It is obviously important not to let your parrot’s nails get overgrown. If they are too long, the have a higher likelihood of getting broken and are sharper which would cause anyone holding the bird discomfort. Some people freefly their parrots or have them in particularly natural environments so they don’t cut the nails but I would say they are the exception to the rule.

Given that your parrot lives in a cage at home, it is understandable that it is not exposed to the natural claw cutting things it would encounter in the wild. Naturally the nails keep growing to compensate for the rate at which they are used. At home they are not used, so they become overgrown. Since we live in unnatural environments and use tools/helping devices for different things we have to cut our own nails and our companion parrot’s.

There are basically three ways to keep a parrot’s nails trimmed:

1) Cut them with a nail clipper

2) File them with a nail file

3) Provide filing perches

I use all three of these and highly recommend that you use all of these methods. I would like to describe the benefits of each of these.

The advantage to cutting the nails is that it is relatively quick and leaves a clean cut. The end of the nails is very blunt and it takes a longer time for the nails to grow back from this stage. The downside is that it is a dangerous/stressful process. If cut incorrectly, the bird can bleed to death so it is important that you have a vet or bird expert do this.

To prolong the benefit of the cut nails, I file my bird’s nails every few weeks. By doing this, I can stretch visits to the vet or bird store from once every two to once every three months. I would have to file the parrot’s nails every other day if I wanted to avoid having to get them cut altogether but it is difficult to find the time to do that. So instead, I just blunt out the tips every so often. By holding my bird for nail filing every so often, it makes her more used to the process and better behaved at the store when she gets trimmed.

The disadvantage to nail filing is that it is a lot of work for a little benefit. One filing session takes as long as one nail cutting session because each toenail has to be individually worked on. But unlike the cut, the amount of nail scaled back is barely noticeable. The other problem with filing is that even if the nails are kept short, they end up getting sharper and sharper. A cut every now and then helps to keep the nails blunt and not cut your hands when your bird is on them.

Finally, I provide my parrot with natural branches with bark and filing perches to keep the nails trimmed. Unfortunately, this does not seem to help that much. It does help me prolong the duration between visits to four months because filing and perches take about a month off out of every four but it is not enough by itself. Also the filing perches seem to make my bird’s nails sharper while keeping them shorter. This forces me to have to file them by hand every so often to dull the points. However, because filing only takes a little bit off at a time, it doesn’t take long for the nails to get sharp again.

Even if I cut the nails myself, I still find benefit in taking the parrot by the bird store every quarter. At the bird store I bought Kili from, the women that runs it is quite expert in birds. It is reassuring to me to have an outside expert take a look at my bird for a quick assessment. Vet checks are very expensive and in my experiences, general veterinarians aren’t very proficient with birds. An exclusively bird veterinarian is very hard to come by. But by bringing the parrot by the store every so often, I can have an unbiased glance over health inspection, nail trimming, and beak trim all in one.

So what I recommend is to have your bird’s nails cut but to use filing perches and manually file them in order to prolong the duration between required cuts. Following these steps will help ensure your own comfort and bird’s safety.

Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot

I have a blue-fronted amazon that we got from a family friend who passed away. Gender and age is unknown, but we guesstimate that the parrot, who was named Scooter, is around 20 years of age. Scooter has grown attached to me and is aggressive to anyone else. Even when it hears my voice from downstairs, Scooter will scream and carry on, waiting for me. If my sister, mother or father get closed to the cage, Scooter will lunge at them and throw a fit.

For this reason, Scooter was moved to my room which I was fine with, except for some very odd and annoying behavior. Sometimes, Scooter will hang upside down on the bell-toy we have in the cage and ring it, bob it’s head up and down, and repeat. Other times, Scooter will make this odd noise, which can be best described as ‘The Grudge’ noise, but in short bursts.It kind of seems like a growl but like I said, Scooter seems to like me. While doing this, Scooter will jerk it’s legs/head and walk around. I have tried my best to ignore it but it’s nearly impossible, especially if I’m trying to watch TV. Anyone have any suggestions?

- Classy

Wow, I had the exact same situation with a client’s blue fronted Amazon parrot named Storm. I wrote all about him in many posts as I had him for 45 days in an attempt to change his diet so he didn’t die from a heart attack from being severely obese.

Storm showed me the same signs you’re describing and although it does mean he likes you… it also means that during the Spring time he is going to become very possessive over you, too.  You more than likely have got a male on your hands that has a HUGE crush on you! With Storm, the only way I could work with him was if I was his reward (instead of using food) in order to get him to pay attention and be nice to other people. Your amazon loves you and might choose you as its mate so be careful on how you go about the training with him and make sure not to reinforce him with your own attention when he acts up on someone else.

Scooter might be getting more and more sexually frustrated so be on the look out for those signs like regurgitating food for you, rubbing himself on objects like toys and perches, moaning/groaning and squeaking noises that escalate further into sexual behavior and more.

If you need help knowing how to handle Scooter during those hormonal times or just basics of what and what not to do with him, check out Patty’s post on how to handle hormonal parrots.

You can also find my posts on Storm and how I went about training him under the blue front amazon category of this blog.

Birds squabble, just like humans.  They get on each others nerves and will warn each other, in no uncertain terms, to back off! Even my cockatiels, who cannot bear to be apart from one another, get into it from time to time.  Sometimes a disagreement might escalate to raised wings and flared tails, but it is always peacefully resolved. There are times, however, when a war is waged that is unprecedented and, from our point of view, unprovoked:

A friend has, among many other species of parrots in her home, two amazons: a female aged 45, and a male aged 19. The two have co-existed peacefully for years.  There have been no signs of aggression towards each other or the other birds in the home.  The two were out on their perches this day, playing- sleeping- eating, doing what they had always done.

My friend had been in another part of her house and as she returned to the room, the first thing she noticed was that the female was no longer on her perch, then that the male was no longer on his.  As she turned the corner, she saw the blood and the male on top of the female ripping at her skin and feathers.  Her first thought was that her much older female was dead – she was limp and lifeless.  A closer examination showed her to be barely breathing, and in very bad condition. Both, in fact, were so covered in blood that it was impossible to tell the extent of the injuries.  She was unsure that the female would survive the ride to the vet.

The female spent the next two weeks in an ICU brooder, receiving injections of antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and pain medications.  Her broken toe was wrapped.  She needed to be tube fed for several days.  She managed to escape internal injuries, but she is an old bird and it was touch and go for several days. The male fared much better with the major damage confined to his beak and nares.  Much of the blood he was covered in belonged to the female.

The following pictures are very graphic:
Read the rest of this entry »

Below is an email from Storm’s owner, Jeannie, to me. I thought you’d all love to hear about Storm and how to keep in touch with his progress at home with his owners from now on!

“Storm heard your voice on the phone when I was talking to you tonight. Right now I have his cage next to my desk during daytime hours. He was so excited to hear your voice, but, he wasn’t sure where you were. He kept looking at the back door waiting for  you to come in.

John had tears in his big mushy eyes when Storm let him kiss his beak. This just was never possible before. Storm would take whatever John offered him and shred it, then drop it to the bottom of the cage. When John offered to scratch Storms head, Storm puffed his feathers and leaned into Johns hand and turned his head as if to say, “oh, right here, and you missed a spot dude”. It was terriffic.

We will keep you posted. I asked Sheri to charge up the flip video camera and I hope to get some video of John and Sheri with Storm over the weekend. I will attempt to upload it so you guys can see it for yourself. It is so amazing to see Storm accept others.”

Thanks and Love to you both,
Jeannie and Storm

To visit with Storm and see his progress, visit his you tube account at www.youtube.com/freeflyersarefree!

Yes, this is the SAME Amazon Parrot we got over 60 days ago, that was weighing a whopping 580 grams, severely obese, malnourished, sleep deprived, aggressive, and the list goes on…

Can you believe that the bird in the photo above is that same bird? I know I can’t!

We took his flight training to a new level and created Storm into a free flighted parrot. He is now ascending with no problem, has more energy in flight training than we do, and has started to work on his turning abilities and more. We met with his owners in Moab, Utah where we shocked them with his progress! They were literally in tears… and it was a wonderful feeling. They were more than excited to get him back.

He surprised them by flying in their RV from his travel cage to the front of the RV just to be in the natural sunlight! They’ve never seen him more happy and energetic and they even got to see him fly outside.

This is Storm on DAY 1
Weight: 580 grams

And his transformation…

This is Storm on Day 45
Weight: 411 grams

Hi Jamie & Dave,
Just wanted to say “Thank you soooooo much” for all your efforts in helping Storm to reach a much healthier and happier way of living.

I can not put into words how amazed I am at how far Storm has come towards a great future. He is once again healthy and eating great. He looks so bright eyed and excited for life.

To see pictures of him flying outside brought tears to my eyes of shear joy. I hope we get to fly him while we are here in the desert!

Love and grattitude,
Jeannie & Storm

If you’re interested in keeping up with Storm and Jeannie, please check them out on You Tube here.

Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot

Because of Storm’s growing interest in flying, and seeing how much FUN he is having with it, we decided to change things up even more…

Since Storm’s only out of cage time is given via Dave (he now gets excited to see Dave because it means he gets to come out!) we decided to give flight training him a try! Pairing something he really enjoys doing (flying) with someone he doesn’t like (Dave, or just men in general) while giving him a task (flying, landing, speed and accuracy) all combined gives Storm a real purpose and task at hand.

He is so focused on his take off, speed, landing, and everything else that goes into the ability to fly well that he doesn’t bother wasting any precious energy on attacking or biting Dave… otherwise he doesn’t get to fly! And what fun is that? We finally found a real reinforcer that is stronger than anything else for Storm – and that is flight, something he has never had in the past.

In just 4 days of flight training every day, Storm is now ascending which takes muscle to do. His distance has gone from merely a jump, to a few feet, to now the length of our bird room! Our bird room is around 20 feet which is what distance Storm is currently flying at.

You can see Storm’s flying skills in the video below:

Tip to take home: Flight training can DRASTICALLY change the overall mood and demeanor of your bird for the better by getting out excess energy he can’t get out by climbing around his cage or playing with toys. Birds were structured around flight, and they need it for proper excercise to FEEL GOOD.