Hiya, yesterday i bought Oscar a natural wood perch and he is terrified of it. We put it in yesterday and it took him about an hour to go onto his usual perch that he sleeps on. He doesn't like going into his cage anymore so he isn't eating very much. At the moment i have taken the perch out and put his toys next to it on the living room floor but he won't go near it. Does anybody have any other suggestions?

Thanks

Ali

ive just had the same problem with my flights had to take all the natural out put the dowling back in the condition of mine went down hill fast not eating one hen never perched fo almost two weeks spending time on the floor and wire totaly different birds now you can see they are a lot happier

nightmare! so have you just had to give up on them then?

could you put the natural perch down the bottom of the cage may be where he is likely to spend less time there anyway? and then see how he would react to it? I cant say I've ever had trouble with putting natural branch into the cages. all the budgies have taken to the natural wood in like wild fire.

yea burnt the lot and went back to 15 mm dowling

Its just typical!!! Just after I posted this message the wee pain went over and gave it a chew!

Hi Ali,

 

I'm glad Oscar had decided to make it more welcome. Having all one size perch isn't very good for their feet. Mine love the natural perches.

 

I do as Cheeta has suggested with anything new that they may be scared of and put it down the bottom of the cage to let them get used to it at their own pace.

 

Feathers

Edited November 19, 200618 yr by feathers

thanks feathers & hath i'll try that

you can put his treats by it too outside of his cage and lay the perch on the table or whereever he wakes instead of the cage first. Sounds like he is getting used to it. In our cage we have ropes, natural perch, calcium I don't even have a dowel in our cage, budgies can be odd

Having all one size perch isn't very good for their feet. Mine love the natural perches.

15 mm square and round dowling so its fine for their feet

 

In our cage we have ropes, natural perch, calcium I don't even have a dowel in our cage,

mine are in flights not cages

I believe Karen aka Bubbles has flights and she uses different things too though . But everyone does things different.

i only bought it because the vet said it wasn't very good for their feet if the perches are all the same.

I believe Karen aka Bubbles has flights and she uses different things too though . But everyone does things different

see my second post

he is right and I believe we talk about it here too

budgies all have the same feet and many articles talk in budgie books talk about different widths. In the wild they exercise their feet constantly.

 

I remember Una too posted pics of her aviary too she has quite alot different options too like Karen. But as I always said everyone will do what they want, so you do what you feel is comfortable.

 

You are a awesome budgies owner!! (I only have 2 what do I know )

Edited November 19, 200618 yr by lovey

i can only think as mine are show and never been use to them (these are the birds i have replaced my stolen ones with) that is the reason why they dont like all my old birds at my dads have natural branchs from a apple tree but they always had these

Thanks everyone, ill try putting it in the bottom of the cage and hope he gets used to it. To be fair he's hardly in his cage anyway but i just thought i'd try it. I never thought about trying square perches hath, thanks i might try that too!

Hi all,

I have to wonder about these little guys! Everyone talks about their budgies being afraid of new things and taking a long time to get used to new toys etc. Mine are just wierd I gress. They seem to dive right in to whatever I put in the cage. I am always changing things around. They get a little scared while I am doing it but they settle right down and take advantage of whatever I put in there. My birds are not particularly tame but they seem less easily frightened than some tame ones. I wonder why?

Shell

mine are like that too Shell, I move around stuff all the time but when you have an aviary as big as hath and the others it would be hard to move it around all the time.

 

hath I remember you talked about the break in that is horrible, I am glad you are back on track. Still shameful of people like that

maybe its because i don't move things about in his cage so when something different appears he is frightened?? i've no idea but he managed to perch on it for about a second last night!

More than likely, Cheeky. Mine are the same as Shell and Lovey, I change things all the time. I change all their toys and move their perches about quite often. They never seem to mind at all, even if it is a toy that they have never seen before.

 

Feathers

I have had the same problem, once i threw away all the plastic perches and replaced them with wooden ones my budgies were very scared. But what happens is even though they are very scared they also also very inquisitive and after 30 minutes or so they got use to them and now its not a problem.

 

I then also built this in my living room http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x223/Ma...ingroomhome.jpg

 

Its just some branches and stick tied together for them to sit on when they are out side of the cage, they are outside a lot actually partially whole day until 7.30pm. When I first put it together and i tried to introduce them to their new tree hours they weren't having it. They were so scared, but after about 3 hours or patience and hard work I eventually got them to sit on one, after that it was just a formality, they straight away took to it and now they aren't scared at all. What i did was to take both of them on my finger and closely i would edge to the branches, they would fly away, i also found that having both on my finger made them less scared as they were in each others company, gradually we got closer and closer untill the female put one foot on the branch, male then followed.

 

Now they get only scared when I replace the perches with new ones, they seem to recognise its a slightly different shape and fly away but again after few minutes they are back to normal.