It’s been my observation that most caged bird keepers fail (sell, rehome or give to a rescue) because the birds are unable to adapt to the keeper’s expectations. “She’s way messier than I thought.” “We’ll have none of that flying, we don’t want it to get hurt”, and the heart of today’s topic “We gotta trim those nails, Marlene, I can’t keep buying new sweaters”.

Apparently neither bird read on the internet

the appropriate perch sizes that are recomended by humans

“The birds don’t care Martha!”

It’s been a while since I’ve used the term “holistic” and have been remiss.

If you read enough Facebook threads about birds you will have heared all the gushing caged bird keepers who extol the virtues of organic and holistic diets for our FIDS (Feather Kids) as if the two terms were interchangeable.

One of the many definitions of the word holistic is characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole. In other words, looking at anything as a “whole”.

What that means is that everything we do to our birds, ie clip its wings, or even cut its nails, impacts everything the bird does.

For example, once the bird’s wings are clipped you solve the (non) flying problem but create a balance problem. Ever see a downhill skier without poles?

Take away the poles (ends of the wings) and you can no longer feel where the ground is. If you have a 5-foot tall cage and your clipped bird falls from a top interior perch for lack of balance, an injury may be sustained.

This is why flighted birds need different cage configurations than clipped birds. But that’s another story.

What triggered this topic was a call from a woman who had ordered a Jumbo (2 – 3 Inch diameter) manzanita perch for her Moluccan Cockatoo. she call to return the perch because her bird kept slipping off it. She went on to say the perch clearly was defective because her bird “never had this problem”.

I patiently listened to her entire story including the part about just getting back from the vet for a nail and wing trim and the bird was traumatized enough.

When she finished, In my Dr. Mitch voice I said, “ There may be a relationship to the shortened nails with blunt ends and her inability to grab onto a piece of wood equal to the diameter of her body, don’t you think?”

Comfortably perched on a
4-inch diameter sleigh bed footboard – whoda thunk it?

We’ve not heard from the customer since so I’m guessing as the nails grew back, so did the bird’s ability to grab the new perch.

This brings us to the moral of this story which is “every action taken with a bird impacts its ability to do – anything”.

I’m not saying don’t trim your bird’s nails, but it comes with the understanding that you have an animal whose balance and grip have both been compromised, even if only temporarily.

When you do, as with any change in a bird’s body or environment, watch closely for its ability to cope with the new change however minor it may be. A 4-foot fall from a perch at the top of the cage can cause injury to your bird if they were used to being able to recover from a slip before due to long nails and unclipped wings.

Not that I’m an expert on the subject but having just spent 8 days “helicopter parenting” over our cockatiel whose foot was in a paper cast, made us realize how something not much larger than a postage stamp wrapped around our bird’s foot and leg changed EVERYTHING in her life!

Pedicure Perches help remove the sharp tips on a bird’s nails. Placed low in the cage by the food dishes or in the front encourage them to be used.

GROOMING PERCHES