To clip or not to clip

[Tamara]

Ok, so many of you that have seen my posts, know that i am going to get a baby Timneh in a few months. Im doing all the research i can, until i feel that i am prepared. I am totally stoked LOL and Soo ready to get one now!! However, i am not goin on impulse, but am doing my research So now, my question....To clip or not to clip?

I plan on taking my baby outside, ALWAYS ON A HARNESS, but i am leaning towards clipping becuase i read on Craigslist and other sights about the lost birds, either flying out the window or door and such. I am scared to death to think that i will bond with this beautiful bird, and not clip its wings and have it fly out of my life!!!!

I know that they need that self esteem to with flying and stuff. So do i clip for my own selfish reasons? Or let it go and hope to GOD that my baby never flies out the door?

[Barbara2]

There are pros and cons to both. Ultimately it comes down to a very personal decision. I saw on another board a story of a woman who lost her bird. She was devastated! She swore if she ever got him back that she would have him clipped. She did get him back and decided to leave him flighted because the fact that he was able to fly is what allowed him to be able to survive when he was out. It's a tough call. You have to do what feels right for you and your companion bird.

[judygram]

Barbara is right for it definitely made a difference in the survival of that grey that flew away and be aware that even a lightly clipped bird can fly given a good wind so if your bird did ever get out it would stand a better chance being flighted.

It is a personal decision but it depends on factors according to your household, do you have children who run in and out all the time and such, when you have your bird out of the cage you would have to supervise at all times to keep it from getting into something that could harm it and keep outside doors and windows closed. There are other measures you could take to ensure the safety of your flighted bird so think long and hard before you decide to clip. Only you know your situation and whether you can make it work or not but my opinion is to leave the bird unclipped.

[Dave007]

Tamara

 

Go the GREY LOUNGE

There's 4 stickys towards the top about wing clipping

[Tamara]

I do have two children, they are small and we have a thingy that goes over the front door so they cant open it. I guess im just terified that my birdy will head out the door. we dont have screens on some of our windows, yet in the summer time we have an a/c unit that goes into the window,so it wont be open. We have a screen door in the front, and a sliding glass door in the back, with no screen....I dont want to inept (is that the right word? LOL) my future bird because of me being selfish. I read a forum saying that they can fly either clipped or not????? ugg lol and that if we clip him/her ourselves, they can hold a grudge??? Just trying to get some facts straight LOL

[Luvparrots]

I struggle with this question all the time. My Ana Grey is my baby and she trusts me, but I see her looking out the window all the time and I know in my heart how much she wants to fly outside. Just last week I went to get the mail and when I came back inside she was sitting not 12 inches from the patio door as I opened the door to come inside. My heart skipped a beat as I slowly closed the door and thanked God she had not up and darted out the door. She is fast and she is a very skilled flyer and in one second I could have lost my baby in the blink of an eye. I have Ana Grey chipped but it would mean that the person who finds her must be of a kind heart and take her to a vet to have her checked for a chip. So I know your fear but I also know that Ana Grey loves to fly, it is part of her and I can't take that away from her. I can't cripple my independent and fearless grey because of my fears.

[Dave007]

"""""" and that if we clip him/her ourselves, they can hold a grudge??? """"""

 

Probably no grudge but you can inhibit it's confidence as it grows up. It's aa sad thing when a person gets a bird and one of the first things that are thought about is doing something to the bird which isn't natural. A bird was meant to have wings. Of course, I'm totally against clipping but I have many valid reasons for feeling that way

 

Anyway, a bird can't be clipped until it's about 6 to 8 mts old. By that time, muscle strength, coordination, manueverabily will start to develop. Anything younger than that will cause the bird to depend upon the owner which isn't a good idea especially as the bird gets older. A wrong type of clip and when the baby tries to fly, instead it bounces off the floor possibly injuring itself. Read those stickys. They cover any possible thing you would wanna know.

Edited November 21, 2010 by Dave007

[Tamara]

Thank you sooo much for the advice I was asking also, because we have a parrotlet. we decided to let her wings grow and as soon as she started getting more confident about being able to fly, she started biting whenever she was near us!! She was soo agressive, we decided to clip her wings because that was the only thing that had changed in her life. Sure enough, after we clipped them, she was back to being her sweet (to daddy, she doesnt like mama less i have food LOL) self. Im wondering if this will happen with the grey as well????

Thanks again everyone!!

[Dave007]

Nothing can be predicted here. All birds are different, especially the same species. What happened to the parrotlet may be totally different with a grey or any other type of parrot. All birds have individual personalities. If a person has 3 greys in a house, I can guarantee you that those 3 will be completely different from each other.

I can tell you that in general, parrotlets aren't aggressive type birds.

Putting biting and flying or lack of flying and agression into one catagory as far as what the bird will do is wrong. A bird with wings will or won't bite. A bird without wings will or won't bite or it's totally visa versa.

[danmcq]

Great comments by all. I would strongly advise reading the sticky Dave mentioned in regards your question on clipping. Your decision will affect your grey's abilities for the remainder of his life. It is a very important decision.

[Tamara]

Thank you I will definately read those!!!!

[Buffy]

Tamara, I SO relate to the mixed emotions you are having right now. I toiled over this same decision for the first year of my bird's life who came to me clipped. One day I was positive I wasn't going to clip her wings after her molt and then the next day was positive that I was going to clip her. It really was a heartwrenching decision, and I don't think I ever made that final decision in my mind, but when it came down to it and her flight feathers did grow out, I knew that there was no way i could clip them. It just seemed wrong to me. She has been flighted for about three months now and it isn't easy some days. Parrot proofing has proven both fun and frustrating. Mine is still having difficulty with landing which has created some pretty scary moments. However, if you never let the breeder clip the wings to begin with, I doubt you'll have the issues I have had with teaching Echo to land. The bottom line is that it is a decision you have to make.

[Barbara2]

Neo came to me with a modest clip also. He is not quite 6 months old so his flight feathers have not grown back in but he is quite good at flying and landing now. I'm planning to leave him flighted and not clip.

[Tamara]

I read those posts, and somewhere, maybe im mixing them up with reading something else lol, but any way, some where it says that when they crash land it could hurt them really bad!! But if their clipped or not, they will crash land at some point right!! OMG lol this really is the hardest decision! And it seems like such a small one, but it isnt!! ITS HUGE!!!!

[Lambert58]

We don't clip, but I know people that do and have fids that are completely happy. We like allowing our little ones the freedom to zip about, but as has been pointed out extensively in this thread, safety is paramount.

[Lambert58]

I read those posts, and somewhere, maybe im mixing them up with reading something else lol, but any way, some where it says that when they crash land it could hurt them really bad!! But if their clipped or not, they will crash land at some point right!! OMG lol this really is the hardest decision! And it seems like such a small one, but it isnt!! ITS HUGE!!!!

 

Willow was pre-clipped at the pet store, so her earlier ventures into the world of flight involved a few encounters with the walls. She got nicked up a bit, but nothing horrible and she learned to navigate. Only our fids that were clipped before we became parronts had trouble. The ones that were flighted from birth never had any navigational issues.

[Elvenking]

I always like to chime in on this one. Because I can further define my experiences having chose to leave my baby flighted. The thing I love most about this is you don't have to guess as to where they want to be. They just go there. And it is nearly always just where I am. Even if he is busy cleaning himself, he will come do it close to me. I love knowing that he will never be sitting on his perch wanting to be near me. It is also the primary locomotion for a bird so to take that away from my beloved Grey...I could just never. We all have views on this and this is just mine. I am quite sure that if Issac was not flying all over the place, that I would not have such a problem with poop all over the place. He would fly and scare some of my guests. But when I got him, I wasn't going for easy. I was going for being the best father to a bird that I could be and give him a life as close to one he would have in the wild or better. When I see him fly and frollic about and doing silly things, I am super happy that he can fly. I won't state my opinion on clipping, but I think it can be derived from my positive comments on leaving birds flighted.

 

It is a constant fear that they will get loose, but it is possible to reduce these chances significantly. There are tons of ideas on the boards here and many who will help you bird proof your house. I say let them fly.

Edited November 29, 2010 by Elvenking

[Elvenking]

I read those posts, and somewhere, maybe im mixing them up with reading something else lol, but any way, some where it says that when they crash land it could hurt them really bad!! But if their clipped or not, they will crash land at some point right!! OMG lol this really is the hardest decision! And it seems like such a small one, but it isnt!! ITS HUGE!!!!

 

If you get them as babies and let them properly fledge, you are only going to have a few navigational errors. In addition, they will have more mishaps being clipped due to the fact that they do not have thier wings to depend on for stabilization. Issac does things I have never imagined and acrobatics that I thought would get him hurt. Properly fledged, they are aerobatic beauties.

[Georgiesmum]

My George Is fully flighted and I don't find It any problem... Maybe If you see how you get on without clipping first and then If you feel Its not working for you, you could then decide to???

[Tamara]

Thank you for all the advice I think we are going to go ahead and let them grow. Like Georgiesmum said, and if it doesnt work, we can always clip them. But we cant just put feathers where there arent any just to make them fly again lol kinda like hair, you can cut it off, but you cant just put it back on the same day you realize you made a mistake hahha. Thanks again, you all are sooo helpful! I love this site so much lol and i have sooo many more questions to ask before i even think about bringing home my new baby

[Lambert58]

As a gee-whiz: I rescued Willow from a crappy pet store when she was 8 weeks old. They clipped her flights and they didn't fully grow in until she was 20 months old.

[Mistyparrot]

Thank you for all the advice I think we are going to go ahead and let them grow. Like Georgiesmum said, and if it doesnt work, we can always clip them. But we cant just put feathers where there arent any just to make them fly again lol kinda like hair, you can cut it off, but you cant just put it back on the same day you realize you made a mistake hahha. Thanks again, you all are sooo helpful! I love this site so much lol and i have sooo many more questions to ask before i even think about bringing home my new baby

 

I think you are wise to allow your fid his flights. I have never regretted having Misty fully flighted and he is a very confident parrot because of it.

Just a point though, it can be possible to repair clipped feathers sometimes. It is called "imping" It is not easy and takes a lot of skill but it can be done.

Parrots Magazine recently had some articles on that subject.

 

Steve

[Guest]

Hi, Tamara!

 

I am so glad that you are taking many factors into whether to clip your AG or not. You've gotten lots of good advice so far and I just thought I'd chime in. Here is a link to a thread I started back in late July when I had a bit of an altercation with a very headstrong, vocal pet store owner on the subject of clipping. The thread goes on for a while and is full of good information. As you said, the people on this board are very helpful. http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?190455-To-clip-or-not-to-clip

 

Hope you have many years of fun, happiness, love, and joy from your Timneh. :-)

 

 

>^..^<

[reggieroo]

It's a decision I think a lot of parrot owners have to think about at some point & not a very nice one. Also like other people have said it is down to your own personal situation in the household etc. Before getting my grey Murphy I had an Amazon who was clipped so when getting Murphy I had to make the same decision over again & decided not to clip this time. The main reason I decided not to, was he was only a 12 week old baby & fortunately I had educated myself on greys a little before hand & read on here that you shouldn't clip a growing baby as Dave007 has said until at least 8 months old. I had also read that clipping greys can cause some of the behavioural problems associated with greys like feather plucking so again I didn't want to take that risk.

 

I have now got used to having a flighted bird around the house & it's quite nice knowing he has the freedom to come & go as he pleases, if I'm in one room he flies in to see me & then follows me out. If he's hungry he flies back to his cage for some food on his own accord. Now I'm not saying it's great all the time, there has been one occasion when I felt like clipping him. One time my little one year was having her lunch in her high chair & Murphy decided to try & land on her head but fortunately I was sat right there & managed to deflect him away before he caused any damage. He just missed her face by a nats whisper with his talon nearly catching her little eye. I'm not sure if he was trying to get to her food or what but at the time the thought crossed my mind that I may have to clip, I thought if he's going to start doing that all the time, I can't be having that! I thought about it long & hard & decided against it, thinking I'll just keep him in his cage while feeding my Daughter but he hasn't done it since. He can also get very annoying at times when he wants to be everywhere you are. There are time when I'm just trying to watch TV in the evening & he's a persistent little fella & keeps on flying down to me over & over & sometimes your not in the mood for it. I have to remind myself that he is still just a baby & wants tickles off his Dad (me).

Edited December 5, 2010 by reggieroo

[Tamara]

Thank you all, and <--> lol im not sure how to make the arrow go downward haha, thanks for the great advice, i will definately read that post!! I am at work now and want to make sure i get quiet time to read it lol Also Question to Reggieroo, you said in your post that you had a one year old. How does your AG handle a baby around? Does Murphy mimic her cries? LOL i heard that if you had a loud household, then your ag will be loud as well. Is Murphy pretty loud? Loudness doesnt bother me, but the crying like my two year old over and over might get kinda anoying LMAO!!! Just wondering, i guess i could have posted this else where, but thought since you had written me advice, id just ask ya here LOL Thanks again!!!