by lwis » Mon Jan 23, 2012 2:15 pm
On such a small bird, I would agree with using perches that file down their nails. But I would use ones that have a smooth top and rough sides so the bird's feet don't get scraped up.
Providing that the bird does not have nail overgrowth issue, I would say that the perches may be all you need. I use a safety pumice perch. It works great. My GCC's nails were needle sharp and I put just one pumice perch in the area of his cage where he spends most of his time (he has about 6 perches in his cage) and we haven't had to groom his nails since. They are not sharp enough to hurt when he is on our skin, but they are sharp enough that he can grab onto smaller things. I think it gives him more stability and confidence when perching on different surfaces.