At what age should I cut my baby tiels wings and nails?

Question

They are 4 weeks old now and still in the nesting box. I plan to hand feed them soon. We only have the parents and the 3 babies. When they are ready to eat on their own can I put them back in the parents cage?

Answer 1

You can cut their wings once they have fully fledged and had their first really good flight. By this time they should also be very good at perching so you can clip their nails to. do not clip their nails until they have mastered perching and do it with ease. Never clip their wings until they have had their first really good flight. You need to start hand feeding now if you are going to do it. It's going to be too late pretty soon. they should be pulled at 2-3 weeks. They should already be picking at food now and playing with it. Once you remove them from the parents cage it wouldn't be wise to put them back in. the father will not recognise the as his offspring and may kill them.

Answer 2

Are you expereince i hand feeding baby birds? If you arn't please don't attempt it without doing a lot of research first or even getting someone who is to show you how, because so much can go wrong and it's not somthing you can just make up as you go along.

Another option to hand rearing is to become very involved in the rearing process. Allow the parents to care for the babies mainly but you can add supplementary feedings (such as making one feeding a day be from you and the rest from the parents) and give a lot of attention to the baby birds. As long as ou make sure you do not stress he parents too much (it will depend on how tame th parents are) then this works just as well as hand rearing.

If you provide the birds with natural perches covered in bark their nails will trim by themselves. The only time they don't do this really is when you hev those dowel perches in the cage. Don't provide sand paper perches or cement perches as these are very bad for bird's feet and can cause many problems.


If you are hand rearing these birds, there is no reason to clip their wings at all. They will already be tame and having the ability to fly will make them happier, healthier and more trusting pets. Why do it if you don't need to? There will be no benefits but so many losses, most prominently the health and happiness of the birds.


Well good luck and congratulations on your baby birds! Remember to think and do a lot of research before you decide to do anything.

Answer 3

I have 6 on the nest myself I'm fixing to pull for good to hand feed. I usally clip their wings only after they have flown at least once. That is a sure sign to cut them. I usally allow the bird to stand there looking at me, while putting the sissors under the long part of the wing and clipping it very gently, the bird doesnt know the difference until it tries to fly again and figures out it cant anymore, then it will stop wanting to fly so much. So on the first flight is best. Once they are weened and eating on their own, DONT put them back in with the parents if you want them to remain hand tamed, because the parents may be trying by that time to sit on eggs again and will fight with the babies trying to claim their cage back. So if you havent already, go buy yourself another cage to keep the babies in later. Plus if you keep them with their parents like that too long, they wont remain tamed. I have never in 20 yrs had to clip a birds nails. Sand perch covers or now adays go buy your bird lava perch.

Answer 4

you really dont ever have to cut their nails provide them with a cement or a sand perch and their nails should srink naturally and if you waant to cut their wings cut them when they are about fully feathered avoid cutting them to early or you might cut a blood feather. and you can but them back in the same cage but only if it is big enough and you need a pretty big box for 5 birds. and good luck