Yesterday I replaced a few of Léa's perches and had to reassess placement of a few of them, mostly on the left side, as she had a tendency to make a mess of them by pooping on them.
The first ones out were her platform perch and skywalk from Oliver's Garden. She LOVES those perches and while the platform (which was located on the door) wasn't too bad, the skywalk was terrible and in dire need of in depth clean up.
To replace the platform perch on the door, I used an almost "U" shaped ribbonwood perch I have had for ages. I know of others who have ordered it and have sworn by it. I asked the store owner what size would be appropriate and he sent me what he thought would be good. I have always found the diameter to be rather large and since ribbonwood is rather slippery, had held off giving it to Léa.
Ribbonwood "U" perch
The one big advantage of it, however, is that it will be hard to poop on it, which makes it ideal for Léa. If she ends up taking a liking to it, I might try ordering another, insisting on a smaller size. She has spotted the little pieces of smaller branches sticking out here and there and has started to chew on them, but it's obvious she's finding it difficult to perch on at the moment.
On the left side panel of her cage, she used to have an ocotillo perch and her skywalk at about the same height, a pedicure perch near her food bowl (which happened to be perpendicular to the higher ocotillo perch) and a shorter mulberry perch underneath the skywalk, but because of the width of the skywalk and the fact that there was always a toy near the hole of the skywalk, it was protected.
As I mentioned above, the skywalk was removed for a much needed cleaning. Upon close inspection, I decided to replace the ocotillo perch as well, as on one section it's clear Léa has taken a liking to rubbing her beak clean on it. Finally, the pedicure perch, which I had placed in a "highly likely to get soiled" location, but figured it was ok because the perch was plastic and easier to clean, also came out for a in depth clean.
Where the ocotillo perch was I placed a nice soft cajeput perch - given it's one of the spot Léa likes to roost, I figured a nice soft perch for her feet would be nice.
Cajuput perch
Given I didn't have anything to really replace the skywalk, I decided to change things up a little. I wanted to put in another pedicure perch because I have noticed a difference with Léa's nails, but I didn't want to put it anywhere she would spend hours. So I placed it a little lower than her skywalk was, and, because it was no longer shielded, removed the mulberry perch.
Pedicure perch
Left panel of Léa's cage
I'm hopeful that perches will stay cleaner with this layout, but I'm sure I'll have to mix things around as Léa (and the Boy) seem to miss having a perch close to her fresh food bowl. I might attempt butting a single ribbonwood perch next to it and place it aligned with the cajeput perch so that any droppings from above will hopefully miss it.
