Hanging like a bat

[Madcat]

I've only had my spice finch a few months now. I went to maintain cage and saw he was hanging like a bat!!! I thought what's going on ?!?! I looked and his nails were REALLY long and he was caught in the cage bars My mind was racing! I had never been in this situation before. This means that (gulp) I HAVE TO TRIM HIS NAILS MYSELF! I'm so scared at this point because he was suffering hanging like that!! So I reached in to release him. That joker is fast After a couple minutes of chasing he got tired and I caught him. Now I'm EXTRA nervous!!! I didn't want him to die from shock, exhaustion etc.. His little chest was going up n down so fast I felt so bad. So I grabbed come nails clippers I used to use on my kids when they were babies and trimmed them. I did good y'all! No bleeding! I guess I have to go back to the store and buy bird clippers and stuff in case I nip next time. I'll be better prepared.

[Zebrafincher]

Hi Madcat,

when I have to catch my birds, sometimes I will wait until its dark, and grab them when the light is off, then i can catch them safely. They usually protest when I cut their nails, but i use a nail clipper. If the nail bleeds, use corn flour to dab it into to stop the bleeding

[Nerien]

I use a little LED flashlight, and hold the nails over it to clip. You can clearly see where the quick is when they are backlit by a strong light. The lights I have are on a small clip, so I clip it to the corner of the cage (outside) so that I have both hands free to hold the bird and work the clippers.

I just use my regular nail clippers, small size, you just have to be careful to keep watch of other nails/toes to make sure they don't get caught in the edges of the clippers.

[Madcat]

Zebrafincher Hi!!!! Wow! That's a fantastic idea. catching them when it's dark and corn flour??? Ok , didn't know that. Nerien Hello there! Thanks for the tip! I can keep my baby clippers ! Now I'll keep an eye out for a small led clip light. Thanks for sharing! You folks are great!

[Sally]

Madcat

Here is a link to an article w/video on how to trim nails. I don't buy special bird clippers either, I use cuticle nippers or regular nail clippers. As Nerien mentioned, you have to watch that only one nail is in the clipper, it is easy to nip another nail or toe. I use a magnifying glass that hangs around my neck so I can really see what I am doing. I like that idea of having an LED light that clips onto the outside of the cage, I'll have to look for one.

http://www.finchinfo.com/health/trimmin ... _beaks.php

[Fred's Finches]

I just bought a spice finch and it did the same thing. Petsmart was ver lax in trimming the nails. They were too long.

But I also did some research, and it seems that spice finches like to hang upside down like bats. It is so they can watch the ground for bugs to eat.

[Nerien]

Sally Mine is a tiny little LED light on a sort of clothespin-like clip that I got at the dollar store. Might also see them hanging near the registers at grocery and hardware stores, it's just a cheap little thing, but being an LED the light works great.

When the dollar store has them, we buy lots of them, both because they are great to send with the kids camping and such, but also because for a buck, the three little batteries it comes with are such a deal, we sometimes use just the batteries to replace those in more expensive items. Can't beat three button-cell batteries for a buck!