Good perches for senegals?(what did you use mike)

[Nir]

Any idea of what perches to put inside my cage? it is a 24x22 cage. What type of wood is best. also should i put one all the way across or just buy a few of different sizes?

what perches did you use for your senegal michael?

Ps. The question is for anyone who can help!

[Polarn]

I know this question was directed to michael but I am going to reply anyways. due to the limited cagesize, well limited in what I would call limited since your not allowed to keep any birds at all in a cage of that size here in sweden, so smaller than I've ever dressed up. Anyways...
In my cages i keep a variety of shapes/sizes of the perches, I do however never buy perches but use natural perches cut down outside, usually I use Birches because I have quite alot of em around here. But I think the type of wood (as long as safe for the birds) matters less than the variety in angles/diameters etcetera does. I keep perches in the cages ranging from half an inch all the way up to 3-4 inches in some places for the amazon and about 1/2 inch to 2-2 inches for my brownheaded, sure the thinner ones gets gnawed off but I just regularly replace the branches/perches. I let em gnaw off smaller twigs etcetera and debark them some then I change em up so that they got new bark to strip and new branches to chew. But as I said your cagesize are probably gonna limit more than the possibility to get to a forest and get suitable perches... just as an example our lovies has the smallest cage and it is 48x25 and about 70 high (inches that is), and the bigger the cages are the more room you have for variety. But I am pretty confident you can build some variety in your current cage as well but you may have to ignore the with thats almost a flat surface for them and range it from about 1/2inch up to 2inches or something.

[marie83]

My 'tiels cage is about that size (slightly smaller by about 2 inches) and its too small for her....only reason she is in that cage is because she gets night fright to such an extent that if she had more room I'm convinced she would kill herself....

Anyway in that case size you'll be able to fit probaby 2x longer perches (all or most of the way across) and a couple of really short ones (say at the feeding stations to stop them getting pooped on) it is best if they are all natural but as long as the majority are you will be ok.
As for toys your going to struggle to fit anything worth having in whilst giving your bird room to move. Harlies cage has 4 toys in at a time, which I feel is the minimum number (one of each type, forager, shredder, noise maker, preener)for any bird but I can only fit that number in because they are tiny. I imagine a senegal wouldn't let them last more than a minute as they are far more destructive.

[Michael]

I'm not thrilled with most of the perches out there so I've been making my own optimal ones. They will soon be publicly available for sale but for now I sell them to those who inquire (like with the trees). Variety is important. I don't just give them my perches though. I provide a mix of rope, java, and dragonwood perches in addition but they really seem to prefer my kind and my customers are reporting the same. I think it has to do with the fact that they are actually designed to be suitable for parrots as opposed to just random natural ones that parrots would have never encountered in the wild. I'm working on a transition path where all the trees, training perches, and cage perches I sell will be of this new type. The new tree line is one perfection away from being ready for public sale. We redesigned the base beyond my expectations. Should all be available online by spring.

[Nir]

So far this is what i ordered from dr fosters site.

Cable Comfy Perch Medium 21
Manzanita Perch Medium 24" x 1" dia
Safety Pumice Perch Small 1" x 8" long
2x Dragonwood Perch Multi-Branch 1" x 10" - 12" long

Gray Striped Sunflower 5 lbs(for treats)
Bird Bunker Medium

also my play tree came.

http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/q59 ... 8b9e67.jpg

added some stuff to it also. Planning to take the food trays off it and attaching more perches there instead. I usually only give food inside the cage unless its for treats.

[marie83]

bet your excited.

I have a question though, what is a bird bunker? I'm having some strange visions of birds in helmets peering out from a re-inforced nestbox

[Nir]

:) bet your excited.

I have a question though, what is a bird bunker? I'm having some strange visions of birds in helmets peering out from a re-inforced nestbox

Lol . Was getting one of those hut type things a bad idea?

[marie83]

Yes and no, it depends on the bird. Ollie has a happy hut and its the only place he will sleep and it doesn't seem to trigger his hormonal behaviours but this may be due to other hormone management techniques. They are also said to encourage territorial behaviours.

For other birds they are really bad news in the hormone/territorial behaviour department. Now I am assuming you are getting a baby sennie so you wont have to think about the hormone issues for a while but I would ask you to have a bit of a think about whether it is a good idea to get your bird used to sleeping in the hut then having to remove it at a later stage- potentially causing stress to the bird. I didn't think about it and luckily it has turned out ok for Ollie but if it hadn't I'm sure me having to remove it now would cause him so much stress.

I'm sure people with sennies will be able to guide you more relating to this issue than I can.

[Nir]

what about not putting it inside cage and instead putting it in the play tree as a thing to play with?

[Michael]

Those things are anywhere from unnecessary to dangerous. Some species seem to need them regardless but Senegals don't. If anything it makes them hormonal and aggressive. Forget it.