My macaw is super afraid of nail clippers, all kinds. She has a minor freak out every time I even hold them near her. I've NEVER made her bleed when I've managed to trim her nails. Is there anything I can do to get her to let me do it? I'd rather do it myself than traumatize her by taking her to the vet, she's afraid of most strangers
Help with nail trims
- Thread starter DanaM
- Start date
WharfRat
New member
- Jul 3, 2012
- 1,403
- 2
- Parrots
- 2 Bolivian Green Wings-ReaRea & Miri,
2 Yellow Naped 'Zons- Shiloh & Halo,
Hahn's Macaw-Kalani
They make soldering irons for it, but you gotta be good & steady (and they ain't cheap comparably)
Conuregirl
New member
- Jan 16, 2012
- 219
- 0
- Parrots
- Oliver the nanday conure (rescue), Suki the green cheek conure, Picabo the Hahn's Macaw, and Big Bird the dove
can you use a nail filer? i bring my birds to a bird shop i trust and they do the grooming for me.
- Thread Starter
- Thread starter
- #4
She won't let me near her feet with anything, not even my fingers if she thinks I'm up to something. I've used a soldering iron before on a conure I used to have and I never used it again. It wasn't very effective and smelled awful. Plus, it's a wrestling match to get hold of her toes, one of us would definitely get hurt.
Your best bet would be taking the bird to a qualified vet for the nail trimming IMO
See the size of the Macaw's beak eina
Found this link, pertaining to cut toenails of macaws
http://www.parrot-and-conure-world.com
Good luck
See the size of the Macaw's beak eina
Found this link, pertaining to cut toenails of macaws
http://www.parrot-and-conure-world.com
Good luck
- Mar 27, 2012
- 1,023
- Media
- 8
- 2
- Parrots
- Red Front Macaw, Elvis, 10,male RIP
Red Front Macaw, Erin, 1.5,female
Goffin Cockatoo, Blossom 2,female Rehomed
Blue & Gold Macaw, Oscar, Male, 21 years old, Rehomed
American Bulldog Mix,
They also do have mobile groomers but you have to look hardto find them . If you take them to somewhere good you will be ina nd out and 5 mintues. In NJ we had a mobile groomer towel wrap each bird and take 2-3 minutes per bird on 7 parrots (conure, amazons, cockatoo, african grey, macaw) and she'd be out the door in 10-15 minutes
- Mar 27, 2012
- 1,023
- Media
- 8
- 2
- Parrots
- Red Front Macaw, Elvis, 10,male RIP
Red Front Macaw, Erin, 1.5,female
Goffin Cockatoo, Blossom 2,female Rehomed
Blue & Gold Macaw, Oscar, Male, 21 years old, Rehomed
American Bulldog Mix,
Thats why i dont do mine myself. But trust me if the person is experience its very quick and easy. My vet who ended killing my bird stressed him out for 15 minutes chasing him in his carrier with a towel, while my mobile groomer got him out of his huge cage and towel wrapped in 30 seconds.
Molcan2
New member
- Jul 19, 2011
- 783
- 1
- Parrots
- Princess Rome- Moluccan Cockatoo (18yrs old), Rosie - Galah/Rose Breasted Cockatoo (2yr old)
Well, if your are set on doing them yourself it is possible - its just going to take a lot of time with this one. Rome lets me clip and file her nails with her just sitting on my lap. I am able to literately just pick up her foot and clip, I have never toweled her. Now there is the rare occasion where shes in some sort of mood and wont let me but those days are few and far in between. On those days I just wait a day or two and then shes fine. Rocco on the other hand, is new to us and is not accustomed to having his nails done this way. He has always been toweled and restrained. So we are currently working on him so that we will be able to do his the way we do Romes - completely stress free.
It is going to take awhile for us to train Rocco the way we already have Rome. He is touchy about his feet. What we have been doing with him is touching a foot briefly and then immediately giving him a piece of a treat as reward. We don't stay fixated on the feet training. Keep the sessions really short. Don't over do it. Focus on daily sessions but extremely short ones. It may take months to get to the point where you can trim them. Only progress at the rate that your bird is comfortable with. The idea is to keep this as stress free as possible. You want this to be something that the bird looks forward to. Not something that they are scared of. Once the bird is comfortable with you briefly touching the foot (the touch is so brief its like an accident) stay in that level for a few days - week. Then advance with a slightly longer touch. Eventually you will be able to touch each toe. Always reward after each touch, so that the association with feet being touched is a positive one. I suggest using something small that can be eaten quickly (Pine nuts are a good choice - birds usually love them and they are small and soft. I usually break them in half to make them even smaller). You don't want quantity with your treats, you want repetition. Eventually you will be able to get to the point where you can pick the foot up in your hand and pick up each individual toe (this is where we are with Roc and we've been doing this for about a month) and touch the nail itself. Remember an extremely slow transition will cause you to have a stronger foundation and less resistance.
In the beginning I was nailed a few times by Rocco, obviously don't reward that behavior. You want to get as close as you can to the foot without causing the bird to react in anyway. Rocco doesn't like to be touched in anyway and is very protective of his physical space (probably due to his first home with 8 kids, one of which kicked his cage all the time - so he has learned to be defensive). With Rocco we have had to go straight for touching the feet because he doesn't like his body touched (started with just resting our hand near the feet then advanced to quick touches). One technique you could try is: if the bird lets you touch under its wing see if you can slide you had down to the upper leg - if so reward and over time slowly work your way down to the foot. If you just reach straight for the foot while the bird is standing there, its going to act defensively. The bird doesn't understand why you are grabbing at its foot and then on top of that it has learned over time that having its foot grabbed is followed by an undesirable stressful event. The bird has learned that having its feet touched is a negative experience and you now have to work to turn that into a positive one. Having nails clipped to a bird is very scary, it will take work and consistency to take the fear out of it.
Now onto the fear of the clippers. In the beginning don't associate the clippers with the feet, do the foot sessions and exposure to the clippers separately (eventually you'll be able to bring it together). Start by buying several clippers (all of the same kind, all that you plan to use every time you clip, birds can fear new things so eventually when you are able to clip don't change the type. Or you can try to expose the bird to several types of clippers in hope that the bird will learn to accept different styles - completely your choice). Take the clipper and start out by encouraging the bird to play with them like a toy. Encourage the bird to destroy them. Leave some on the couch, tie them in the stand, hang them in the cage. Wrap them with food etc. Let the bird get exposed to them as they are, without your had attached to them. Personal favorite, Rome takes things out of my mouth (and tries to store things in there). Get creative. I put clippers in my mouth, Rome takes them out plays with them and then feeds them back to me - clippers now have become a game and are no longer scary. Clippers are now used for things that are no longer scary, now they are toys and have treats attached to them. Reward the bird when they play with the clippers, make it fun. Cut things up with the clippers so the bird gets used to the click sound - very important that this gets accomplished, the sound itself can be the scariest part. Each time you make the click sound, reward with a treat. If you plan on filing after you clip, do the same with files (Rome will actually file her own nails afterward - its a little creepy but super cute at the same time).
Eventually you will get to a point where you can rub the clippers all over the bird and the bird will act like nothing is going on. Then you can start work with the clippers and feet together (this is after you are able to handle the feet). Then you will eventually get to where you can clip. I would clip one nail then give a treat, maybe file and do the next nail either a few hours later or the next day until the bird gets really used to it. Even with Rome there are days where I can only clip one or two at a time and then do the rest on another day, it just depends on what her attention span is. Sometimes I can do all of them in one sitting and sometimes none. So the birds personality is also going to dictate what you can do, never push the bird because this will cause what your doing to become stressful and seen as a negative thing. If Rome is in a mood and gives me a hard time about her nails being done I simply stop and do it another day. If I insist and force her to - then not only am I now in risk of getting bitten but I have just made nail trims a scary event and one that she would never look forward to.
Sorry this was long, I hope it helps.
It is going to take awhile for us to train Rocco the way we already have Rome. He is touchy about his feet. What we have been doing with him is touching a foot briefly and then immediately giving him a piece of a treat as reward. We don't stay fixated on the feet training. Keep the sessions really short. Don't over do it. Focus on daily sessions but extremely short ones. It may take months to get to the point where you can trim them. Only progress at the rate that your bird is comfortable with. The idea is to keep this as stress free as possible. You want this to be something that the bird looks forward to. Not something that they are scared of. Once the bird is comfortable with you briefly touching the foot (the touch is so brief its like an accident) stay in that level for a few days - week. Then advance with a slightly longer touch. Eventually you will be able to touch each toe. Always reward after each touch, so that the association with feet being touched is a positive one. I suggest using something small that can be eaten quickly (Pine nuts are a good choice - birds usually love them and they are small and soft. I usually break them in half to make them even smaller). You don't want quantity with your treats, you want repetition. Eventually you will be able to get to the point where you can pick the foot up in your hand and pick up each individual toe (this is where we are with Roc and we've been doing this for about a month) and touch the nail itself. Remember an extremely slow transition will cause you to have a stronger foundation and less resistance.
In the beginning I was nailed a few times by Rocco, obviously don't reward that behavior. You want to get as close as you can to the foot without causing the bird to react in anyway. Rocco doesn't like to be touched in anyway and is very protective of his physical space (probably due to his first home with 8 kids, one of which kicked his cage all the time - so he has learned to be defensive). With Rocco we have had to go straight for touching the feet because he doesn't like his body touched (started with just resting our hand near the feet then advanced to quick touches). One technique you could try is: if the bird lets you touch under its wing see if you can slide you had down to the upper leg - if so reward and over time slowly work your way down to the foot. If you just reach straight for the foot while the bird is standing there, its going to act defensively. The bird doesn't understand why you are grabbing at its foot and then on top of that it has learned over time that having its foot grabbed is followed by an undesirable stressful event. The bird has learned that having its feet touched is a negative experience and you now have to work to turn that into a positive one. Having nails clipped to a bird is very scary, it will take work and consistency to take the fear out of it.
Now onto the fear of the clippers. In the beginning don't associate the clippers with the feet, do the foot sessions and exposure to the clippers separately (eventually you'll be able to bring it together). Start by buying several clippers (all of the same kind, all that you plan to use every time you clip, birds can fear new things so eventually when you are able to clip don't change the type. Or you can try to expose the bird to several types of clippers in hope that the bird will learn to accept different styles - completely your choice). Take the clipper and start out by encouraging the bird to play with them like a toy. Encourage the bird to destroy them. Leave some on the couch, tie them in the stand, hang them in the cage. Wrap them with food etc. Let the bird get exposed to them as they are, without your had attached to them. Personal favorite, Rome takes things out of my mouth (and tries to store things in there). Get creative. I put clippers in my mouth, Rome takes them out plays with them and then feeds them back to me - clippers now have become a game and are no longer scary. Clippers are now used for things that are no longer scary, now they are toys and have treats attached to them. Reward the bird when they play with the clippers, make it fun. Cut things up with the clippers so the bird gets used to the click sound - very important that this gets accomplished, the sound itself can be the scariest part. Each time you make the click sound, reward with a treat. If you plan on filing after you clip, do the same with files (Rome will actually file her own nails afterward - its a little creepy but super cute at the same time).
Eventually you will get to a point where you can rub the clippers all over the bird and the bird will act like nothing is going on. Then you can start work with the clippers and feet together (this is after you are able to handle the feet). Then you will eventually get to where you can clip. I would clip one nail then give a treat, maybe file and do the next nail either a few hours later or the next day until the bird gets really used to it. Even with Rome there are days where I can only clip one or two at a time and then do the rest on another day, it just depends on what her attention span is. Sometimes I can do all of them in one sitting and sometimes none. So the birds personality is also going to dictate what you can do, never push the bird because this will cause what your doing to become stressful and seen as a negative thing. If Rome is in a mood and gives me a hard time about her nails being done I simply stop and do it another day. If I insist and force her to - then not only am I now in risk of getting bitten but I have just made nail trims a scary event and one that she would never look forward to.
Sorry this was long, I hope it helps.
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