DNA blood testing

[Sally]

When I did DNA testing, I took blood samples from the birds by clipping their nails very short, till I drew blood. I hated the whole experience, and said in future, I would do feather testing, where you just have to pluck a few breast feathers from each bird. However, I just read somewhere that feather testing may not be as accurate as blood testing.

If anyone has done blood testing, do you clip the main middle toenail, or one of the side ones? When I did it, I clipped the main middle toenail, and I had to clip so far back before I drew blood that I almost felt like I mutilated the toenail. Does anyone have any tips on doing this?

[dfcauley]

Sally,

Dianna does this quite often. Maybe she will see this soon and chime in.

I am not brave enough to do this.

[L in Ontario]

On a very few finches the quick is quite short and you need to clip the talon short to get any blood.

I just take any nail and start clipping little by little just until I see a tiny bit of blood. If you then stroke the toe with a finger on each side, it will encourage a little more blood flow (so you don't need to clip further) - like milking a cow. You only need to dab the nail / talon on the blood-sample card a couple of times and usually the nail stops bleeding right away. If not just have a very small bowl or small cup with a tablespoon of flour that you can take a pinch of and apply to the end of the nail. Hold the flour on for about 30 seconds so it adheres and the bird is good to go back into the cage. Just check to be sure the bleeding has stopped before you put him back in his cage.

I always felt nail clipping is less painful for them than pulling 5 feathers. And yes, I've heard blood samples from the nail is more accurate than feathers. I've never done feather pulling but I've done many nail clippings for blood samples of finches and parrots.

When I got my baby Pionus parrot - the breeder had never done DNA'ing by nail blood samples. She'd always done the feather pulling from the babies. I showed her how to do the nail clipping (on my baby) and then she did the next baby and said she would never go back to feather pulling again.

[Sally]

Thanks for that information, Liz. I will stick with the nail clipping, then, but I think I will try clipping one of the side nails instead of the long middle nail. I need to DNA a few birds, so feel a bit better about it now.

[Domenic]

Just curious, what birds are you testing?

[L in Ontario]

I've done Bichenos and Red-throated Parrot finches (with my daughter) and Maximilian Pionus parrots.

[DVBourassa]

We usually clip the back nail. My husband holds the bird, I clip, he applies the blood to the card, and then I get the styptic powder on it. The whole process takes less than 30 seconds and I prefer the back nail because you don't have to cut off as much as one of the front three nails.

[Rayray]

the compagny here does the dna on tail feathers and the result with now a days dna testing is 100 % acurate , so no worries .

ray

[the.puppeteer]

Actually we (my mom, Liz, and I) have clipped the nails of just about EVERY one of our birds... which she seems to be forgetting.

We took two blood samples of up to three individuals of every species (finch, parakeet and parrot) we own for a genome project one of my professors at school is running.

I think we started with the middle front nails and if needed moved to the side ones - some individual finches just did NOT want to give up any blood (Whydahs and GB Waxbills were the worst). Even after clipping far into the nail, nothing would come out! Sometimes just waiting for a little got the blood running and also as my mom said "milking" the toe seemed to help too.

Good luck with future clippings!
-Julie

[L in Ontario]

Ha ha - I knew we did a lot of finches (yes every species we have) but I forgot the geonome project!! Julie was able to do all her own birds on her own and we did my birds together... and yes some were more 'reluctant' to give any sample at all but we did manage to get a bit from everyone.

For Julie's geonome project we had to put a drop of blood on each end of a glass slide and 'smeer' or drag it with another glass slide; so it could later be placed under a microscope (if I remember correctly).