Top 7 Best Perches For Cockatiels In 2023

Published by Joseph Calabrese on

It’s quite easy to make mistakes when buying new perches for your beloved cockatiels. 

Although there are plenty of perches on the market, only a few are actually good, and even fewer are ideal for cockatiels.

This article showcases 7 of the best perches for cockatiels available in 2023.

I’ve carefully selected each perch to ensure there’s at least one high-quality option for each type of perch, such as pumice, rope, natural wood, and flat perches.

So you can’t go wrong with ANY of the listed perches 🙂

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

Affiliate links are present throughout this article, which means I earn a small commission for qualified purchases made through those links. It helps keeps the lights on💡View our affiliate disclosure

Starting off with my personal favourite…

1. Birds LOVE Medium Sized Natural Pepperwood Perch

Info About This Perch:

Type of perch: Natural wood

Length: Roughly 10″

Diameter: 1″ – 1.5″

Brand: Birds LOVE

Pros:

  • Hardwood/Durable – This perch is made from tough pepperwood and will last a very long time with cockatiels. I’ve had this perch for a couple of months now and I took the photo above just today! It’s still in pristine condition with only a few chips near the end. Definitely a strong perch!
  • Thick diameter – It’s good to have at least one thick perch on your cockatiel’s cage. Most cockatiel perches should be around 0.5″ – 1.0″ in diameter, but this one is roughly 1.5″, which makes it a good option if you’re looking for a high-quality thick branch to add alongside your thinner perches.
  • Good surface variety – As you can tell from the images, this pepperwood perch has many bumps, grooves, and surface variety. Surface variety is great for your cockatiel’s feet, and it’s very nice that this single perch has lots of it!

Cons:

  • A bit pricey – For just a single perch, the asking price is a little hefty. Almost 30 AUD is quite a lot to spend on just a single perch in my opinion, despite its fantastic durability and overall quality.

2. Penn Plax Y-Shaped Wooden Cockatiel Perch

Info About This Perch:

Type of perch: Natural wooden branch

Length: Roughly 14″

Diameter: Around 0.6″ at the base

Brand: Penn Plax

Pros:

  • Two-branch perch – Having two branches of varying thicknesses on one perch adds valuable surface variety. With this perch, your cockatiel can choose to sit on the thinner or thicker branch. Since the product is inconsistent, the diameter difference between the two branches can be great or hardly noticeable. Either way, it’s awesome how this perch has two branches.
  • Ideal diameter for cockatiels – This perch is roughly 0.6″ in diameter at its thickest branch. Most perches in your cockatiel’s cage should be around this diameter as it’s best suited for their feet size. Not too thin, but not too thick either, this perch is just right!

Cons:

  • Product inconsistency – Since the manufacturers craft this perch from natural tree branches, there is a bit of product inconsistency. This means you’ll receive a randomly shaped perch with random thicknesses and lengths. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but you won’t be able to determine what your perch will look like based on other review images.

3. Niteangel 2PK Wooden Platform For Cockatiels

Info About This Perch:

Type of perch: Flat platform perch

Length: 6.5″

Width: 3″

Brand: Niteangel

Pros:

  • An ideal roosting spot for cockatiels – It’s been well established that parrots use less energy when perching on flat surfaces. This particular flat perch is one of the best on the market because the width of the platform is roughly the same length as cockatiel feet, which makes it a perfect match! My cockatiel actually uses this platform for sleeping.
  • Doubles as a shredding toy – This platform perch is made from relatively soft fir wood, so it works pretty well as a chewing toy.
  • Good value for money – Overall, getting two of these high-quality platform perches for 28 AUD is pretty good value for money. No complaints from me.

Cons:

  • Determined tiels can destroy it quickly – If a cockatiel was 100% committed to destroying these perches, they probably could within a week. Maybe not completely destroy it, but they would make it unsuitable as a perch.
  • Bark rubs off easily when cleaning – A lot of the bark comes off when cleaning these perches. That’s not necessarily bad, just don’t expect the bark to stay intact after a few cleans.

4. JW Comfy Rope Perch For Cockatiels

(Image Credit: Amazon Product Image)

Info About This Perch:

Type of perch: Colourful “boing” rope perch

Length: Varies based on your choice (Recommended choice: Medium, 32″)

Diameter: Medium = roughly 0.875″ (2.22 cm)

Brand: JW

Pros:

  • Easy to bend & twist – The most appealing part of any “boing” rope perches is their ability to twist and bend into the desired shape. This rope perch is no different.
  • Available in different sizes – On the Amazon product page, you have a few options to choose from with this perch. You can choose from a variety of lengths and diameters to meet your specific needs.
  • Colourful perch – Who doesn’t like adding some colour to the cage? This rope perch, as you can see from the image, has almost every colour of the rainbow! Having a coloured perch inside your cockatiel’s cage adds visual variety as it differentiates from the natural wood colours you may already have.

Cons:

  • Fibres can be frayed – One of the worst things about rope perches as a whole is how easy they are to fray. “Fraying” is basically when the rope fibres become loose and stick out from the perch. It’s actually hazardous to have frayed rope inside the cage as your cockatiel can easily ingest it or get themselves tangled up.
  • Can be intimidating for skittish cockatiels – Cockatiels who haven’t seen too many objects with bright, vibrant colours may be a little nervous about this rope perch. Introduce this perch slowly to fearful tiels.

5. Jusney Large Parrot Climbing Rope Perch

rope perch for cockatiel
(Image Credit: Amazon Product Images)

Info About This Perch:

Type of perch: Large rope perch for large parrots

Length: Can choose between 63″ & 94.5″

Diameter: 1 Inch

Brand: Jusney

Pros:

  • Ideal perch for multiple cockatiels – Even the smaller rope perch option can hold a relatively large flock of cockatiels. I’d say that the 63″ perch could hold 5 – 8 cockatiels while the 94.5″ rope perch could hold around 13 cockatiels. This may be one of your best perches if you keep a larger-than-average flock of cockatiels.
  • Easy to adjust – Just like the previously reviewed rope perch, this much longer one can be easily bent, twisted, and manipulated to a desired shape or style. Due to its size, there’s a lot more opportunity to create a very interestingly shaped perch for your flock.
  • Highly durable rope – This perch was made to be used by cockatoos, macaws, and other large parrots, so high durability was essential. But since you’ll be using this rope perch for the much smaller cockatiels, it’ll be super durable and far less likely to fray.

Cons:

  • Might be unnecessarily big for cockatiels -If you believe this rope perch is a little too big for cockatiels, you’re probably right, especially if you only have 1 or 2 tiels.
  • Includes a bell at one end – The worst feature about this rope perch is the bell located at one of the ends. Metal bells included in some toys and perches have the potential to contain zinc, which is toxic for parrots.

6. Sweet Feet & Beak Pumice Perch For Birds

Best perch for cockatiels
(Image Credit: Amazon Product Images)

Type of perch: Pumice perch with a rough surface for beak and nail maintenance

Length: Recommended (small) size is 8″ in length

Diameter: Recommended (small) size is 1″ in diameter

Brand: Sweet Feet & Beak

Pros:

  • Can help maintain beaks and nails – Pumice, cement, and sand perches are created with rough sides to help keep nails and beaks trimmed. When your cockatiel walks along the perch, they’ll also be filing their nails. And if you strategically place this perch near a food bowl, they’ll trim their beaks when wiping off food.
  • Good surface variety – Many bumps, grooves, and surface variety exist on this pumice perch, which is always good to have on any type of perch.

Cons:

  • Must be installed in a specific way – It’s not necessarily bad that this perch needs to be installed with the rough parts to the sides, but it’s a bit slack that this was not disclosed on the product page. This pumice perch has a smoother side that needs to be in contact with the bottom of the foot, while the rough and sandy side needs to be down to the sides to make contact with the toenails. Having the rough side in contact with the underside of the bird’s foot can hurt the bird.

7. Parrot Wizard Small NU Perch

(Image Credit: Amazon Product Image)

Info About This Perch:

Type of perch: Natural wood

Length: 12″

Diameter: 3/4″ (0.75″)

Brand: ParrotWizard

Pros:

  • Ideal diameter for cockatiels Many experts, such as lafeber, believe the best perch diameter for cockatiels is between 0.5″ and 1.0″, and the small-sized NU perch is right in the middle of that range!
  • Comfortable to grip – Unlike most other straight perches, such as plain dowel perches, this NU perch has a bumpy surface that makes it comfortable for parrots to grip.
  • Easy to install – The NU perch comes with oversized stainless steel washers for easy installation on the cage.
  • Simple straight perch – Although it’s good to have a variety of cool perches, it’s also good to have at least one super simple straight perch in the cage. And of all the straight perches on the market, the small NU perch is definitely one of the best for cockatiels.

Cons:

  • Expensive – Although it’s a high-quality wood perch, it has a pretty hefty price tag attached to it. Some would argue that it’s a little too expensive for a single perch.

How Many Perches Do Cockatiels Need?

Cockatiels should have a good amount of different types of perches inside and around the cage.

There’s no specific number of perches that cockatiels need, but there should be enough to fill up the cage area without restricting the bird’s movement.

Ideally, your tiel should have access to at least one of the following types of perches:

  • Natural wood
  • Flat/Platform
  • Rope (except for those who actively chew and fray rope materials)
  • Sand/cement/pumice (for beak and nail filing)

Because the best perch setup for cockatiels is not a single perch, it’s a combination of a whole range of perches of varying thicknesses, shapes, sizes, and textures that will keep your bird happy and healthy.

Thank you for reading 🙂

Click here to view the top 10 best foraging toys for small parrots in 2022

Categories: Housing/Cage

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Avatar placeholder

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *