While drawing blood and some other aspects of the physical may require toweling or other restraint, trimming the toes does not - especially if you learn to do it yourself and make it a game. You have to work up to it. It took a few months for me to get the techniques down but you can see the result under the movies link (it's a big file, so don't do unless you have a DSL or cable connection). Although there's a lot of flapping and erk-ing from the Greenwing, it's a game with him now - as long as it is me doing it. The B&G more or less ignores the whole process.
Before I start, talking about the clipping process, let me say a couple of things about preventive care. The nails wear down in nature because the bird is walking on a wide variety of surfaces - mud, sand, stone, wood. In captivity, they don't have as much of this. You can help by having a variety of branch sizes and textures. Having one of the concrete perches helps as well. Or a stone bird shelf from http://www.birdontherocks.com/
All of this will help keep the nails naturally short. But eventually, they're going to need clipping.
There's three parts to trimming your buddy's toenails.
Step One: picking the right toe clippers.
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The clippers I use for the toes are similar to those shown. The orange ones are by Miller Forge and the black ones are by Groomax. Both are available from PetSmart and other pet supply places. They're really for dogs, but work just fine on birds as well. I prefer the Groomax ones because they have a guard on them that prevents too much nail from being cut off at one time. | |
Step two: getting him used to your handling his feet and thinking the clipper is a toy.
Start off by getting him to let you rub the top and bottom of his feet. If he already knows "Up" and holds a foot up inanticipation you're half way there. Instead of letting him step up, just gently rum his toes between your fingers. He'll probably get used to this real quick - I know if I stood on my feet 24 hours a day, I'd like someone rubbing them too. Work up to him letting you hold onto the whole foot with just one toe extended. Make it a game and a bonding activity.
While you're doing this, look at the bottom of his feet. There should be no sores or other abnormally looking areas. Some pink areas are ok but they shouldn't be an angry red color.
Getting him to not be afraid of the clippers is easy. Start by having hm sit with you, then bringing the clippers out and playing with them yourself - ignoring him. He'll come over to see what'cha got. Give them to him. Take them back. Give them to him again. Open and close them. Rub the tops of his feet with them. Do this for a couple of days. Now on to the clipping.
Step three: cutting the nails
There's a couple of good articles on this (dog related) that work for birds too at http://www.parkwayanimal.com/information/general_information/nail_trimming.htm and
http://www.nhpetsupply.com/pet_toenail_trimming.html.
Just remember that the nail grows and has a center 'pulp' like a tooth that will bleed if cut into. As the nail grows longer, the pulp grows longer too so that it extends to between an eighth-inch or half-inch of the tip of the nail. That's why you don't want to cut off more than a quarter-inch at once.
Pick up his foot, isolate a toe and position the clippers to cut off an eighth of an inch or so and clip! If it's still too long, cut off another eighth. You just never want to trim more than about 1/8" at a chunk. If you go a little too far, there will be a little blood, but corn starch, kwikstop or even flour will stop it in a few seconds. Just make sure to watch it for a couple of minutes to make sure it does stop.
As you can see from the video, I went too far with the Greenwing and had to go get the Kwikstop (which he then knocked off on the floor with his tail) but as far as he was concerned it was no big deal.
The big thing is to make it a game between you and them and to leave the vet for serious stuff.