Birds will normally need beaks and nails trimmed every 4-5 months or so. If either one looks too long or either has long, sharp points on them, then a trip to Avian vet is needed.
We have Amazons, and they eat Harrison's and have only wooden toys to play with, and they still need to go in for trimming every 4-5 months. Beaks with points can break off and they can bleed to death. Pointy toenails can get caught in things or between things and cause a bad injury.
Beak and nail clipping fall under normal grooming for pet birds. As Tracie said, never trim a bird's beak at home as it is too risky. You can have vet show you how to trim nails and do those at home as needed. Always have a styptic powder or pads handy when trimming nails of your bird, dogs or cats.
Linda
Sep 14, 2009
Do not trim your bird's beak by: Tracie
You should not trim your bird's beak. They have nerves in their beaks and if it is not trimmed properly they will not only bleed, but might not be able to eat for days due to the pain. I had a breeder that trimmed our bird's beak without our permission and the bird almost bled to death!
Another reason to only let an avian vet trim a bird's beak, is that many times the reason the beak needs to be trimmed is because it has a disease. Our bird's beak was too long because we did not feed him pellets at the time. He also needed proper toys to chew so that his beak would naturally wear down.
Once we switched the bird to Harrison's organic pellets his beak did not need to be trimmed again.
Please take your bird to an avian vet to make sure it does not have a disease that is causing it's beak to grow too long.
