Help with Flight Feathers

[PipJulLor]

We started out with our lil grey Pippin 2 years ago. We got him as a little man, looking like a dinosaur:laugh:. He was lovingly hand fed and would cuddle with me and mom. Several months go by and Pippin is finding his new found freedom of fledging. He is finding out that these little nubs that are on his sides now contain feathers that he can actually fly with. It's a wonderful time..lil Pip getting bigger and bigger and testing his new found flight freedom out. Then it's time for his first wing clip. Mom brings Pip to the local bird professional and he gets a modified trim. Things are great! Pip can still fly but does not gain enough speed to hurt himself for those late turns into the blinds. Time goes on and Pip is still the loving cuddly grey and his flights are growing out again. Off mom and pip go to the local bird professional..oh oh! The person that usually is there is not and pip gets his wings trimmed by another. Oh no..Pip's wings are not clipped modified but snipped completely. This is where the problems begin. Pip comes home and discovers that when he jumps off of his house and flaps his wings he falls to the ground..OUCH! Me and Mom realize the error of the clip and try to coach Pip through this trying time. Pip will have nothing to do with coaching. He seems angry..I guess I would be too if the thing my arms were made for was suddenly not there anymore! He becomes increasingly reluctant to come out of his sleeping house in the morning and his day house in the evening. Where mom and I used to offer our hands and say step up to have Pip happily step up we now face a Pip who leans back and screams at us. Pip now has flight feathers constantly breaking from his flapping and seems to be overgrooming the flights that are trying to come in. We can not figure out how to help him grow his flights back. It has been a year and he still has not gotten any flight ability back. He always has little feathers coming out but he seems to break them before they come in fully.

 

Can anybody help!!

[Dave007]

Bad clips cause much more trouble when they're done on birds who have mastered the ability to partially or fully fly. Your bird got stronger as time went on and got coordinated which is the most important thing for a bird to go through. Now that he's a fully developed bird, what has been taken away from him is a natural body function for a bird.

This happens to many people who have the same exact problems afterward when clips are bad. The worse the clip, the more drastic the change in the bird is.I can sympathize with your problem but what's happening is nothing unusual as far as the physical and phycological changes. The feathers are weak. The shafts are weak. The bird is frightened and his flying lifestyle is temporarily down the tubes.

Expect this problem to go on for quite a while. None of the feathers will grow back evenly until that magic day when they finally do which is only happening by coincidence. Then expect the bird to take at least 6 mts or more to regain confidence in flying. You'll see broken feathers because the new flight feathers that are growing in are only as strong as the original flight feathers he had as a very young bird. he's an adult sized bird with adult sized strength who has baby flight feathers growing back in.

You'll simply have to put up with this and make sure that all areas surrounding his cage are covered with a small throw rug to absorb his bouncing off the floor. At least 4 ft square.Let him build some trust in you but let him do it in his own time. Don't intrude on him with constant stepping up because believe it or not, he was once doing that regularly knowing that he could get away very easily if he wanted to even though he never tried to.

I've dealt with birds who's feathers were in much worse condition than your bird's feathers and I can tell you that it takes a long time until everything comes together by accident. When your bird does reach that state of confidence, stay away from the clipping. This is an experience he won't forget very easily

[PipJulLor]

Thanks Dave. Your image is awesome. Hopefully Pip will have all those flights again one day!