So I trimmed his nails tonight....

[Sparky]

And although I tea-towelled Sparky, he managed to get a few good nips in there. Drew blood on my thumb but I reckon I deserved it anyway for being so mean as to trim his nails LOL.

But yay, I don't wince when he sits on me anymore! And he forgave me when I sweetened the deal with some treats Just his dignity that was ruffled.

Thanks for the great info on nail trimming on the forum, it came in really handy

[newatthistx]

that's great.....it always feels like a major accomplicment when you get done doesn't it.....I have 6 little pairs of feet to do and you would think that I was trying to hang them by their toenails instead of just trying to trim them....lol

someone did say to me ages ago that it "does" get better after time once they get use to it ......so not true with my little ones....everytime is just like the first time

[Sparky]

haha I bet!

Yes I noticed the difference immediately, so much nicer having him on my shoulder- and no more teeny tiny cuts from his claws! Only had to take a little bit off the ends to make it much more pleasant for us both. He was having trouble hanging onto stuff because they were too long.

[gabbagabbawill]

if you do any sort of training with your bird (which I highly recommend) then you can also train them to be ok with getting nails trimmed... What you want to do is introduce the nail clippers bit by bit and offer treats to the bird, just letting them get used to the clippers being around and they get a reward. Then, when they are used to the clippers and totally calm with them around, start "touching" their toes/ nails with it; not clipping anything yet, just touching so they get used to it being there and continue rewarding for calm behaviour. After a while of this you can begin to place the clipper over the nail, so the bird is used to the pressure while continuing to offer rewards for calm behaviour. After several sessions of the bird being completely okay with slight pressure from the clippers, it's time to actually trim a nail and offer a treat/reward. Hopefully at this point, your bird will be so used to the clippers being around that it won't be too fazed by the clipping and look forward to it's reward/ treat.

It took me a few days to train my Sun conure to accept trimming, but it's totally worth it. It may take a bit longer for a bird to be okay with it if they have had a bad experience in the past, but it is possible to overcome this if it is done very slowly and methodically. Just work on it for 2-3 minutes every day and if the bird gets spooked, back up and start with an earlier step until he/she overcomes that fear. Eventually the bird will be totally calm during trimmings.

Good luck!