Best way to trim quail toenails & beaks? Share your advice & stories!

[orloffer]

The coturnix quail toenail/beak trimming today did not go so well. They develop these hard balls of debris/poop on their toes, and their feet are so delicate that completely removing these balls isn't really realistic, at least with the tools I have. The quicks in their nails were longer than expected, too, and one of them is still bleeding from somewhere. Beak trimming is tricky as well--my quail are all terrified of humans.

Is this a problem for you? What tools do you recommend for beak/toenail trimming? How do you keep them from developing the balls of debris on their toes, and is there a way to keep them more calm during these procedures? Advice about anything stated above would be appreciated, and feel free to share your quail stories as well!

 

[orloffer]

@Nabiki @Kiki @KaLe dA QuAiL
I know you have quail! Any advice?

 

[Nabiki]

I don't. My birds are kept outside on the ground, so they tend to wear them down naturally. Have you tried putting a brick on cinder block in their pen for them to wear their claws down on? Something like that might work for beaks too. I notice that my birds will sometimes walk up and down the edge of their pen scraping their beaks against the wire. That probably wears them down too.

 

[orloffer]

My poor quail! As I stated in the first post, one of my quail hens somehow got injured during the nail trimming episode and was bleeding. She was put in a separate enclosure, and it looks like the blood is drying a bit, but her entire underside is bloody and she looks so delicate. I am not sure where the blood was coming from--hopefully she is a bit better by tomorrow!

 

[Murdock624]

Not sure about trimming their nails as I haven't had to do that. But for their beaks, you can use cuttlebone found in pet stores for them to wear their beaks down. You can also use a nail trimmer like this one. We have one like this for our cats and rabbits and it works great.

 

[orloffer]

Not sure about trimming their nails as I haven't had to do that. But for their beaks, you can use cuttlebone found in pet stores for them to wear their beaks down. You can also use a nail trimmer like this one. We have one like this for our cats and rabbits and it works great.

Our nail trimmer is very similar to that one. Maybe I should try cuttlebone again sometime. I got one once in the past, and my quail never understood it.

 

[2020Chickadee]

Our nail trimmer is very similar to that one. Maybe I should try cuttlebone again sometime. I got one once in the past, and my quail never understood it.

This may sound strange but I noticed my girls oddly mouthing wood in their cage. I thought maybe they were trying to wear down their beak so I found a course but not jagged rock and put it in their cage. Big hit! Maybe a rock will make more sense to your quail?

 

[orloffer]

Thank you for the idea, I might try that! I don't know if they would understand its purpose, but hopefully they would. I have one quail who, when it was 100 degrees outside, was too afraid to go near the ice pack I gave him.

 

[2020Chickadee]

Thank you for the idea, I might try that! I don't know if they would understand its purpose, but hopefully they would. I have one quail who, when it was 100 degrees outside, was too afraid to go near the ice pack I gave him.

Hahaha, aww, bless him. Hopefully he won't be too scared of a rock or at least warm up to it after a few days.

 

[Peristeria]

hey develop these hard balls of debris/poop on their toes, and their feet are so delicate that completely removing these balls isn't really realistic

For mine, they get that poop stuck right up in their toe nails and we have to soak their poor little feet to get the gross stuff off. Letting them stand in a very shallow puddle of (warm maybe?) water for like 5 min seems to do the trick for mine. We don't even have to dig it out it just sorta dissolves (thankfully haha).

Have you tried putting a brick on cinder block in their pen for them to wear their claws down on?

I have the same issue and I have a cinder block in there but they seem to want to poop on it and sleep in it more than they want to wear their beaks and claws down . It is a struggle here lol. Do you have any other suggestions for this?