From time to time, a budgie's nails or beak may become too long. Both parts of the body consist of keratin and one can shorten nails and/or the beak after being trained in doing so by a competent vet. But it is very important to know how much of the nails or the beak can be cut off without hurting the tiny blood vessels that run through it. Especially cutting the beak is a complicated thing, because once you cut wrong, your bird will bleed and suffer from terrible pain as you will learn further below.

It is easy to see the blood vessels within a budgie's nails in general. You just have to look through the nails standing in front of a bright light. Most budgies have transparent nails, but if your bird belongs to a colour variety who has dark nails, it is more difficult to recognize the blood vessels. One should be very careful while shortening the nails then (see photo above, this budgie has extremely dark, nearly black nails).

Nail clippers are the best tools if you want to shorten the nails. But be careful, the nails could splinter, you should have a nail file within your reach for this case. Another important thing is a haemostatic medicine like for example because you can never be sure not to hurt a blood vessel. If a budgie is bleeding, it is always an emergency.

In general, it doesn't hurt a bird if you shorten its nails, it's similar to cutting a human's hair. Please note: Even though it doesn't hurt a bird if you shorten the nails, only those persons who are able to hold a budgie in a way that the bird is unable to move away should cut the nails. Most vets will shorten the nails of your birds if you feel unable to do it yourself.

Shortening a bird's beak is a more delicate job. Since the animal constantly bites and it is difficult to fix a budgie's head, even professionals like vets have their difficulties! Severe injuries of the tongue easily happen if one slips with nail clippers or pliers. Furthermore one should protect the eyes of the bird. And please keep in mind that there is an inner part of the beak which is full of blood vessels. This part should not be injured since the bleedings could kill your bird - and hurting this part of a bird's body causes terrible pain. Therefore it is recommended to go and see a competent vet who will cut the beak without risking your bird's life.

On the right, you can see what happens if the beak is not properly cut: The vet accidentally cut it too short and injured the bird. A severe bleeding was the result and the vet had to make it stop by using heat. The blood vessels have been burned to make them stop bleeding. Sherlock, that's the name of the poor bird, was lucky since the vet was able to save his life. Fortunately the courageous Sherlock recovered quickly from his injury and there was no permanent damage. His beak grew back within a few weeks and he was able to eat as well.

Link tip: Do you want to discuss with experts and other bird owners about your bird's health? Then please feel free to visit the English forum of . Of course you will meet me there, too. My nickname is "Feenseeschwalbe".

This chapter in Turkish on muhabbetkusu.org