Since my personal experience ranges in the small to medium birds, this article is really intended for owners of budgies, cockatiels, lovebirds, conures, senegals, quakers, and mini macaws. While I am sure the same overall techniques apply to larger birds, the actual details of it may be slightly different. However, what I write here applies the same for all birds that can fit in your hand. I am going to write about how to do it by yourself but if you can have a second person help you do it, it would be so much easier.

If your bird is very hand tame and allows you to grab, hold, and cuddle with it, then you can follow the procedures I lay out directly. If your bird is aggressive, timid, or just not that tame, you have two choices. Either you can focus a lot of effort on getting it to this level of tameness (which I highly recommend regardless) by training it and teaching tricks. Otherwise you can use a towel by doing the same technique that I describe but with the towel between your skin and the bird’s beak to avoid getting bit.

Warning, doing it my way can get you bit. You need to be careful and respect your bird. I prefer to do this bare handed on my bird because it involves trust both ways and the bird does have the freedom to give me feedback if something is really wrong. I try to be gentle and not let the situation turn to biting and if the bird does bite I ignore the bite to avoid teaching biting. However, knowing that the bird is biting tells me that I am either doing it too long or too hard which teaches me how to go about it better in the future. So I really trust my bird and my bird trusts me. I don’t push it too hard or file her too long and she doesn’t bite me (even though she is in the position to). She doesn’t bite me too hard or any more than necessary so it doesn’t bother me too much if she does and I just ignore it (but take a mental note what to avoid next time). So if you are terrified of your bird or really afraid of getting a little bite, don’t do this. Use a towel or let a bird expert do it for you.

This is the grip to use to file nails solo.

So what you will do (assuming you are right handed, probably reverse this if left) is hold the bird in your left hand and file with your right hand. Grab the bird with you left hand with your thumb curled around its neck. The rest of your fingers will be on the birds back and lay the bird in your hand so it is laying on your fingers. The thumb goes under the beak as high up as possible. Under your bird’s beak is the safest place for your finger to be because it is harder to bite so close.

All Psittaciformes have zygodactyl feet which means that two toes face forward and two face back. However, for the purpose of filing the nails the feat could just as well be anisodactyl (typical bird feet with 3 toes forward and 1 back) because the fourth digit evolved to swing back from the forward position. So even though the long toe faces rearward, you can actually hold it forward because that is the original position from which the rear facing joint evolved. The hallux (small rear facing toe) cannot be moved and is very hard to reach when filing. The nail is so small and outgrown by the others that I often don’t file it at all and just wait till the next time the nails get cut. It is nearly impossible to hold and file it because it is so small and not end up filing bird’s skin or your own.

Hold bird on back and grip toe with thumb and forefinger

So I hold the bird’s 3 large toes one at a time between my thumb and forefinger. I hold at the tip of the nail and try to hold as much of it in my hand as possible and leave just the tip exposed to file. If you hold too far back, the file will just drag your bird’s entire nail or even toe back and forth without progress. I use a sturdy coarse nail file and quickly make some large deliberate strokes back and forth on each nail. I will go for as long as the bird lets me but usually only enough to blunt the  tip of each nail. If you really want to file the hallux you will probably need a smaller file and to be careful. The grip I use to file the bigger toes does not work so well for the hallux and the foot is in the way. That toenail, even when sharp is usually no bother because it is shorter than the rest.

Some other things to remember. A challenge while filing the nails is to keep the other toes out of the way. The bird may like to bite the file or rip it away from you. You may end up filing yourself a bit in the process because it is hard to grip so close. I take the hit because I don’t want to hurt my bird, rubbing my skin a little doesn’t bother me so much.

No matter how much my bird bites or squirms, I do not stop until I am finished. The more I’ve done it, the more enduring my bird has become so it is a good thing that I do not give in. She usually does not give my any trouble for the first foot I file but only by the second. If I had more time, I am sure I could file one foot per session without any trouble at all. After I finish filing I usually give my bird a treat but she usually doesn’t care about it. She just wants to relax or cuddle. So I will pet her and put her on my shoulder as a reward for being brave. The positive ending is essential if you want your bird to let you file again in the future.