You probably will need to towel your bird. I know it takes two of us to trim Hermes wings. Word of warning, she bit me through the towel last time.
You need to only cut 5-6 flight (primary) feathers.
 |
| Leave the red and remove the blue |
If your bird can still fly up, cut one or two more
feathers. It should be able to fly a few
feet down and this will cushion any falls. Clip both wings. Use
sharp scissors and try not to leave any jagged edges that might irritate the
skin.
Blood Feather
When an old feather gets worn and is molted (shed) a new
feather will grow in its place. The new
feather shaft is full of blood until it is fully grown in. Be sure and check the wing feathers first so
you don’t make a mistake and cut a blood feather. They are very easy to see because the shaft
is fat. Should your bird accidently
break a blood feather, don’t panic.
Towel your bird, find the feather, use tweezers and pull the feather
out. Once the feather is removed the
bleeding will stop.
If your bird breaks a blood feather too close to the body to get a hold of, use cornstarch and apply pressure until it stops bleeding.
Also if you clip a toenail too close or it gets broken use
cornstarch and apply pressure until it stops bleeding. Personally I don’t clip nails. I use cement or sandy type perches and don’t
have too much problem with over-grown nails.
Every now and then I do have to blunt the tips a bit and use an emery
board.
