size would you recommend Copper? Small seems to be the one I'm getting pushed towards from other sources but I'm always worried they'll end up too small and twig like Having never seen these perches 'in person' I don't know!



Think small is the pink I think one which seems appropriate. The next one up looks huge...

I can't help you with the size, but I CAN tell you that the pumice perches are AWESOME!!!! They DO work and they are gentle on the footsies.

JerseyWendy said:

I can't help you with the size, but I CAN tell you that the pumice perches are AWESOME!!!! They DO work and they are gentle on the footsies.

Click to expand...

Thanks Wendy. I'm just getting in touch with Kathy now to see if I'm going to come across any import charges of if she deals with that side of things for me, as some suppliers do.

If so, I'll order them next payday. Should keep the vet at bay for at least another month... I hope!

Love the bungee at the top, just make sure you take the o-ring off because if they like to climb like mine does they can pry the o-ring apart with their beaks and get stuck.

Whenever I've bought from the US I end up paying 20% VAT and 3.9% duty on top of whatever the USD price was, but with this sort of amount you might get away without charges - seems to be luck of the draw. I'm looking at those and thinking I might need to invest as well, but I'll be in the US in September so might pick one up then.

Here's a nice picture demonstrating the effectiveness of the desert sands perch...

Jayyj said:

Whenever I've bought from the US I end up paying 20% VAT and 3.9% duty on top of whatever the USD price was, but with this sort of amount you might get away without charges - seems to be luck of the draw. I'm looking at those and thinking I might need to invest as well, but I'll be in the US in September so might pick one up then.

Here's a nice picture demonstrating the effectiveness of the desert sands perch...

Click to expand...

Ouch that looks sore. I think bigger birds are always going to have 'meaner' nails though? My budgie's don't leave a scratch with theirs, but I'm not sure. I don't think they should be shredding you that bad though.

I think it depends on what it is you're actually buying. Kathy said she'll get back in touch with me today about it, but from what I've found. Anything under "£135" (I think it was) is duty free. But I'm not sure if there are any other costs to be had. I think the material also comes into consideration too, but plastic type toys I think are duty free, unlike things like alcohol, tobacco, etc. I'm not sure what you've bought that you've been taxed on so can't say their reasoning behind it.

I don't recall paying Customers/anything extra when purchasing my aviator and flight line from America, so, will wait and see! Worst comes to worst I'll ring up HMRC and ask.

Paying customs duty
You pay duty on goods from outside the EU if they’re above a certain value.

Type and value of goods | Customs duty
Merchandise £0 - £135 | No duty

Click to expand...

Will keep you updated on my costs and charges, in case you want to go via Kathy for them.

It looks worse than it feels, fortunately! They do need a trim but I feel like it would be for my benefit more than hers, so given at the moment vet visits are a lot more unpleasant for her than a few scratches are for me I'm happy to live with it for the time being.

We use sandy perches for Rosie. She also has wood, heated and rope. But the sandy perches keep her nails blunt.

They come in all different colors and styles (corner, single, double etc). She has a brown forked double and a purple corner.

http://m.mybirdstore.com/64815050.jpg

http://m.mybirdstore.com/product.cgi?group=259907&product=259924

kendrafitz said:

We use sandy perches for Rosie. She also has wood, heated and rope. But the sandy perches keep her nails blunt.

They come in all different colors and styles (corner, single, double etc). She has a brown forked double and a purple corner.

http://m.mybirdstore.com/64815050.jpg

Parrotopia Sandy Perch Forked Perches - SANDY PERCH: PARROTOPIA by Bird Paradise

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm certain we have these types/similar in the UK, so if all else fails I'll at the very least give them a whirl!

SoCalWendy said:

Love the bungee at the top, just make sure you take the o-ring off because if they like to climb like mine does they can pry the o-ring apart with their beaks and get stuck.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up, but Merlin's not interested in it, so never felt the need to get rid. Will do if I ever notice him near it though. He prefers to just preen the tassles and bounce for the bell.