My new little girl (?) has been home for about 24 hours. I have several perches in her cage of differing sizes. The one I had expected her to prefer is a small one that comes with most small bird cages, but the one she seems to prefer is an inch in diameter - I know it's meant for larger birds, but wanted her feet to have the variety. My question is: Would it be "normal" for a young budgie to prefer the larger perch, or is she maybe just still trying to settle in?

Many thanks in advance.

L.

I use tree branches from my gum tree. It varies the size of the perch and my birds love it. Much better for the bird I think, to have different perches. Exercises the feet and toes.

I agree with what Twisted said. But I was also wondering, which perch did you attach higher up? Because they will usually go to the highest place, whatever the perch type. Some of mine will even cling to toys and clothes pins, if they think it's in a better location.

 

 

 

Another thing, sometimes when a budgie first gets to a new home, it goes straight to a spot and then freezes there for a day or two until it feels comfortable enough to start exploring. So it might not be that it prefers the one perch, it might just have decided it wasnt' about to start moving yet.

The two perches are right next to each other, and she'll scoot along the skinny one to get to the fat one. She did freeze yesterday, but today she's bit more mobile, jumping onto my finger (which I certainly didn't expect so soon, but hey - I'll take it!)

 

The foot exercise is exactly why I put four perches of four different sizes and textures in her cage. My 'tiel has 8 perches, some wood some rope, all different - that's where I learned it.

 

She's used to a flat bottom home, so I was wondering if that could have an impact as well - the skinny one might be too cramping for her feet if she's not used to it?

Thanks!

It is perfectly normal for a bird to lik ea big perch like that. Look at budgies in th ewild. They often perch on larg ebranches bigger than they are. What birds don like is when their feet wrap all the way around a perch. A smallperch is also bad for their feet.