Trimming Your Bird’s Nails
A pedicure for your bird is as necessary for your bird as it is pleasurable for you. If your bird has long nails, they can get caught on things and makes perching difficult. Nails can break or tear if they get caught and may start bleeding. Trimming nails isn’t a hard process and should be done regularly to prevent problems.
If the bird’s toe is elevated off the ground when his feet are put on a level surface, it is probably time to trim your bird’s nails.
Items needed:
Styptic powder (Kwik-Stop) – to stop any bleeding that may occur while cutting nails
Birds nail clippers – to easily cut your bird’s nails
- you can also use a nail grinder or trimmer
1. In order to clip your bird’s nails, restrain him in a towel so he doesn’t hurt himself while you are clipping. Sometimes people like to do one nail a day while they are playing with their bird, and he doesn’t even notice.
2. Once you’re ready to clip the nail, watch out for the blood vessel (quick) in your bird’s nail. If you cut the nail too short, you could cut the quick and the nail will start bleeding.
3. If the nail does start bleeding, apply styptic powder to stop the bleeding and watch your bird after he is back in his cage for any new bleeding.
Instead of a clipper, you can also use a nail grinder to grind your bird’s nails down. Rough surface perches also work well for keeping the nail length down because it allows the bird to “trim his own” nails and will lengthen the time between nail trimmings you have to do.
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