Macaws:
Red Shouldered (Hahn's) Macaw
Severe Macaw
Blue And Gold Macaw
Blue Throated Macaw
Military Macaw
Red Fronted Macaw
Scarlet Macaw
Green Winged Macaw
Hyacinth Macaw
Parrots have claws which can grow quite sharp. When and how should you trim your parrot's nails? This guide is all about nail trimming for any size parrot from a Cockatiel to a Macaw. Let's dive into proper parrot grooming.
With use, the claws naturally trim and maintain themselves. However, in the cage and human environment, the parrot may not be exposed to sufficient activity to keep the toenails from overgrowing.
There are two problems with letting a pet parrot's nail become too long. First, they can be come uncomfortably long for the bird making it difficult to perch or walk. Excessively long nails are also more likely to get caught in a toe or break off. The other reason really long nails can be a problem is when you or your family hold the bird. Those talons can dig right into your hand and hurt you. So, for these reasons, we want to keep the claws from becoming too long or too sharp.
Comparing excessively long vs properly trimmed parrot nails
The easiest way to keep your parrot's nails from becoming too long is to provide a grooming perch in the cage. The Parrot Wizard Grooming Geo NU Perch is ideal because it is smooth on top and abrasive on the bottom. This helps dull the claws but without being sharp on the skin of the foot. Always mount with the smooth side facing up and the rough side facing down. Avoid grooming perches that are rough on all sides.
Mount a grooming perch in the cage where it receives moderate use. Do not mount the perch at a high spot or the parrot will spend all day on it and overuse it. Mounting the grooming perch by the water is the best way to guarantee it receives daily use but not excessive. Furthermore, parrots like to rub their beak after eating or drinking on the hard perch.
A grooming perch in the cage can help keep parrot nails from growing too quickly
Although a grooming perch will help slow down nail growth, it likely will not eliminate it entirely. A grooming perch will generally be good for making a manual nail trim last longer. Since trimming your parrot's nails is challenging, making them last longer with a grooming perch is a great idea.
How do you know when your parrot's nails need a trimming? Either when they are so long/sharp that they cause you discomfort when holding your parrot or when the claws are so long that the parrot cannot stand properly on a flat surface. If the claws are so long that the pads of the foot are lifted off the surface, the nails are definitely too long and need a trim.
Excessively long parrot nails can be painful to hold on your hand and the parrot may have trouble walking
If you are unsure or uncomfortable grooming your parrot's nails yourself, have them done by an avian veterinarian or professional bird groomer. Handling the bird may be stressful. Cutting too much off can leave the nail bleeding profusely. For these reasons, I do not recommend common pet owners to cut their parrot's nails with scissors themselves. Instead, a much safer way to groom your parrot's nails yourself at home is with a Nail Trimmer Stone.
Filing your parrot's nails is less forceful, less stressful, less painful, and nearly impossible to do harm. By nature, the process is slower and less invasive than cutting the nails. When properly trained to allow voluntary nail trims, your parrot will let you know before you take too much off. Even without the warning signs, bleeding starts gradually when filing and is much more likely to stop on its own or be easily stopped. Have some quick stop powder or corn starch nearby just in case there is any bleeding.
Filing your parrot's nails can help trim them and be less stressful than a forceful grooming
The great thing about grooming your parrot's nails yourself is that it can be much less forceful and stressful on the parrot. Nothing says you have to trim all 8 nails in one session (yes, parrots have 8 nails! Four toes on each foot). You can trim just one nail per day and still be done in just over a week. But, you don't even have to file each nail down right to the desired length. It is possible to file them down just part of the way and then repeat the process later. This makes grooming sessions shorter, less grueling, and much easier.
Properly trimmed parrot nails will be easy to hold, not lift the foot off a surface, and still provide adequate grip
Teaching your parrot voluntary nail trim is the best way to make it go smoothly. You can use positive reinforcement to gradually teach your bird to offer you its foot by itself for filing. Initially, this isn't about grooming at all. In fact, don't even hold a nail trimmer. Just teach your parrot to walk over and give you the foot. This is a lot like teaching the wave or high five trick.
Don't just take your parrot's foot. Make sure your parrot is eagerly walking across a perch and lifting its foot toward you. This eagerness helps the bird overcome the slight discomfort of a gentle trimming. Be sure to use a Parrot Training Perch for these exercises. This kind of stand is simple, height adjustable, and helps the bird focus on training. Ask your parrot to give foot and give a treat when it does.
Here is a video about how to know if your parrot's nails are too long and how to go about trimming them:
Once the parrot is good at giving you its foot, don't immediately jump to trimming them. Instead, gradually desensitize your bird to the nail trimmer by showing it closer and closer while holding the foot. Eventually you will be able to gently touch the trimmer to the nail. And with a little more practice, gently drag it across the nail. You may not be doing any significant removal at this stage, but the bird is still fully cooperative and content. Gradually apply more pressure and file for longer on each nail before granting a treat. View some in depth videos about the entire nail trimming process here.
This article is about how to do bad things to your parrot. Scratch that, you shouldn't be doing bad things to your parrot. Let's call it doing "sucky" things to your parrot. Sucky things may be inevitable or necessary such as going into a carrier, being toweled, going to the vet, putting on a harness, moving to a new house, getting groomed, receiving medication, etc. These aren't necessarily bad things, some may even be life saving, but they can certainly be seen as sucky and undesirable from the parrot's perspective. This guide provides some tips on making these things go by more easily. I'm not going to look into the specifics of each task (such as teaching the parrot to go into the carrier) but rather an approach to dealing with these situations in general.
The first step is to try to make the best of any situation. If you have to do something sucky to your parrot, try to make it as harmless as possible. For example if your parrot is terrified of carriers, towels, and grooming, perhaps you can do just the grooming at home without a towel to avoid making the experience triply terrible. Try to make uncomfortable situations go by quickly and smoothly. But do not rush or be too forceful in trying to make it go by faster. Instead try to be efficient by thinking the experience through in advance and even practicing it out before putting the parrot into it.
Whenever possible, try to use positive reinforcement to desensitize the parrot to sucky things or situations. Teach the parrot to go into the carrier by itself, teach it to put the harness on voluntarily, etc. Anything that is meant to be for the pleasure of the parrot must not be applied in a sucky way. In other words forcing the harness so the parrot can enjoy being outside is terribly counterproductive. The parrot will be so preoccupied being upset about the harness being forced on that it will miss the enjoyment of being outside.
Being wrapped in a towel for veterinary procedures on the other hand is not be for the parrot's pleasure (though it may be essential for the parrot's health, the bird does not realize this). Still, you can greatly eliminate the stress of the veterinary visit by ensuring that all the other aspects aren't sucky for the parrot. If you use positive reinforcement to train a parrot to be comfortable with the towel and use the towel in non-threatening ways at home, the experience of being toweled by the vet won't in itself be traumatizing. Nor will the carrier to get there, the handling, etc. This leaves the parrot to be stressed only by the actual blood draw or other medical procedures. Instead of being traumatized by all the uncomfortable handling and force, the parrot is left with much less to worry about.
A great counter condition to necessary sucky experience is to make it desirable beforehand. For example, rather than letting your baby parrot's first encounter with a towel be a bad one at the vet, make hundreds of good experiences at home first. Then when one bad exception time happens at the vet, the parrot won't hold a grudge because the good times far outweigh the bad ones. If your parrot hates towels already, you can take the time to undo the damage and counter condition the towel as something desirable. If hundreds of good experiences at home outweigh the infrequent bad ones, it will remain less sucky to the parrot and your parrot will suffer less for it.
Things like new toys should never be sucky at all. Sure, many parrots are scared of new stuff. But the last thing you want to do is make the bird scared of what it is actually meant to enjoy. For skittish parrots, hanging a toy straight into the cage figuring it will get over it is not always the best idea. The bird will still have prolonged anxiety in the process of desensitization. Instead, offer a social modeling form of learning by being proactive. Play with the toy yourself in view of the parrot or use targeting to teach the bird to come closer to the toy to get comfortable on its own.
The more "sucky" things that you turn into neutral or better yet "awesome," the better prepared your parrot will be to deal with any life changes as they are to come. The more you train, socialize, travel with your parrot, and build good experiences, the easier this process continues to become.
As you teach your parrot how to overcome and even enjoy sucky things, your parrot will begin to develop a trust for anything you provide. For example, Kili used to get scared of new trick training props. I would work with her using targeting to have her walk around in the vicinity of the new toy and progressively closer until she was no longer scared. Over time, these targeting sessions became quicker and quicker because she was already familiar with the desensitization process. Eventually we reached a point where if Kili was scared of something new, I could just show her the target stick and ask "do we really need to even go through this?" and then Kili would stop being scared of the new toy and just proceed to learning the new trick. Not only are new toys not sucky to Kili anymore, she looks forward to them. I have reversed the appearance of something new from being sucky to something to look forward to. Kili knows that new training props mean fun new tricks to learn.
Occasionally there are some rare non-recurring sucky things that must be done. Preparation may be impossible. In those cases just get it done. But for all other things that you can control, take the time to make them pleasant and your parrot will have an overall better life. The fewer things that inevitably have to be sucky, the less stressed your parrot will be and the more trusting of people it will remain. Preempt experiences that may be bad with a lot of similar good experiences beforehand. Less suckiness in your parrot's life is already a better way to live.
Check out this video of how I handle Kili & Truman in a positively reinforcing way in preparation for grooming and other necessary handling. Basically it's just how we play but it has useful benefits in the long run:
Trained Parrot is a blog about how to train tricks to all parrots and parakeets. Read about how I teach tricks to Truman the Brown Necked Cape Parrot including flight recall, shake, wave, nod, turn around, fetch, wings, and play dead. Learn how you can train tricks to your Parrot, Parrotlet, Parakeet, Lovebird, Cockatiel, Conure, African Grey, Amazon, Cockatoo or Macaw. This blog is better than books or DVDs because the information is real, live, and completely free of charge. If you want to know how to teach your parrot tricks then you will enjoy this free parrot training tutorial.
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