Clipping now / flighted later?

[ScubaJ]

I have a small dilemma. I want Echo to be flighted although currently its in our best interest that she is clipped, for safety reasons.

 

In ~2 years I will be moving into a new house of my own which she can have her own room and I can properly "bird proof" the entire house.

 

Is it fine if I keep her clipped for these first few years and then let her be flighted? Or could that cause problems behavioral/neurological?

[dblhelix]

Is Echo clipped now? Was she allowed to fully fledge and become flight proficient before clipping? The best case scenario is to allow fledging and full flight proficiency before clipping. If that was not done, the younger you allow them to learn flight the better. You can always allow a clipped bird to molt out the primary flight feathers and then have full flight capability. However, the longer you wait to allow them to learn flight skills the more difficult it may be for them. Some adult birds that were not allowed to fledge will never become flight proficient but I have heard of some cases where a bird only was allowed flight at 15+ years and learned just fine.

[ScubaJ]

I bought Echo ~4 weeks ago. She came clipped and she is going on 6 months old. I am pretty sure they did not let her become flight proficient, so that may be the next best step. Let her molt out new feathers and let her begin to fly, although I will have to just be extra cautious. Mainly our big open kitchen is almost always cooking something... and my german shepherd can open doors. He isn't a threat though hes met Echo and they almost don't notice each other.

 

I guess that small bit of information is enough to push me in a direction. Ill let her become flighted and learn, and at the same time, if I can control her and be cautious enough, I may let her stay flighted... Safety first though!

 

Thanks dbl!

[dblhelix]

Kip came to us clipped at around 6 mo's. I am not sure how much flight experience she had...best info I could get from the breeder was that she got to fly once! Sounded like she took a flight and then got clipped. In any event, we let her molt out all flights and she now is quite flight proficient at 19 months old. As more flights came in her flying became easier but she was clearly not skilled at it. We had quite a few crash landings as she learned over many weeks. She is still learning but now she can hover, bank, fly up, down and land exactly where she wants. So it took an entire year for all the primaries to molt and regrow. Keep in mind that the full flight molt may be quite a long process and you need to be prepared for crash landings/provide a reasonably safe envt to "practice" flying as they learn.

 

There are always risks but my opinion is that a flight proficient bird is actually less prone to injury in the long run. Flight proficient birds do not regularly fly into windows, crash etc and they have the ability to escape danger through flight. Things like open windows, doors, ceiling fans, boiling water etc are not present in the natural envt so you need to mitigate those factors. But many a "clipped" bird has flown away to the owners disbelief thinking they could not fly or fluttered out of control somewhere and got injured. Once they have full control of their bodies they are actually less accident prone than a clipped bird. Anyways, I can go on and on about the scientific data supporting the advantages of flight to a bird...everyone ultimately needs to decide what is best for them and their pet given their living situation. If you can allow them to fly through reasonable adjustments to the environmnent you provide that is preferable. Allowing them to learn flight skills at a young age is irrefutably in their best interest . <br><br>Post edited by: dblhelix, at: 2008/01/24 00:06

[ScubaJ]

Great info! Thank you! My goal is set then. Just have to be more careful, which shouldn't be a problem. Again, thanks for the good insight.

[Tari]

I don't see why you can't clip her and let it grow out later.

I keep all of mine but Joey clipped. Joey can't fly cause of a bad wing so I don't have to clip him.

They can even learn to fly later too. Greys are smart birds. lol