Yippee...got my flight - perch placement and moving date?

[wendyrun]

I have been waiting for my double flight I won from Ebay to come in. It was on back order in white so I just got it this week. After three sessions with the parts and minimal instructions....it's ready!

I wanted to get them in it right away, but we're going out of town tomorrow and won't be back until Monday night. I feel like since I had to separate my aggressive zebra that I should not leave them with someone who's not familiar enough to move him if things are not going well.

QUESTION - what is the prevailing wisdom on perch placement? I have them right now set in about 12-15 rungs from either end and higher up. But I was wondering if I should actually place them lower, and closer together while they are adjusting to the huge increase in space. I'm kind of worried they might wig out a bit. Also I do plan to put different perches. I made my own from bamboo and the ones that came with the cage are quite large in diameter.

any thoughts?

[poohbear]

I would use saplings with various thicknesses not bamboo,and place straight away at maximum distance giving the birds tail room at the back.
A couple at the top,and two at the bottom towards the middle of the cage...this encourages near vertical flight...good exercise.

[wendyrun]

thank you Pooh

No bamboo because it's not got enough texture for grip?

[ac12]

Put the perches no closer than about 3" from the side, to keep the tail from hitting the cage and getting worn scragly.

If you can find clean branches (not always easy in a suburban environment) use that instead of the wood dowels. If you have to use dowels, go to the hardware store and get different diameter dowels. This is so the feet don't get used to one size, and will get some changes with the different diameters.

I also use a #50 and #100 sandpaper to clean the poop of the perches. #50 to do the initial cleaning and #100 to clean up the splinters that the #50 leaves behind.