For some people finding branches of untreated bird safe woods can be a problem and there are many reasons for this ranging from the spraying of trees by cities or farmers to try to protect their crops all the way to not knowing which trees and bushes are safe for their birds. Here is a link that can help you with finding bird safe plants, trees and woods that you can make perches from
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521 The actual listing begin on the second page of this topic and it covers more than just tress and woods both toxic and safe. To my way of thinking this list or others like it are an important reference for anyone that has a bird, I hope that you find it to be as useful as I have found it to be.
Concerning the dowel type perch that you have, I don't like to waste anything if I can find a way to avoid it, so what I do with the ones that are dowels is to carve them up with my pocket knife, a dremel with the sanding drum or what ever tool I have handy that I can cut our pieces of the wood to create an uneven surface that is not completely round so that the pressure on the birds feet changes according to where it perches on the dowel.