I'm going to have to get my little boys

[Tinker]

nails clipped :( What a pain huh? Last time it bleed all over the place at the vets and she had to recatch him again to stem the flow. Poor Lucki is so hard to catch and in such a big cage. He's certainly getting tamer though - I spend so much time with him (although I haven't been pushing him at all for tameness), but he's not going to be very pleased to have the vet catching him. But I definitely am thinking that they're too long now. I think he may be getting to the point where he doesn't want to curl his foot up - I've noted this week that he is holding his feet curled up with his toes stretched out instead - well usually. He did have one foot with the toes curled up today, but I could still see the toenail sticking out through his feathers!!! So probably time. My last budgie never needed his nails cut - it's weird how some budgies have toenails that don't grow and some have ones that insist on growing long fast.

He's busy happily licking his swing at the moment after spending the day in the sun in the seldom sunny city of Invercargill.

[chapala]

Do you have one of the concrete perches in his cage to help keep the nails worn down? If you place one near a food bowl, favorite toy or othe place where he's likely to spend some time, that can really help in maintaining the nails.

[Tinker]

I have thought about that - he spends most of his time playing with two of his toys - but they are got to by standing on his wide blue calcium perch. I really like that perch where it is, and since he spends so much time there I think it is good that he has a nice wide perch like that to stand on (it's a bit like standing flat on the ground as there is only a gentle curve). He also does this funnny big hop hop hop hop from one end of it to the other sometimes when he gets excited and wants to cross from one toy to the other. I'm sure he wouldn't do that on a thinner perch. Anywhere else I placed a concrete perch I don't think he would spend enough time. He stands on the various rope perches around his cage, but often only briefly when he is excited and going somewhere.

[LovelySydney]

Do you go get your nails trimmed somewhere or do you do it yourself? I feel like Neko and Oliver both need theirs trimmed but I dont know how far down to trim them. I suppose I could google it!!

[Tinker]

I got Luckis beak and toenails trimmed at the vet two years ago when I first got him. They were astoundingly long for such a young budgie, and they bleed quite a bit since he wriggled around unfortunately, but he was so small then that I guess the vet had trouble holding him tightly enough. The vet knew what she was doing though, and put something on to stop his toes stop bleeding and he was put back on the floor of his cage and he hoppped up quickly from there to his perch.

Anyway - went and visited another pet shop quite far away today, and they had giant pumice perches in there that are just as big and wide as the calcium perch I have in Luckis cage. So I'm going to try one of those for a couple of weeks in place of his favourite calcium perch and see if they grind down. I also brought him some new toys since they have quite a different selection than the usual store.

[Lori~D]

these work well
Bird Perches: Pumice conditioning perch from Drs. Foster & Smith

[Lori~D]

these work well
Bird Perches: Pumice conditioning perch from Drs. Foster & Smith