Aussie Finch Forum

Theres a bit of controversy about the store bought rough perches.
Some people swear by them and others say they damage the soft part of the feet .

Can't go wrong with natural perches. Lots of brush (melaleuca), growing plants, long stemmed grass, eucalyptus branches for perching and even a few big rocks have kept all mine in check. Even some that have been slightly long when purchased are quickly worn down to the correct size. Have had to trim some though, just followed the method others have described, just make sure they are a very sharp pair of clipper/scissors, it makes it much easier!

Yes Ive heard that, I don't use them myself and certainly wouldn't recommend them as a replacement for a normal roosting or perching place but with a situation like the really overgrown nails and just the one occasional perch I thought it might help to keep the nails in check. Might save the stress on the bird as far as catching them to have their nails trimmed.

The commercial rough perches are probably better for birds restricted to small cages and even then they should just be one perch on which the bird roosts but not the main roosting perch. They of course can be used in an aviary where the birds have many more perching options, but are not usually needed. What I don't like are the sandpaper covers for perches. They tend to cause more problems than they solve.

As the other posts have stated a variety of textured natural perches are the best overall for most birds and long hard grasses work well for species prone to long nails like munias.

well went down to local reserve and got a big box full of grasses,bark,different types of perchs and pieces of sandstone.The sandstone seems popular for sharpning beaks and the big bunchs of grass are very popular and the perchs are being striped of bark slowly
I think the nuns are much happier as they used to just hide iv seen a lot more activity from them in the last few days they are bouncing from perch to perch and investigating everything so their feet must have been the problem poor things

I found that nuns need vertical perches, i remove the leaves from a branch with 4 or 5 different size limbs and place in a PVC pipe on the side of the cage

ok will do some,makes sense they do like to feed clinging to the bars sideways