Good tips! Going to try to trim them myself. Might try nail filing instead so I don't hurt them. They have dark nails. Does anyone do this?
I worry about losing trust since they are getting more used to hands and eating treats from our hands but it hopefully won't be so bad.
Btw @
jmfleish, was it easy to add birds to the flock? Are linnies more accepting of other new linnies? Thinking of adding in the future.
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I don't know if filing them will work as you have to take off quite a bit. I would just make sure that you have a small bowl of flour ready to make them sit in and make sure that if you cut too far that you get the bleeding stopped before you release them. It's scary when they bleed but it does stop. Be generous with the clipping and you should be fine. Even with the black nails, sometimes, if you look carefully, you can see the quick. And don't worry about getting the bird full of flour if you do need to use it to stop the bleeding. I've been known to just put the whole bird in the bowl of flour and make him sit there for a while!
The middle Linnie in my avatar is my sweetest Linnie, Sophie. She does not like hands but she loves us. She was one of my first victims this last time around for nail trimming. After I got done with her, I let her go and she was happy that it was over but was not traumatized by it. She would come back to us and sit with us and on us. While she shies away from hands, she loves to be with us. We had breakfast after that and she sat on one of our plates after we were done and ate the crumbs of our leftover egg with glee as it sat on one of our knees!
So, they definitely get over it. She's had her nails done at least a half a dozen times now though and I think they start to realize that once they are clipped that it's easier to get around and you are doing them a favor.
As for adding more Linnies, there can be some squabbling at first. I would definitely not add an odd number and we've found that adding two at a time to an even number is the easiest way to go because then the two you add have a friend right off the bat but we have added a single to our bunch and have been successful but the first week or two can be a challenge and they will fight but have calmed down for us. Right now, with the nine we have, we're doing well, but have had a couple of instances where we've had to separate one from the bunch here and there for a bit. They can be bratty sometimes!