#nail ask

[flock-talk]

Do you have suggestions on how to teach my bird to let me trim nails? They grow back really fast but my bird won’t let me touch them and hates the clippers. I’m not very good at holding in a towel so she always escapes, and I feel so bad trying to do so.

How to trim nails

Nail Trimming

Keeping nails an appropriate length is essential for good foot health, believe it or not there are quite a few side effects of letting nails

Video tutorial on teaching cooperative nail trimming

Video tutorial on training comfort with restraints

While working on training those skills you can utilize natural wood perches, cement perches, or perches which are only sanded on the sides to help grind nails down naturally. Training on those perches, hiding food around them, or otherwise encouraging a lot of movement along those perches can help increase the amount of time between trims so you’re able to build cooperative care skills

Also worth noting that if their nails grow oddly quickly there may be an underlying health issue going on, various deficiencies can trigger keratin to overgrow so a vet check may be worth doing!

[fruitless-vain]

idk if this is just worrying about nothing but every time i see those scratch boards people use to get their dog’s nails down i think about sandpaper perches and how those can fuck up your bird’s feet and i cringe immensely. there’s no way they’re not also scratching up their paw pads doing that but i guess dog paw pads are thicker than the skin on parrot feet?? do you know anything about those?

I know a bit!

In general when a dog is using a scratch board to file their nails they’re “clenching” their paw to dig at it! This causes their nails to extend past the paw pads so only the nails are contacting the board - even in a healthy length nail. If you use a half-pipe tube you can more easily get the side nails without risking rubbing at the paw pads as well.

Standing flat- paw pad contacts the ground, none of her nails do

Digging- nails contact the surface, paw pad is raised

I’m sure the occasional paw pad strike happens especially during the learning process but with proper usage it’s unlikely to do damage.

In terms of comparisons between dog paws and bird toes- dog paw pads (when exercised on terrain regularly) are intended to be strong and resistant against rough terrains whereas bird toes are virtually always soft which is why sandpaper can really damage sensitive bird tootsies (alongside things like them having scales which shed and leave more sensitive skin underneath vs very small and thin skin cells in a paw pad and scales being more prone to catching sand granules leading to infections, paw pads being quite thick vs bird skin being craaaaaazy thin). In this scenario a dog paw pad is equipped to handle some degree of friction and the action of digging itself typically triggers the dog to raise their paw pad and target the nails to do the actual digging, keeping the paw pad safe from damage.

Obviously be aware of things, check over their pads during and after using a scratch board to ensure your dog is using it correctly and experiment with angling the scratch board to promote less paw pad contact. But overall the minor risk of misuse is definitely far less than the risks of overgrown nails causing lifelong chronic pain and joint issues. Certainly a very useful tool for those struggling with regular nail care or just looking for a way to prevent the nails from getting too long while trying to work on cooperative care nail filing/ dremeling/ trimming

[flock-talk]

You mention that unkempt nails can cause the quick to overgrow. How can you reverse this in a bird whose nails are already very long?

If you can’t see the quick it’s best to trim them very small bits at a time until you get a feel for where it is if it has overgrown, having long nails doesn’t always mean the quick is overgrown, it can take a while for that to happen sometimes. When the quick is overgrown generally you just have to keep up with their trims, file them down frequently until the quick recedes, not cutting the quick itself.

[flock-talk]

How do I teach my bird to be comfortable with me touching her feet to groom her?

Start by teaching them how to shake, ask them to step up and reward as soon as one foot touches your finger repeating the process until they can stand there with one foot on your finger.  From there you can lightly touch their toes, stroke the toes, lift the toes, just start off slow and gradually work up to moving them more until they’re comfortable with you moving their feet, ensuring to reward with plenty of treats throughout the process.  If you’re referring to nail trimming from there you would then introduce the nail clippers or file, have them near the bird, closer, in your hand, lightly touching the nail, lightly rubbing the nail, touching the foot while it touches the nail, etc, etc, plenty of rewards until they’re comfortable with you manipulating their feet and rubbing the nail file or using the clippers.