Sometimes I look at a crack in a perch and worry that my parrots may get a toenail caught. These happen a lot with manzanita perches, but can happen with concrete or other type perches as well. I have seen too many toe and foot injuries due to toenail entrapment and the really horrific part is when a parrot chews off his own toe to escape. I always inspect my perches carefully. For damaged perches, the fix is very easy and it eliminates having to throw them away.

Here is a perch with a crack that I previously glued but didn’t have time to apply multiple layers. Now I’m ready to complete the job and fill-in the crack completely.

There are a couple of ways to fix a crack. One quick way is to stuff a piece of cotton rope or hemp “rope” inside the crack and push it down with a butter knife to fill the crack. But this is a temporary fix until you can get the perch out for a couple of hours. They often find the challenge of removing the twine fun and exciting.

To permanently fix the crack, I remove the perch and clean it. I then lay it with the cracked facing up. I take Elmer’s children’s glue and fill the crack.

The glue will often recede while it settles into the crack (many cracks are deeper than they look). I let the perch sit for an hour or so and apply another layer if needed. The final layer will recede just a hair which reduces the chance for the parrot to be tempted to remove it. Now the crack is filled-in enough to prevent a toenail from getting stuck. This level is ideal.

Wait until the glue is clear and dried and then sand off any bubbles or anything they can “pick” at. Once this is done, the perch can be remounted in the cage.