Perches are beyond me!

zpesarra · **Joined:** Thu May 05, 2011 8:44 am **Posts:** 12

Hi,
I'm trying to set up a perch for my new Malay. He had trouble balancing on the tree branch that was in there for him and then I found out that he's used to sleeping on a floorboard, because perches put indents in their breastbone. So I changed my set-up to this and then I heard roosting on a flat surface can damage their feet in the long run. I have also heard that square perches are best for heavy birds instead of using round ones. So now I'm not quite sure what I should do... Any help will be greatly appreciated :-D

OakA · **Posted:** Tue Jun 07, 2011 10:45 pm

Hi Zpesarra,
I have had Malays since the late 60's.
Perches for them should be low to the ground because of thier size & weight, no more than knee height is good as if higher they can bruise thier feet coming down and result in bumble foot or just bruising the soles at the least.
I find some even prefer to camp on the ground and this is OK as well.
Any perches should be round and about 50cm (2 inches) in diam, they should not be square as they need to grip the perch which strengthens the tendons and muscles.
They should not have any perches at all until mature as to perch too young does result in a perch mark in the yet immature breastbone.
Another requirement of young Malays is exercise, do not confine them as they need to build muscle and bone to support the size and weight of the fowl at maturity.The term used is they need "timber" under them and this is only achieved by building the bone and muscle at a young age to support the mature bird.

zpesarra · **Joined:** Thu May 05, 2011 8:44 am **Posts:** 12

Thanks Oaklands for all your help.

Riley'sYard · **Joined:** Thu Jun 09, 2011 6:02 pm **Posts:** 1

I have both malay and sussex and all the roosting perches are 45cm from the ground but they didn't start there I had to more them down because none of them would use the roosting perches when I had them higher.

Sebducks · **Joined:** Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:41 pm **Posts:** 812

Hello zpesarra, is that the same malay I'm getting from you? :-D

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