Clipping the wings

[dm.bourgeois]

I got home today and Rose has decided to fly around more, maybe because she is becoming more accustomed to her new environment. The breeder clipped her wings after letting her fly for a week or two. The thing I noticed today was when she flew off my hand she could ascend in the air, and I was told that when they are clipped they should only be able to descend but they still use their wings to flutter down. Is this true? and also since she ascended in the air I should get a few more of her feathers clipped? I was thinking about doing it myself to save a few bucks but have recently read that it is best to have someone else to do it because they will hold it against you? Thanks for the advice.

[louie]

We brought Sierra to two different vets two different times to have her wings clipped. Both times it was very stressful for her. So we started doing it ourselves, sans wrapping her up, sans holding her still....we just have her sit on the back of a chair, I hold her wing out, my husband clips. It takes very little time and although she doesn't like it, she isn't freaked out and stressed like she was with the vets. You have to be very careful and do your research, there are some pretty dire consequences if you don't do it correctly. We never would have even tried if it wasn't for the awful experiences at the vets.

[judygram]

Have you thought of not clipping the wings and allow her to fly like they were intended to? A lot of us do not clip our birds wings and we allow them to fly around the house, of course this takes extra vigilence to make sure they don't go out an open door or window. We have some threads here that deal with that subject so why not read thru them before you clip her wings.

[dm.bourgeois]

My wife and I wanted the bird but we didnt want a bird flying around the house so I would rather get the wings clipped than leaving them at length.

[judygram]

It is my understanding that if you allow your bird the ability to fly for now it will be a more confident bird, many are clipped as soon as they gain the ability to fly and they never master the art of landing and then in the future if they get their flights back then they never have the skill of a bird that was allowed to fly from the beginning. Of course it is your decision but if you do clip the wings be sure to just do a clip where they can glide down and not too short where they drop like a rock, that can damage the keel bone.

[Dave007]

My wife and I wanted the bird but we didnt want a bird flying around the house so I would rather get the wings clipped than leaving them at length.

 

Some friends of mine got a cat about 2 weeks ago and the cat is constantly scratching at things in different places in the house. They purchased cat scratching posts. It's very annoying to them but they love the cat. Hmmm, do you think that it would help if they had the cat declawed?

Edited June 17, 2011 by Dave007

[Luvparrots]

Both of my parrots are flighted. I have hanging perches and boings where I want my parrots to be in each of my rooms. They are pretty good at always perching there as I have foraging toys and toys to keep them occupied when they are out of their cages. You can train your grey to go where you want him to, and because he is quite young this should be an easy task if you are consistent. I rest much easier knowing that my parrots aren't walking around on the floor where I can step on them or trip on them.