Rope Boing and Kabobs

After two months, Apollo still hadn’t shown any interested in the toys I had for him, so I ordered a few more to see if he would prefer something different.

The one that I was the most excited about was the springy rope perch because I thought it would be great for Apollo to bounce on. When it arrived I tried to coax Apollo out so I could put the new perch in his cage, but he refused. He let me hang it in there without a fuss, but then I realized it had to be stretched out so Apollo could actually stand on it. He didn’t like all this commotion in his space, so for the first time ever he made a run for it, jumping onto my arm, then out the door. I saw that he landed on the floor near the chair I was sitting on, but I couldn’t see if he was below me or had gone the other way. I couldn’t move for fear that my chair would roll him over. I called his name a few times, and eventually he chirped back and hopped back into sight, from under my chair. Yikes!

Apollo was wary of the new perch at first, but within a few days he had mastered the art of landing on a bouncy perch. I hung the kabob toy that he had shown no previous interest in, through the middle of the rope spring to see if he would try it out now that he could reach it better from a perch. I came home from work a few days later and noticed that there was a bunch of shredded stuff all over the bottom of the cage. I was confused for a second, until I looked up to the top of the kabob and saw that it had been chewed away. This was the beginning of Apollo’s love of toys.

I have since learned that rope perches have some dangers associated with them that anyone using them should be aware of. There are two things that become very dangerous to your birds as these perches get worn. The first is that any loose threads could get caught around a budgies foot or neck, causing injury. The second is that if the bird ingests any of the rope fibres it can cause problems in their crop and digestive tract that will need veterinary attention. To learn more check out this Talk Budgies thread.

As long as these perches are in good condition they do have benefits though. Especially the bouncy ones, because budgies are made to land on tree branches, which move and bend as opposed to being rigid and stationary the way most perches for cages are. I have seen a remarkable improvement in Apollo’s coordination and balance since he starting using this perch.