Useful perching.

This month another very useful tip from Nancy Carr - thanks Nancy.

A wooden clothes-drying rack can be purchased very cheaply at a variety of stores, or can be picked up at auctions or car boot sales for a very reasonable price. No small bird home should be without one.

A drying rack is inexpensive, portable, folds flat, is lightweight, and provides perching space for many small birds at once. It's ideal for those prime perching spots, such as in front of a window. A drying rack will fit into a large flight, or can be used for free-flighted or tame birds. You can attach toys directly to the rack for added birdy enjoyment. Its design makes the rack accessible to birds with clipped wings as well: they can either climb the slanted sides or hop up the lower perches to the top. Meek birds can escape bullies by moving down a level.

The rack stays cleaner than you'd think, but since it is collapsible, you can easily move it for cleaning. The rack will fit into a shower stall, where you can place tame birds on it for their shower.

In time, birds will manage to gnaw through some portion of the rack, which is then replaced with a new one. (My two dozen budgies take about a year to get through a rack). The dowels on the old rack can be cut or broken off and used as perches in cages, or as chew-toys for larger parrots.

Copyright Dolores Noonan 1998

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