Serin
Crowing
It's a myth that dowels, just by being dowels, hurt their feet. I have raised more than 100 birds over like a decade, using all manner of perches, but rarely without dowels. Dowels are completely, 100% safe perches that are easy to fit in the cage and easily cleaned. And given a choice, many of my birds favor them over alternatives as sleeping spots for their level, even surface.
The myth stems from large (read: heavy) parrots historically kept in small round cages with one dowel. The bird, without any exercise to its feet, got arthritis and pressure sores and was also obese from the poor diets provided to parrots last century and before, exacerbating the problem.
The dowel was not to fault. The lack of any freedom of movement and multiple sized perches to sit on was to blame. A few sizes of dowel perch in a cage is all that is required to maintain foot health in cage birds, though they enjoy more varied things to sit on like springs and swings and natural sticks with bark to chew.
But dowels will not hurt you bird unless one is the only thing they have to stand on for years on end.
The myth stems from large (read: heavy) parrots historically kept in small round cages with one dowel. The bird, without any exercise to its feet, got arthritis and pressure sores and was also obese from the poor diets provided to parrots last century and before, exacerbating the problem.
The dowel was not to fault. The lack of any freedom of movement and multiple sized perches to sit on was to blame. A few sizes of dowel perch in a cage is all that is required to maintain foot health in cage birds, though they enjoy more varied things to sit on like springs and swings and natural sticks with bark to chew.
But dowels will not hurt you bird unless one is the only thing they have to stand on for years on end.
Besides, they're not any messier than other birds.
