Customer Reviews

K&H Thermo Perch, Small

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Please do the right thing and have one of these perches for your caged bird--even if it's just a standby precaution. I always give my health-troubled bird a heated perch. People may call this product several terms: thermal perch, thermo perch, thermalperch or thermoperch). We've been thankful ever since this has come on the market/been invented. These saved our bird's life on several occasions. We have an umbrella cockatoo, he does not fly/has never fledged and like most caged birds does not get enough vigorous exercise/is fairly sedentary compared to his natural habitat/routine. We use the medium sized perch. Before installing the perch, he would catch at least 2 colds per year, sometimes turning into bronchitis or pneumonia (near death). If you didn't know, birds are hard-wired to hide sickness very well and can be hours from death once they start showing abnormal behavior. In the wild, a flock will abandon a sick bird to avoid catching illnesses. By the time you notice they're sick it could be too late (check with an expert avian vet and do your own web research on symptoms). In the past we tried heat lamps but he accidentally got too warm and we fried-burned some leg skin (cautionary note: some people have even burned smaller birds eyes with heat lamps or hair driers and given them permanent blindness/cataracts). These perches are a perfect temp for our guy, all the time, and they seem indestructible.

Now our guy has never caught a cold for the last 10 years (have we gotten lucky?). He's much calmer, less screaming, fidgeting, repetitive motion--stuff cockatoos do when not happy--Seems much happier (this is NOT a fix-all for screaming or 'Stereotypy'). We have a daytime cage and nighttime cage, both cages have thermal perches. When we board him we always set up a thermal perch and brief the staff. Rooms that are kept at temperatures comfortable for humans (~70-74 deg-f) may be too cold for many types of birds--some rooms seem to be never warm enough for caged birds. No matter what the temp of the room or the perch, please never put your bird where there is a draft or blowing are from the heater-A/C or windows, etc. because of household molds that can grow in the lungs and kill birds within days or hours (look up aspergillosis). BTW the easy way for us to tell if our bird is too cold is to touch his feet and beak; if they are slightly cool (or not warm to the touch) then he is too cold. Caution: the power wire protector is USELESS for a bird outside the cage. Any bird that is allowed to get to the outside of the cage/wire can/will defeat the spring coil PROTECTING THE 12V POWER WIRE destroying it. Until the manufacture fixes this, you'll have to figure out some non-toxic way to prevent the bird from chewing the wire (a non-toxic plastic irrigation-type pipe?). However, it will be worth your effort to work around this problem and protect the perch since there's currently (edited 2011) no other product like it. Please see the negative reviews on this site for other folk's real-life experiences.

A note for experienced exotic bird owners that know their birds well and know the bird is not temperature-sensitive (mine is). Obviously they'll have their own opinions. For the rest of us, generally, as birds get older they tend to get heat-sensitive. A sick bird usually needs to be kept warm to remove 'stress' and allow more energy for the healing processes. If a sick bird doesn't need to be in an incubator, a thermal perch can be a conservative, inexpensive (you should pay no more than forty for these) and an easy precaution. Please research and learn the signs of bird sickness (e.g. drops of activity level, changes in voice, breathing, balance or bowels) and have an action plan in your head and "ready to go in a moment's notice 24-hrs a day" for a possible problem--it's going to happen some day! Be prepared to act instantly within 1-2 hours or it may be too late. Have your 24-hours emergency vet center that has an exotic bird vet on staff--on speed dial--and be ready to do what they say. Regardless, this perch will always be in our birdie medical tool-bag.

--FYI I am not in the pet products or nor pet business. I'm just the concerned parent of a rescued-adopted cockatoo I've had for 20 years and I love him. Recommend you read all the reviews-experiences on this page.

I had no idea how much my conure needed one of these. I bought it and she was on it instantly. She even slept on it, and she is really picky about where she sleeps. She ALWAYS sleeps in her fuzzy tent. But she slept outside of the tent just to be on this perch. I have now positioned the tent so she can still lean on the fuzzy tent while still perching on the thermal perch. She is one happy little girl now!
She wouldn't just use it for fun, so I know she must have needed it.
Now her little feet are always warm and she seems so content
This is an incredible product...just wonderful.
My daughter just ordered one for her parrotlet. I hope her parrotlet takes to it like my conure did.
I HIGHLY recommend this product.

When I first heard about Thermo Perches I thought it was an interesting idea, but probably not necessary for my birds.

Was I wrong! I came across one of these at a big discount and decided to try it in the cage where two of my cockatiels live. At first they were leary of it (natural) but then the older cockatiel got brave and tried it. For awhile I'd come home from work and there was the older cockatiel, happily perched on it. Most nights he slept on it.

Then the other cockatiel decided it might be worth checking out. Now they both stay on it, sometimes sleeping on it, sometimes not.

Parrots wouldn't use this perch if it didn't feel good to them.

I especially loved that the cord is wrapped in a metal coil -- there's nothing my parrots won't try to chew, and the coil would keep them from the cord. Of course, the design of the perch is such that they can't even get to the cord once the perch is fastened to the cage.

Get one, or two. You won't regret it and your bird will feel much better.

This is a product all Amazon owners need unless they keep their birds in a climate controled room. The correct temperature is crucial to their health. This perch does the trick altho we still use a ceramic heating unit also. Birds love the heating perch, a two thumbs up!!

I bought this for my Umbrella cockatoo. From the start she hated it, and would not go anywhere near it. Then a week later when she was out of the cage, she bit the "protected" power chord and disabled it. I spliced it back together and thought that there must be a better way. So, with a file. I filed out the cord slot, soldered and epoxied a small female plug jack. Then soldered the male jack to the armored power chord, thus fixing the unit. Now I can take the chord out when she is out, without fear of her cutting the chord. For large birds power chords need better shielding, or making them with plug jacks so that it can be detached when the bird is out. Also, the perch should have a rougher finish so that the bird has a firmer grip. I had to rough mine up to get my bird to finally perch on it. I am sending my modification as a suggestion to K&N this week.

7/28/2010 UPDATE: Nothing has been done to make this "good idea" better. The so called "armored cable" which is nothing more than a stretched out spring. Worthless armor. A small parakeet can munch right through it and sever the cable. There is a 12v A.C. transformer that will then get burned out once the cable leads are severed. This can also create a fire hazard. A fuse should be installed to prevent this possibility, not to mention the possible demise of the bird. I have yet to find a way to modify this cable to be truly beak proof, other than the modifications that I previously outlined above, for if any bird larger than a parakeet bit this so called "beak proof" cable, the Thermo-Perch will be rendered useless.

It is a good concept, but if the cable is not made to be detachable and truly beak proof, I would not recommend it for any bird larger than a parakeet. It might work for a "sleeper" cage, but for any bird that can reach through the bars and grab the cable then the cable will be severed, and this unit rendered useless.
[[ASIN:B000795ZE0 K&H Thermo Perch, Small], medium and large]

My birds, like many birds, at first hated this new item in their cage. They also did not like the texture as it is slippery even with the slight grooves in the plastic. I covered one with a sheet of very fine grit sandpaper (just tapped it in place like a little sleeve that slipped over the perch) for the smaller bird and he took to it. We then took the sandpaper off and he seems fine on it, I think he just needed to adjust his grip. DO NOT PLUG IT IN WITH THE SANDPAPER ON IT! It was to just get him to try it out without falling off!

For the African Grey we put the perch just under one of her other perches for a few days then moved it sightly next to the original perch so she could get use to it being in her space. Birds I swear, everything new is some kind of threat!

Both birds seem to have taken to them and sit on them at night and on cold rainy days. They have several perches so they can choose when to sit on the hot seat and when to use one of their other perches.

I made sure to put these new perches in their favorite perching place to encourage them trying them out and having their favorite view of the world.

I would suggest this product to anyone who is concerned with the warmth of their birds. Do not give up on this perch if your bird turns their beak up at it, just hang in there and they will figure out that you, the wonderful spoiling bird owner are gifting them with something wonderful, not trying to freak them out!

I am happy this product is available to us as our home is drafty and now our birds have a hot seat and are warm, healthy and happy!

I'd give it 5 stars if the perch was a little less slick ;)

Cayce

Hello Amazonites!

I bought one of these years ago from a pet shop. Every bird should have one, year around. My cockatiel took a few days to get use to it but after that but always sat on it or against it. Tweety lived to be 35 years old. He loved that perch. So did our younger cockatiel, his partner, who is still here.

The perches are safe. You do not have to do things to make them more safe or worry about it. The cord near the perch is covered with a strong wire around it so the bird cannot chew the cord from the cage.It is very easy to attach as well. They are perfectly warm, never too hot. In fact, the heat is set inside the unit to one setting only. I remember when I first got it I wondered it it was hot enough. It was. If it much hotter it could also dehydrate the birds.

I too wish the perches weren't so smooth , hopefully the developer can find a rougher type material. Maybe the heat works better this way? Maybe it is this hard and smooth so the bird won't chew it. It still works fine. Maybe one could wrap something around it, I was thinking of the newer medical tape that comes in bright colors they wrap around you even when you have blood test to hold the cotton on instead of regular sticky tape. Think I'll try that if it is not harmful to birds. Will of course research that first.

We lost our heated perch in a move but it still worked. I am going to buy new ones for my cockatiel ( Sugar Britches) and double yellow head parrot( Pepe), on Amazon. We are going to try to conserve on heat this winter and their cages are near the window so as soon as we get these the temp. is going down. the sleep disorder Dr. told us 68 degrees is the perfect sleep temperature and we found out he is right. My birds like it a little warmer though. My parrot is over 30 years old and I noticed one of his feet seems to have arthritis in it. This will help him a lot. I am also getting Dr. Harveys ointment to rub on his feet and her feet. It is strange. The two birds seem to love each other but our cockatiel is minus a few toes as she landed on his cage one time and did not get off time. He tries to play with her but is too rough. We leave their cages next to each other, but never let them out at the same time.

Also, you may know already but by the time we can tell our birds are sick is is often times too late. Heat will save them. I raised birds may years ago and when one got ill I immediately put it in a hospital cage, with a heating pad on 'low' underneath the cage or glass and then I used cloth in the cage or lots of paper towels under the bird. When birds get real sick they sit on the bottom of the cage. I do put a perch down low by them in case they want up and can make it on the perch. It cannot be too hot the floor underneath the bird , then covered the cage. I also made water accessible next to him and food. Many times had to give antibiotics in the water and or feed it to him with a dropper. Nowadays there are so many instructions online if your bird gets sick. Heat is the first and most important thing you can do immediately though for any kind of illness in a bird. I believe the heated bird perch keeps birds from getting sick in many cases. Fortunately, Pepe and Sugar Britches never have been sick.

Our pets give us great joy and they deserve to be as comfortable as possible and have the best quality cage, food available and plenty of fresh water besides lots of love and attention. While on that subject...please, don't buy the food at the grocery store. Our beloved pets are surely worth more than that.

Again, every bird should have a heated perch to keep him healthy and happy and warm. This is a great and essential item for birds. Remember , it could take awhile for your bird to get use to it but once they realize it is heated they will love it! Blessings.

buy this! it is wonderful and so well contructed that no bird can distroy it. my umbrella cockatoo hates new perches so i was nervous about getting it but when it arrived, i let him watch me put this in his cage and i let it heat up then i put him on it and he loved it. you could tell he felt the heat and within 5 minutes you would have thought this had always been in his cage. i have never wrote a review before but when i see how content my bird is i want to share it. buy it and make your bird happy too.

My African grey parrot loves his heated perch! When it gets chilly, he always goes on it and when I take him off his feet are nice and warm. I had a great customer experience with Dawn at K&H, who assisted me in ordering a new AC adapter when I lost my first one. I highly recommend this product and the company itself. The perch doesn't get too warm, but enough to keep a bird comfortable. I put a sock over the perch so that my parrot has more grip. It also saves a lot of money on the heating bill (not having to heat an entire room).

- Daniel Chui

This is a great product; every bird owner should own one. My cockatiel is 19 years old so it took him a long time to warm up to it, in fact, I finally put it where his favorite perch was and forced him to use it. It has different heat zones so he gets to regulate his own temp. He hasn't complained about it once!! One thing to note, the perch is longer & larger than you would expect so follow the guidelines on what size to buy and make sure your cage is large enough.