FINCHforum

I bought a pair of orange cheeks at my local pet shop. They shared a cage with a pair of bronze mannikins and both pairs needed their nails clipped. I purchased the orange cheeks and asked if the staff could clip their nails before I took them home. When I came home, one of the waxbills had passed away.

The owner said I could come back and he'd give me the mannikins. I brought my own cage this time, and we started to clip their nails. Soon, one of the mannikins was dead in the owner's hands. He clipped them properly and didn't cut the quick of the nail on either one.

Now I have two orphan birdies... The mannikin is having trouble perching because his nails are quite long but I don't know what to do about him. Has anyone encountered this before? The birds seem otherwise healthy--no tail bobbing, and they hop around and sing like normal finches.

So sorry the two passed like that. He may have held them to tightly, caught them to roughly or they may have had an underlying condition that the stress of the capture and holding was just to much. Nail clipping would not cause a death unless the nail was cut into the quick so deep the bird lost a considerable amount of blood.