Trimming Your Birds Nails

How to Trim your birds nails

Having a tame bird who likes to walk on your hand, arm or sit on your shoulder needs to have its nails trimmed. Your
bird will leave what might look like a rash on your shoulder from its sharp nails. Clipping its nails is not difficult. If you
have never done it or seen it done it would be a good idea to have your Avian Veterinarian or your bird's breeder show
you how to do it.

Clipping The Wings

Material

The Materials and Method used to trim the nails will vary depending on the size of bird. For smaller birds ( Cockatiels,
Green Cheek Conures, Lovebirds, and Parakeets ) you can use household finger nail clippers. They need to be sharp
(new). Or you might want to invest in bird nail clippers.

Smaller Birds

Smaller Birds ( Cockatiels, Green Cheek Conures, Lovebirds, and Parakeets ) First, You hold your bird with one hand
and also with that same hand you separate the feet and nails. The other hand uses the clippers and carefully takes off
just the sharp tip of each nail. If your bird is not staying still for you and you just can't hold it in one hand. You can wrap
your bird in a hand towel leaving its feet and head uncovered. Gentle hold it to a table for more support and then clip
the sharp tips of the nails carefully.

Larger Birds

Larger Birds ( African Greys, Macaws, Ringnecks, Quakers ) You will need to wrap your bird with a towel and cover its
body and face ( not to suffocate it ) Just so that your bird doesn't bit you. It is much easier if you have someone help
you by holding your bird for you. They will need to keep track of its beak. Even when their face is covered they can get
a good bite in. You then will be able to use both of your hands one hand will hold the foot and separate the nails and
the other hand will clip the sharp tips of the nail carefully. You will need to use strong sharp clippers. The guillotine nail
clippers that are used to clip dogs nails are the best to use.

No matter how experienced you are at clipping nails, you need to always be prepared for a nail to be cut too short. Just
as you are squeezing the clippers, your bird might jump and before yu know it there is blood coming from that nail. Do
not Panic! You always need to be prepared by having quick stop or a little bit of flour beside you when trimming nails.
Gently hold a little flower right on the too short nail and within minutes the bleeding should stop.

Helping To Keep Your Birds Nails Trimmed

A good idea is to put a manicure perch in your birds cage. This will cut down on the number of times you need to trim
your birds nails. For some birds this keeps them trimmed.

Some birds have sensitive feet and manicure perches do more harm than good. It just depends on the bird. What I
would suggest is to put one manicure perch in the cage and see how the bird does. If you find that the feet are getting
irritated and red I would take the perch out. If the bird seems to be doing fine with it then you can buy more manicure
perches to put in with it.