% of parrots clipped?

[bicmeister]

What percentage of parrot owners keep their parrots clipped? I'm talking about owners who keep their parrots clipped for the majority of the time and not about ones that occasionally clip. Does anyone have an idea?

 

[RosieBird]

We keep our too clipped and check her about once a month. She has been clipped her entire life (30 years) so hubby believes that she doesn't have the muscle development to fly, that she can only descend (that's all we've ever seen her do). I will say though that many people have cautioned us saying that she still could fly away, so she is never left unattended.

Here she is getting ready for her wing clipping.

 

[nellysmom]

My TOO has always been clipped. As for flying I have seen her do a major hop and glide across the street. No height though. My teils are clipped but rarely leave the kitchen

 

[Crazy4parrots]

Baylee & Kiwi are always clipped. Despite that, Kiwi can fly pretty well, but it is because the 1st time i clipped her she was about 11 weeks old and i never clip them too much
always is light clips.
Baylee on the other hand i rescued her and she had been clipped already. They butchered her wing it took her 3 or 4 molts to recover from that, she was so horribly clipped that it took me 1.5 years for her to let me touch the right wing. Vet suspect it was dislocated while the breeder was clipping her. She doesnt fly, vet thinks she was clipped at 5 weeks before she learned how to fly. Vet said its best to keep her clipped to avoid accidents. Her feathers were undevelopped!

Vet xrayed her to make sure there was no fractures, there wasnt any fracture, vet thinks it was some sort of mishandling while she got clipped and her right wing ended up dislocated and since she was growing up muscles formed and fixed around it and she got used to it, she was only left with a traumatic mental experience. She now let me touch her wings but the fact it took me 1.5 years to be able to touch her wings tells me the experience was extremely painful/bad. She only jumps and makes spirals in the air.

In this picture she had been with me for 1 week.
and you can see they left only 1 cm or so of the total lenght of the flight feather

Another picture
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[pajarita]

I keep one single bird clipped but it's only one wing because he is missing half the other one so, if I let the feathers in his 'good' wing grow, he finds it harder to keep his balance (and he has balance issues to begin with so the one wing flap only makes them worse -he actually falls on his bad side, the poor thing)

 

[firdy num num]

None of the birds in my house are clipped, for now. I don't now the next time I will probably cut Lola's. I only cut Lolas because she flies behind things and under things, and it's a huge hassle to get her out!

 

[JLcribber]

100% of this parrot owner has never clipped a parrot.

 

[melissasparrots]

I keep mine fully flighted for the most part. I usually clip before selling a baby or if a certain bird just insists on harrassing another to the point of being a danger. I usually encourage buyers to keep the bird clipped for at least the first year and then re-evaluate if they want to.

 

[Bokkapooh]

We keep our too clipped and check her about once a month. She has been clipped her entire life (30 years) so hubby believes that she doesn't have the muscle development to fly, that she can only descend (that's all we've ever seen her do). I will say though that many people have cautioned us saying that she still could fly away, so she is never left unattended.

Here she is getting ready for her wing clipping.

View attachment 193646

She can develope muscle tone if you wanted her to.

 

[Bokkapooh]

My birds are flighted. For the most part. Mali feather chews some feathers so she cant honestly fly. But she is fully flighted in the sense that her flights are there, even if ratty.

 

[Princessbella]

Bella also came with a very severe wing clip. She is lightly clipped but still can fly when she wants to.

 

[Jaguar]

I will not clip any bird I acquire unless it is essential for their or my health and safety. My boys were both clipped extremely badly before I got them, and it has been a really rough recovery. Phoenix had broken off all his tail feathers at one point from falling so badly from his clip. He was fully flighted for the last 2 weeks until he had an accident yesterday and broke every single feather on one wing again.... I am not against clipping, but please do a bit of research if you plan to clip and do it properly!

 

[bicmeister]

My intention is not to spark a debate on the benefits of full flight or clipped parrots. I'm just curious how common bird owners clip their parrots. Would you say maybe 2/3 of all parrot owners keep their parrots clipped? I know AA is very much pro-fully flighted so the majority here doesn't necessarily represent the majority of parrot owners.

 

[parrotlover4]

Appolo is clipped but was like that when I bought her. I will keep them full grown once they grow back or has her first big molt. Clipping is a huge discussion. I dont support clipping as flying provides best exercise and when a bird cant have exercise then there is a chance of some health problems. Your choice this is just my thought. Good luck with whatever you choose!

 

[Nikomania]

None of my 9 will ever be clipped.

 

[melissasparrots]

My intention is not to spark a debate on the benefits of full flight or clipped parrots. I'm just curious how common bird owners clip their parrots. Would you say maybe 2/3 of all parrot owners keep their parrots clipped? I know AA is very much pro-fully flighted so the majority here doesn't necessarily represent the majority of parrot owners.

From talking with other parrot owners from the general population I would say most of them know that good parrot owning means keeping their bird clipped for safety. Yes, yes, yes, I know people here will disagree. But the average person has been taught or read that its good to keep them clipped. However, I would also say many of those people are not as good about staying on top of the clip as they should be so at any time, the bird could potentially fly even though they keep it "clipped." Which possibly sets them up for a nasty situation where they aren't as careful as they should be about keeping doors and windows closed because their bird is "clipped" but the clip isn't maintained. I think most people realize their bird needs to be clipped when it starts flying around the house and getting a little out of control. They don't necessarily think of it in terms of consequences of losing their bird though through an open door because they keep it "clipped." Not saying this is right or wrong, just what I've gathered from talking with others at fairs, pet stores, people that have bought birds from me in years past and when they call me to re-clip the bird or get more instructions. I don't think it would be easy to define the percent that keep the bird well clipped and maintained vs. fully flighted. At any given moment a clipped bird might be fully flighted and the owners just let it go until the bird gets a little too nuts to handle, then they clip it again.

 

[Jaguar]

I know you didn't mean to spark a debate. Forums like this tend to attract forward thinkers/knowledge hungry people who might be more open to the idea of leaving their birds flighted. I would say the majority of bird owners do clip. Sometimes it is necessary for the bird's well being/safety, especially with large species, or birds that aren't tame. But there are a lot of benefits to leaving birds fully flighted - I think there's a large group of people who clip because they aren't aware there's any alternative. There's definitely more flighted birds now than in the past, as it's much easier to access literature & info about bird behavior/training/etc. than, say, 20 years ago.

ETA: most forums get a lot more guest reads than member reads.... even if you weren't looking to discuss the benefits of flight/clipping, it's never a bad idea to put info out there just in case this thread happens to be someone's deciding factor on whether to clip or not.

 

[JLcribber]

My intention is not to spark a debate on the benefits of full flight or clipped parrots. I'm just curious how common bird owners clip their parrots. Would you say maybe 2/3 of all parrot owners keep their parrots clipped? I know AA is very much pro-fully flighted so the majority here doesn't necessarily represent the majority of parrot owners.

I would say its higher than that. There are definitely more clipped birds than flighted birds.

 

[Crazy4parrots]

Kiwi is clipped and still flies, Vet thinks she have strong muscles!. And i let her fly to me ( She sometimes follows me around the house) i call her and she comes to me. I always thought that because of her legs she would never fly, she DOES have trouble landing because of her legs. So im always watching her in case she have an accident, like one time she Was following me and i went to the bathroom and she flew, tried to land in the edge of a small bucket that had a cm of water, she fell into it luckily she ONLY got her tail wet and tried to bath in It in fact she bit me Hard when i grabbed her to make sure she was fine. She was like . Silly bird .

 

[Clueless]

Clipped amazons here. I want them to have out of cage time and mine have attitudes.....Secret flying is the stuff that would give me horrific nightmares.