Wing clipping??

[shanlung]

Talon

 

and adding to what dblhelix said, greys not clipped are

amazingly agile and not clumsy at all.

 

Look at this video of Tinkerbell gyrating about on this swing. She deliberately spin the ring around just for the heck of it. Can anyone imagine this of their clipped grey?

 

 

Karla,

 

My entire apartment was their cage. The cages had the door wired opened most of their time and served largely as one of their many feeding/water stations.

Tinkerbell slept in my bookshelf and Yingshiong slept on the top of the windchime.<br><br>Post edited by: shanlung, at: 2007/07/29 02:55

[cdelatorrejr]

Just to let you know, I was faced with the same decision. My TAG, Bobot, is about 13 weeks old now and after thorough research and reflection, I decided not to clip his/her wings. I am not trying to steer you either way but bottom line is... it is a personal decision to be made after extensive research and contemplation. I wish you good luck on your decision either way. If you do decide not to clip his wings, it is true your grey will be proned to many hazards. You can minimize the hazards but not completely do away with them. Training is the key by letting your grey know where he/she can go and where not to. It's been about 2 weeks now and my grey flys freely around the family room and already knows where to land and perch and where not to. Now I'm working on getting Bobot to stop landing on my head when I'm watching a good movie. :woohoo:<br><br>Post edited by: cdelatorrejr, at: 2008/08/19 00:41

[Janfromboone]

I am confused now. I bought my grey Tobie from the store as a 3.5mo. old baby already clipped. In the year I've owned him he has learned to fly in the house rather gracefully and land without hurting himself. He can fly short distances from my shoulder to the back of the other part of the sectional couch or 30 feet across my livingroom, foyer to the bedroom and land softly enough on the carpet. He has 5 feathers clipped but not too short. When we go out he has a flight suit on. What I'm confused about, is how you think a bird is at greater risk of getting lost with clipped wings. More than once our porch door has been pushed open near Tobies cage and left that way. Human error is bound to occur. I think we would have already lost Tobie if he was fully flighted.<br><br>Post edited by: Janfromboone, at: 2008/08/20 04:05

[dblhelix]

I think the issue is that many clipped birds do not have proficient flight skills (sounds like yours does). As such, if an unskilled flier gets out, clipped or not they are usually flying out of fear. An unskilled flier is more likely to continue flying up up and away simply out of fear and adrenaline whereas a skilled flier that can land where they want, fly down etc is more likely to land somewhere and even be able to fly back. In either case, clipped or not, skilled flier or not there is no guarantee. If a bird gets out and is spooked it could be impossible to retrieve them. But make no mistake, most clipped birds can and do fly away when spooked much to the owners disbelief.

 

The benefits of allowing a bird to develop flight skills and the impact this has on their neurological development, balance, emotional status etc is very clear. In addition allowing a bird to fly throughout its life keeps it healthier as it continues to exercise its body, muscles, cardiovascular system etc in the manner intended. Certainly there are many happy healthy birds that have never been allowed to execute their intended gift of flight, but if you took 10 birds allowed to fully fledge compared to 10 birds that were not allowed there would be an overall profound difference in them.

 

To keep the bird clipped or not is a personal choice that each owner must make in consideration of their living circumstances etc. There is no right or wrong as their are pros and cons to both approaches. However the belief that keeping a bird clipped is "safer" for the bird is a false belief. Proficient fliers do not fly into windows, pots of boiling water etc often if ever. However this is rather likely in the case of a bird that has never been allowed to develop flight skills or is clipped in a manner that does not allow them to control their bodies. If my body did not function as intended and I did not understand why I would be prone to emotional problems, plucking and other health issues that have been shown related to clipped/unflighted birds.

[Suzzique]

People become to complacent with a clipped bird. They don't pay enought attention. They take thier birds out without a harnes/flightsuit. Something startals the bird and out the door, off the sholder they go. This happend to my oldest daughter. They had the bird cage next to the door and her partner was getting ready to go out and something startaled Meeko and he flew out the door. Yes he was clipped. She called me totally histarical. I went out there and we looked for almost an hour before we found him. We got lucky that we found him at all. They keep him clipped but he is still quit the flier. They now only take him out in his travel cage.

 

Alex is flighted so never leaves the house without his harnes. Martini came to us clipped. He will not leave the house until his harnes arives. He will be allowed to grow his flight feathers and never be clipped again. Once he starts to truely fly then we will work on flight training. This doesn't mean I would ever let either bird to free fly outside. Though it would be totally cool to see!

 

Flighted vs. clipped is truely a personal choice. My choice is for flighted birds.

[shanlung]

Just yesterday when I collected my kitties from their neutering, my vet in Muscat Oman was telling me many greys were treated by him recently for respitory problems.

 

Needless to say, all those greys were clipped.

 

Why am I not surprised that they went on to have respictory problems?

 

I might still get a grey here. Should there be one

with big problems and rejected by owner , the vet told me he will get to me.

 

I and my wife will then give he/she the love and care that they lacked and will return the gift of flight back to him/her

 

Shanlung<br><br>Post edited by: shanlung, at: 2008/08/23 08:10

[udannefitz]

I was concerned about my Congo, Zazu, (now 14 weeks)flying into windows. His flying was getting better and better but he had a difficult time flying down to a flat surface. He was bumping into windows and glass doors and I was worried about injury. Now, I am happy to report, he has learned to fly 'down' and lands on flat surfaces like a pro. He hasn't hit glass this week. I believe he was always trying to find a perch like place to land. Now the good point is he lands safely onto any surface. The bad point is he can land onto any surface. It is impossilbe to completely parrot proof the house. He finds lamp shades, phone cords (and buttons), and alot of other things. He's getting better at learning what 'no' means and the results of his 'wrong behavior' but he's mischevious.

[sixwings]

I think it really depends on the bird as well as the situation. Tiko is not clipped only because he knows the house so well now. Skittles just recently learned how to fly and so has Lexi. We keep them both clipped, for now. We usually don't have any windows or doors open, nor do we leave them unattended when they are out of their cages, so we're not too concerned about them flying anywhere or flying away. So even if we didn't clip them, things would be ok...but you just never know. Everyone has their own preference and opinion on to clip or not to clip their birds, but that is what I personally do.

[udannefitz]

I am curious as to how you trained your grey where 'not to land'. We always say 'no--fan', 'no window', no cords' and tell him 'time out' and put him back in his cage. He has bit into many electrical cords, crewed window sills, door frames and now has discovered the fun on landing on the ceiling fans and chews the wooden blades. Do you think this method will finaly pay off? He knows when he's not being watched for even a second and can make a bee line to the local 'no' place and start chewing. It's very frustrating...