How to Cut Budgie Nails

Many bird owners are hesitant to clip their bird̵7;s nails. However, good nail care is essential to ensuring optimal perch gripping strength for all birds. Overgrown nails prevent perching, which results in arthritis or falls. A layered approach to budgie nail grooming prevents and treats nail overgrowth and keeps your budgie's bone structure and joints in good condition. Knowing how to hold your budgie properly during nail grooming session makes nail care less stressful.

Things You'll Need

  • Hand towel or washcloth
  • Bird safe nail clippers
  • Favorite seed or treat
  • Cotton ear cleaners
  • Styptic powder
  • Concrete/calcium perch for parakeets
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Instructions

    • 1

      Drizzle a bit of alcohol on the nail clippers, and lay them on a paper towel in a quiet, well-lighted room.

    • 2

      Place two cotton ear cleaners, a bottle of styptic powder and a dish of treats on the paper towel near the nail clippers. This will be your workstation.

    • 3

      Wrap the budgie in a washcloth in a taco-like fashion with the budgie's back in your palm and its feet grasping your thumb like a perch. Handle it calmly and gently as you do so. Offer the bird a treat if it cooperates.

    • 4

      Take the bird to your workstation and offer it a treat while you calmly talk to it to let it know that everything is okay.

    • 5

      Lay the bird on a flat surface; nestle the bird's head and shoulders against the palm of your left hand.

    • 6

      Allow the bird to press the foot near your chest against the pinky of your left hand. This keeps the foot busy and holds the budgie in place.

    • 7

      Place the tip of your ring finger of your left hand under the knee of the bird to keep it from retracting its foot.

    • 8

      Place the tip of the middle finger of your left hand in the palm of the bird's foot that you are working on, and hold the toe that you are clipping with your index finger and thumb.

    • 9

      Snip off the tip of the toenail with the nail clippers, and praise your bird for being good, which will help to calm it down. Move gracefully and diligently to each toe on the foot.

    • 10

      Pick up the bird's other foot with your left hand without letting it go, and trim each nail in the same fashion as you did with the first foot.