Dowels for perches?

[kellie]

Hi guys! I have a variety of perches in my cage... A fir one, sand one, swinging one and a dowel one.
The sand one is in a place where he only goes on it if he wants to, so I'm not particularly worried about it hurting his feet.

However, I read somewhere that you shouldn't use wood dowels (the ones that typically come with the cages). Why is this? Or is it actually not bad?

 

[kellie]

Also my bird is a sun conure!

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Dowels made of any material are not good, they make the feet stay in one position which causes arthritis among other things. A great type of perch is grape wood.

 

[kellie]

What does that mean- that they cause the feet to stay in one position?

If he has other perches that are of varying widths and materials, is it okay? He doesn't spend much time on his dowels except for when he eats veggies and fruits about twice a day.

Also if he chews on them is it harmful?

Thanks!

 

[Conurebreeder]

I absolutely hate when people use dowel rods and it angers me lol
dowel rods cause arthritis, inflamation, and pressure sores. sand/cement covered anything is really bad because they can ingest the glue and pieces of the sand/cement. It is especially bad if it is all you use. A lot of people use one main dowel rod for the food/water dish level of the cage. I always tell people to make three "levels" one bottom level with wooden perches with a treat attached to the cage at that level, middle level with the dowel rod, and a rope perch at the top level of the cage.
I only use natural wood and rope perches. the more texture and shape to the wood the better your birds feet will feel. i also find that their nails and beak stay healthy with mostly wood. You should stop by your local petstore and buy a few kinds of perches asap. stick with natural things.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

I absolutely hate when people use dowel rods and it angers me lol
dowel rods cause arthritis, inflamation, and pressure sores. sand/cement covered anything is really bad because they can ingest the glue and pieces of the sand/cement. It is especially bad if it is all you use. A lot of people use one main dowel rod for the food/water dish level of the cage. I always tell people to make three "levels" one bottom level with wooden perches with a treat attached to the cage at that level, middle level with the dowel rod, and a rope perch at the top level of the cage.
I only use natural wood and rope perches. the more texture and shape to the wood the better your birds feet will feel. i also find that their nails and beak stay healthy with mostly wood. You should stop by your local petstore and buy a few kinds of perches asap. stick with natural things.

Ditto!
I also do not use any wooden dowel perches, they destroy birds feet.

As a example, Rosie has

1 rope perch
1 calcium/bee pollen perch shaped like cholla wood
2 manzanita perches(these are old perches that came with her, they are not slippery like most manzanita)
1 dragon wood perch
1 safety pumice perch

Kenji's cage is lacking, he only has a manzanita and 2 cement perches. He will be getting changes with his perches soon.

 

[kellie]

Hey guys! I didn't know that about the glue for sand perches. He doesn't go on his sand perch that much and I thought the only problem was it hurting his feet so I figured.. If he doesn't go on it much what's the big deal.... but ingesting it is definitely a big deal. I will get rid of that asap.

Is there any safe alternative to sand perches? I've heard calcium perches can be good for their feet but I also heard that they break easily.
What about pumice?
Sweet Feet and Beak® Safety Pumice Perch™ - Perches & Ladders - Bird - PetSmart

Right now he has a natural wood fir perch, but his swinging perch has a dowel for the base too. I will have to get one that is natural wood or rope and switch out the dowel on the bottom for another type. Thanks so much for all you guy's help!

 

[BillsBirds]

Kellie, The main reason dowel rod perches are not good is that if a bird has only one size diameter perch for a long time, their feet are always grasping in the same position, and that can lead to arthritis and pressure sores. Their feet need different size perches so the feet get varied exercise, gripping different diameters. Different materials have different densities and textures, and the feet get exercise gripping the different perches. That's why natural branches are best, because each branch has many diameters for the bird to grip.

 

[kellie]

See that's what I don't get, then wouldn't having one dowel perch be fine? It is not his highest perch and he goes on it maybe 1 to 2 times per day. He spends most of his time outside his cage on his coconut toy or inside on his natural wood fir perch!

 

[BillsBirds]

Yes, having one dowel would be okay. As long as he has a variety of perches of different thicknesses and textures and materials.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

I have a sweet feet safety pumice perch, it's great.

See that's what I don't get, then wouldn't having one dowel perch be fine? It is not his highest perch and he goes on it maybe 1 to 2 times per day. He spends most of his time outside his cage on his coconut toy or inside on his natural wood fir perch!

Most of us just don't like using any. Rosie's cage length perch is a rope perch and it works fantastic, Rosie loves it and even though it's her lowest perch it's her favorite napping spot.

 

[Abigal7]

From what I understand dowel perches cause problems wih a birds feet after awhile. I have two rope perches (so I can change one out and wash it) I have a dragon wood perch and two different types of Manzanita perches. I might buy another perch. I added this month a manu mineral perch.