Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 6:40 am Post subject: New with nail question
Hi i'm new and so is my Kakariki he is about 4-5 months old with the longest nails.
Luckily they are see through but i'm scared of him having a heart attack if I try and clip them, I got some sand paper type stuff for the one side of his cage and a nail care perch for him but they really need to be clipped and then I'm sure they wont need it again for along time.
He is not in an outdoor aviary as I am in Ontario Canada and the winters would kill him in a second so he is going to be an inside bird although on nice days I'm sure we can put him outside.
Anyway I intend on letting him out when he is used to us, he already got on a stick today and we've only had him two days.
I bread a lot of kikes in the past years. I always have around 70 birds in my cages. I never lost a bird on a heartattack. Some sites on the internet talk about stress problems. That is also something I haven't experienced. Sometimes I lose a bird at the end of the winter and I never found out what caused it. You can clip the nails without any problem. Also my collegue breeders didn't lose a bird by a heartattack.
oh thankyou, I don't mind holding him at all and he didnt' seem stressed after all I had to put him in his cage and take him out again since I bought a larger cage for him after taking the first one back.
But I would never forgive myself if I gave him a heart attack.
I really think a nail clipping will improve his life triple fold I feel so bad for him with his long long nails.
The quicks right now are still far back luckily.
He is really chatting to me today and coming over to talk to me it is amazing how friendly and happy to see me he is. I don't think it will be long before he can hop and fly about the house.
I just gave him a slice of kiwi fruit he loves it.. :)
Kikes are a hardy bird, lot more hardy than most.
A young Kike only a few weeks out of the nest, breed in a large aviary that would take a lot of chasing to catch, then put in a shipping cage, freighted across the country, sometimes stress s enough not to make the destination....I am talking really extreme stress here OK....most will make it nps.
Also keep in mind the wild environment Kikes come from originally.
From the top of NZ to the south...
Top of NZ is subtropical.
Middle of the North Island is snow in winter, touching on occasions low 30s C in summer.
Fiodland in the deep south, is wet, Snow I would imagine something like Norway.
As Kakariki says, there are sites that rave on about bad hearts, this MAYBE the case with extreme inbreeding, has never ACTUALLY been established as far as I am aware. Like much of the info on the net concerning Kikes, there IS a lot of MISINFORMATION, that has resulted in 'old wivies' tales' concerning this, feeding, general care, breeding etc.
The ppl here are highly experienced , hands on, down to earth breeders.
(on theright ofthe front page there is links, banners, to their sites, take a worthwhile visit)
So dont get to worried about your little kike, they Maybe small, but on bird standards they are one of the most adaptable, hardy, personable, most devoted parents of all the parrots. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Well thankyou both for giving me the confidence to help him.
The deed is done and he is now resting quietly on his long perch(for about 5 or so minutes), he is just now starting to brighten up... :)
My husband held him and I only took a little off each nail as it seems the quik had travelled longer and you could only see it under good light it was like a see through line.
So hopefully by cutting the tips off will help them file a little if not I will take a little more off in a week.
If u are un sure, take a photo of the feet, reduce to about 600x resolution and post here in the forums...below the box at u type your reply in is a feild filename and a button 'browse' use this to upload the picture to the server, it will appear in your post. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Here are 3 pictures I just took as you can see the tips are gone that I did today I also have those sandpaper things to go around the perch's.
It looks like the quik is really quite far back but upon closer inspection a very thin almost see through line comes up the nail closer to the tip..
I am hoping it receeds so that I can get them a little shorter as when he is hanging upside down etc he was getting his nails all confused and kinda tripping himself... I hope he finds some relief with the amount I took off today at least... they are much better.
Do you think they are still of concernable length?
Thankyou for your help.
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Last edited by mybirdsmom on Sun Apr 17, 2005 12:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
I'm not a fan of sandpaper perches, they are unnatural and hard on their feet.
Never use pipe or dowelling perches.
Kikes tend to perch on branches 25 to 30 mm Diameter, and sleep at night on flat surfaces or very large branches 100mm and larger next to a trunk.
So never use 'off the shelf' perches , go out and get free branches of a tree, preferably old and dead, something they can chew at.
I spray any branches from 'thewild' with a 50/50 soln of malt vinegar 1st, often burning part (supply of charcoal) with an LPG torch. This ensures sterilisation.
Sry for quality of example below. Shows length of mature male in aviary, never clipped
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_________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
Thankyou for all the great suggestions and tips.
I'll keep a look out for some suitable wood for him over the weekend.
He came out today and did really well...:)
Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:43 pm Post subject: Long nails
I noticed on the weekend that tobys nails have got very long I really dont want to have to cut them btu I dont know what else to do i have all nat tree branches of differing diameters and rough and smooth bark (b'fore it gets peeled off LOL) I have a thick one on an angle for max nail use I am all out of ideas for what else to do to keep them trim any way here are some pics tell me what you think ####kellie
I do know, constant cutting of the nails, will cause the nail/toe join to thicken...what effect this as I do not know.
I have been out to ours for a gander, it seems to me the nail is about 3/4 s the length of the toe. The inside rear nail has more of hook than the others
Lets see what the other guys think? _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
There is a perch available here in Australia that is perfect for pet birds. They are available from all good pet suppliers and come in varying diameters. We have even used them in our aviaries for breeding pairs that develop long nails. They are calcium based and rough to touch. They even come in different colours. Perfectly bird safe. They even keep the beaks trim.
We have a Black headed Caique that was given to us as a young hand raised bird. He suffered from constricted toe and we were told he should have all the toes on one foot removed. As a desperate attempt to save them we tried one of these perches on the advice of our vet. The Caique is now a healthy pet with all but one toe in tact. The missing one fell off naturally without any pain to the bird.
I will check the details on these perches and post them on here for anyone interested.
I have never cut nails no matter how long the get. I put birds with long nails into a conventional aviary with lots of natural perches, some of which are oine logs with fresh bark on them and the aviary has a concrete flaw. The concrete and rough bark sorts the long nails out within a few months.
Greg it would be interesting to see more of your special perches.
Can u guys look at the length of your kikes nails compared to the length of the toe? get an idea of some sort of 'norm'
If u could put in a edit of the above posts ?
We have never had to cut..
We have varing sizes of perchs ranging from old suspended Puriri cnr fence posts (very hard wood) , varing sized branches, cement floors, and large ornimental rocks they climb over and perch on.
My sulphur crested (cage bird) I used to use a fine file to manucure his nails....just to take the sharp points off, otherwise my arms ended up a mess. he would sit on the arm of the chair and hold his foot out, or lay quietly in my lap on his back to have it done. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
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