Safety Tips When Trimming Your Lovebird's Wings

Video Transcript

" Hi! I'm Sarah and I'm here at Extra Care Animal Hospital today and on behalf of expertvillage.com, I am going to tell you a little bit about owning a lovebird. As far as wing trimming goes at home, really the best thing to do is just have your avian veterinarian do the wing trim. That way if somebody else is doing the traumatic stuff to your bird and not you. Just like with the nail trim have the avian vet do it that way they do all the traumatic stuff and your bird still has a good bond with you and doesn't associate you with any negative experience. If you do choose to do the wing trims at home, you will want to make sure you always steer clear of any blood feathers. Blood feathers are feathers that are not fully mature yet and they will have a dark purple shaft. It is important that you do not cut these feathers as they do still have a blood supply and cutting these feathers will result in your bird bleeding a lot. It is very important that if this happens and you accidentally cut a blood feather or if the bird ever sometimes they will break a blood feather if they are startled and they are flapping around the cage. If you suspect that your bird has broken a blood feather and you can get it to a qualified avian veterinarian as soon as possible If you are not sure what a blood feather looks like when you take your bird in for its exam, your veterinarian will most likely be able to show you what a blood feather looks like and that way you are familiar with them. "