Need to trim/cut my Cockatoo's Nails! First time~ can anyone help?

[ScissorChick]

Have have the 'pedipaws' for my dogs, they absolutely hate it. I would not use it for parrots - because it would

probably stress your baby out even more ( it's very noisy ) Do as others suggested and wrap him in a bath towel,

covering his face. Have somone hold him in the towel while you clip the very tip of the nail off. The 'quick' in the nail

will slowly move back, allowing you to clip the nail shorter weekly. I would get him used to the towel first. Pick a

special towel, and use only that towel for your bird. Put the towel near the cage for a week or so. You could put

the towel on the bed, and put a few treats on it, let the bird down and he can forage through the towel and find

treats. Point is, you do not want him to fear the towel. Always give him treats after the towel is around, or after

being grooming.

 

[bgelber]

Very pretty baby.

 

[blixie]

I use an emory board on my cockatoos nails
she got very upset at the clippers, but will let me (albeit grudgingly) file her toes.
she complains, but not to the point of screaming

 

[Nambroth]

A few things (I feel like such a pain in the butt!!)...

Congrats on having such a healthy, happy looking Moluccan Cockatoo! They are one of the biggest challenges in parrot keeping (if not the biggest) and your bird's well-being is a testament to your excellent care!

Seeing him outside like that is a little scary. Is he on a harness that I cannot see? In my career working with birds, some of the most heartbreaking stories were those told by people that lost their parrots when they took them outside... "His wings were clipped" or "He'd never tried to fly away in (x) years!" were a common reoccurring theme. No matter how loving and devoted, a parrot's instinct to serious danger or a scare is still to 'fly'. Please be careful! It'd be so heartbreaking to see him lost...

Toweling is a great idea! There are a few things that you can do to make it less traumatic for him.
If he already has a bad association with towels this might not help, but if he is a towel 'newbie' then there is hope!!
What you want to do is to have him associate the towel with a positive experience. The best thing you can do is to create towel 'games' that you play together (peek a boo, hide the toy, hide the treat, whatever HE likes best!). Get him good and used to the towel, used to being gently wrapped in the towel (and rewarding him for tolerating it) and so on. 'Toos are smart but sensitive... he may learn in a few days or it might take a while. After you know he likes the towel, you can take one nail and clip it, then instantly give him his favorite treat! It will be like this for him: "Towel = fun goodtimes... nail clippers, OH NO!!, wait there is a treat in my face, allll riiiight!!" ... again, cockatoos are sensitive as you know well by now!

But, the theory is that the power of a really good treat might outweigh his bad feelings. If you can repeat this type of training, nail trimming might be a pleasant experience for you both in time! I have two of my parrots trained to tolerate nail clipping without freaking out, this way. They don't LIKE the clipping part, but they are calm and know that treats are coming so they let me do it without flipping out.

I hope this is helpful to you!

 

[duckncover]

Well first of all have you tried a nail file yet? It might be a little easier and less dangerous than trimming. If your set on trimming basically it takes 2 or 3 people with a large bird. You need a towel. Get it over his head and have one person hold his head so he doesn't try to bite you. If he is still fighting it then have another person hold is body while you quickly trim each nail. It takes two people with my amazon doing the towel technique. Make sure you have some septic powder on hand just incase he starts bleeding. It's much harder to trim than dog nails.

 

[tiffanyg2]

Quote:
Thanks for the tips! Mine may be dull or just not a great quality so I will be buying another pair. And I think the biggest issue to~ it's a 2 person job especially with a large parrot and I'm trying to do it alone. So I will have to get a friend to help me. And yea I guess I shouldn't expect him to totally enjoy it?? LOL but I would love to try the nail file thing with him and get him used to pretty nails

 

[Hoss1975]

Quote:
We were at a family members house for a memorial day cook out,i kept hearing a parrot squawking and thought one of the neighbors had a window open,until i saw a scarlet macaw go flying across the back yard.It escaped last fall and still hangs around the neighborhood,the original owner leaves food out for it but they haven't been able to catch it yet.How do you suppose it survived the winter?