Question

[Sallas]

I am affraid that my TAG will not have the self confidence that others have. Before we took or TAG from the breeder her wings were clipped. Then we found out she had never fully fledged.

 

What problems will this cause? Is there anything I can do to fix this?

[BMustee]

I would have to say that it's not as damning as it can be made out to be as long as the new owner treats them right. I work at a pet store and unfortunatly we do have to clip before they fledge. I would love to let them fledge and fly but the pet store is a dangerous place for a baby bird to fly. In return the birds are loved on and cuddled, and not allowed in a place that they could fall from. There is a pretty good article in Bird Talk this month about this very issue and I agree that falling is the big issue for a clipped baby to become fearful and not be as confident. Because your baby is still young you can allow your babies wings to grow out and fledge her after her molt. Just be sure not to let her fall, keep the perches low if she seems clumbsy, and you could even put a fluffy towel at the bottom of the cage so if she does fall it won't hurt. I was lucky with my CAG, I got her at 6 weeks and she didn't even really have flight feather yet to I was able to fledge her and allow her to learn to fly and land before I clipped her for training. She is now flighted...3-4 flights have grown out in the molt...and she flies around my room like she was never clipped at all.

[SarahDavid]

My CAG was also clipped before i got him when he was 3 months old but he is doing very fine, so i dont think you need to be concerned about it

[Suzzique]

Alex had one wing that recived a light clip before we took him home. He fledged anyway. No one told him that he was not suppost to be able to fly with the clip. He is very graceful. It just makes me wonder how much better he will be once he has molted out the clipped feathers.

 

Our 3 year old senegal Martini came to us clipped. Though he flutters the the floor very well when he feels like it. I need to email his old mom and see if he had already molted out his flight feathers this year. You can see he wants to be able to do what Alex does.

[Sallas]

That is good to hear, I am defenately going to try and get her to fledge after her first moult as she is fairly clumsy. I am told that African Greys are fairly clumsy birds anyway, my vet even told me that as far as birds go Greys are not the best fliers.

 

This was just something that has been bothering me. My fet said with a grey you only need to cut the first 3 -4 flight feathers because they are not that good of fliers, that would be enough.

[Suzzique]

I don't know... Alex has 6 of his flights clipped on the one side and he does every well. He is very grace full and doesn't run into stuff at all. Though yes he can be clumsy sometimes and fall off of his stand. But I think that he is goofing around when he does that.

[judygram]

A lot of people think because they are big bodied birds that a few flight feathers clipped will prevent them from flying but we have some here that have clipped greys that are very good at flying.

 

Allowing the flight feathers to grow out will enable him to become an expert flier and learn how to land safely and boost his confidence.

[danmcq]

I'm with Suzzique on this one. Dayo had 5 flights cut on both wings before the breeder would let him come home. He could still maintain a level flight for about 20 feet before slowly losing altitude. It didn't take long after building those pectoral muscles up that he could gain altitude for short distances.

 

I am not certain why your vet described grey's flight abilities, as he did. The are very good and graceful flyers.

 

Your Greys clumsiness will go away as he matures, learns better balance and coordination. They learn and build these abilities as they grow just as all creation does. :-)