Wing Clipping

[shane]

I haven't adopted my baby grey yet. I am set back as I missed an opportunity to adopt by 4 hours. So I'm searching again.. that stinks.. but in any case...

 

I have come across a breeder in NY that states that she clips all baby wings unless requested not to. Initially I felt that I would rather not clip the wings as it seems inhumane, and unnatural, but on her website she stated a lot of reasoning behind why she does it.

 

Such as: flying into filled sink or bath and drowning... flying into a fan... flying onto the hot stove... flying into walls and breaking necks....

 

Personally I will never have to worry about open windows, filled sinks or bathtubs, or even fans because I would never let that happen. I'm also a very overprotective parent by nature as I raised my son on my own and (15 now) I was always over-doing the safety measures... so everyone else would tell me.. lol.

 

but flying into walls... that one I cannot prevent.

 

 

What do you all experienced grey parents think about this subject?

[danmcq]

Flighted birds do not fly in to walls, windows, fans etc. They are intelligent and learn very quickly where they can and cannot fly. The learn maneuvering abilities when the start fledging around 12 weeks old. Do you see wild birds flying to to tree trunks, walls etc? The only exception is wild birds do not know what a window is and think it is an opening, not a solid that is basically invisible. Birds raised in homes learn and know these things. A non flighted bird in my opinion is actually more susceptible to accidents because they cannot fly out of dangers way.

[shane]

I appreciate the response. I only started to question it because I figured since they were not out in the wild to be taught by a mother how to fly, that possibly they may be more accident prone, but after reading your post, of course that makes a lot of sense... common sense. So Im happy with that because I did not want to clip wings. My home has 12 foot ceiling. I thought they may appreciate that.

 

thanks for your response

very appreciated

[Mistyparrot]

Is this a breeder who thinks she knows better that the parents how to raise babies? I assure you she does not! Breeders hand rear babies because they believe they will make better human oriented pets. There might be some truth in that but first of all they need to learn how to be African Greys. Being able to fly is an absolutely fundamental requirement for a well balanced Grey both mentally and physically. They are quite smart enough to be able to make a friend of the right human later on. Even home bred Greys are basically wild animals but humans do not know how to how to properly teach them to be Greys. This can lead to complications later in life. It is rare for Grey to happily remain with the same human family for its lifetime partly because of this. I would say avoid parrot farms and never never never clip a babies wings.

Have you considered adopting an older Grey? At between one and two years old they are usually ready to leave their natal home to bond successfully with a new human partner. There are also many older Greys that have been abandoned because their human adopters were simply not suitable Grey companions.

 

Steve n Misty

[Inara]

Shane, it's timely that you brought this up. I was going to wait a few more days before updating Inara's monthly log, but will chat about this topic here. When I adopted/bought Inara, she was 26th months old. She was purchased from a breeder as a hatchling, hand fed and reared by a young couple. Stating economic reasons they put her up for sale just as she hit her "twos," and coincidentally had nailed one of them with a very bad bite. While she never had her wings clipped, she never learned to fly while with them either. They had discouraged it, and assured me that "she really has no interest in flying she just dives for the ground." This was a major area of concern for me, because the first time she was startled in my home, she took a very crazy awkward nosedive, and I was terrified she was going to do some serious physical damage to herself.

 

Long story short, I began working with her inch by inch to get her to use her wings, develop her muscles, and get a feel for self controlled flight. Will describe more when I do an actual update. My main point is, that last night when my dog bellowed unexpectedly, Inara took flight off of the top of her mobile perch and flew rapidly toward the kitchen (we have a very open floor plan) was headed directly for the kitchen sink (sans water -- and no hot stove, as I'm very careful about not having her out when the stove is being used) --- when she reached the sink, she did a great slight hover then a left bank away from the sink and came to a perfect 2 point landing between the kitchen island and the base of the U shape of our counters. I was so thrilled with her, and later after coming over to me, and then being smooched and set back atop her perch she said, "That felt good." Which is what I say to her after being misted, or scritches, or other fun/positive experiences.

 

Wing clipping, is a very personal issue between human and bird companions. For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert. It's just my own very strong opinion that a bird should be allowed at the very minimum to learn how to properly fly in order to develop the brain/body connection that makes them a bird.

 

I second Steven n Misty's suggestion to consider looking into finding a young bird in need of a home. I hit the jackpot with Inara, and can't imagine her having gone to any other home, or worse yet winding up in rescue 10 years down the road because of being shunted around. There are well socialized, young, healthy birds out there if the time is taken to find them. Whether you look for another baby or find a young bird, or even an older bird, continue to read all you can here, and keep us all up to date, and continue to ready your home environment for your new companion. I'm sure you're very disappointed at having missed this one by such a few short hours, that had to be such a heartbreaker.

Edited November 10, 2013 by Inara

[katana600]

We had a breeder who agreed not to clip our first baby against her usual policy. I really was new to this and did a lot of soul searching. As it turns out, Juno did fly into a wall at the breeder's home and he did injure a wing. I was willing to take full responsibility and they would not hear of it. But later as we became friends, our situation made them look very hard at the policies they had for thirty years. We had only adults in our household with kids in college. We have a vet who also suggested as first time grey companions, we should consider trimming. I was very much determined to not have my baby trimmed. He came home with me and he learned to fly and he was happy. It means so much to me that he had that opportunity. Now we have an older TAG from several rehoming attempts she came to us without the ability of flight and it is unlikely she will every fly. It takes an entire household willing to protect and engage with a flighted parrot and I think it is a very personal choice that needs research and discussion of the risks and benefits.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

I can't stress enough... all new babies need to learn how to fly, develop chest muscles. We have always done so, with at least two people in our family. One to send off... the other to receive. The desire for a Grey to like one person, was never tolerated and was never an option.Sophie adopted at age two, did learn to tolerate all of us, and practiced flying with all of us. She steps up to all. As she went thru terrible twos, we DID " trim" her so she could focus on education. She could still fly within three rooms. NOT a clipping, but a trimming. It is very important to establish a relationship with a trimmer. Ours know Sophie, and can help establish the goals we want for her. Nancy

[shane]

Thank you to all of your posts. extremely informative. I will not be clipping the wings. I will have to research "training a grey to fly"... because I didn't even know that was an option. But I would love to do so.

Also, the only reason I preferred a baby was so that I could have the opportunity for it to bond with me... and also because the breeders usually have them checked for the various diseases before they go to the new parents. But I will check into rescuing one also. thank you.

 

@Inara, what is your blogs address? so I can take a look

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

Another thought... " Can I have an open cage belief?" I believe in an open cage philososphy. My cages are never closed. They have gyms to step up to. Their room is closed when I am at work. Their doors are never closed, and they have control of their room.I believe it has made a huge difference for my birds. Nancy