Discussion about Clipping Wings

[Fergus Mom]

Nibbles was about 10 months. Celia, the Golden was about 8 months old. Both could fly very well, but had a habit of slamming into things. I would stand at the sink with the golden on my hand and without warning she would launch herself right into the window. Even just a foot away I was concerned that she would crack or break her beak from the impact.

I have this theory that maybe when they are under 1 years old they do dumb things, like children not knowing stuff at certain ages of intelligence. So far, I don't even know how to phrase that question in a post here, or I would have! When Fergus was about 8 months old, he flew behind my stove! Scared me to death.

 

[BrianB]

I agree. Nibbles is 2 and she’s not the same bird. Celia is almost a year and even now 4 months later she’s more mature when she was at the time.

 

[Proudparront]

Clipping is proven to be mentally and physically damaging for birds. Clipped birds are prone to blood feathers, obesity, cardiovascular, plucking, obesity, bumble foot etc. The fact that it makes your bird safer is completely false. I rehome unwanted birds, and a majority of them have come to me clipped. My male recent an alexandrine, tried to fly to me but because she did have the strength to persist due to be clipped she fell straight into the shower screen. Today she actually flew onto the floor. I feel as if clipping is for human inconvenience, and unless it’s for inflight seizures, it’s never in the birds bst interest. It’s also false that it makes your bird tamer. When your taming a clipped bird they don’t want to do what you are forcing them to do, but they don’t have a choice. Usually it only makes them fear humans more. Clipped birds can still fly away, but have close to 0% chance of making their way back because they are such an easy target for predators. My friends friend had a clipped bird who fell into a pot of boiling cabbage, my other friend who had a clipped budgie nearly got eaten by a dog and another friends bird almost fell into a bucket of vinegar. I see people who clip because they don’t want their birds to poop everywhere - seriously then, don’t get a bird! Clipped birds are stuck climbing around their cage and I’ve found very often develop cage territorial ness.

 

[lexalayne]

The only time I asked for one of mine to be clipped was my military who had lived in a pet store so long no one remembered when he came. He was continuously teased by kids and the staff didn’t like him. He lunged non stop and I wasn’t sure what I was getting into and this was years ago. I asked them to lightly trim him. And it turned out he didn’t really need it. He was so cage bound that when he did come out his feathers had grown back.

 

[Dostc426]

I hope I don't anger anyone, but I do have my avian vet clip my sun conure's feathers! He does get a period of time during the year where I let him be flighted, but overall he gets them clipped. They only clip the 3 main flight feathers, just so that he can't get lift and safely glide to the floor and we do it for his safety and our peace of mind. We adopted him when he was 4 years old, and he has always been clumsy, and startled by very random things, and that is with or without his flight feathers. He does fracture his blood feathers from time to time, but again this happens with or without his flight feathers. He is also the same cheerful, cuddly, sassy, hormonal, anxious, loud, and physically active boy, with or without his flight feathers. We get them trimmed because when he gets clumsy and scared, when clipped he very rarely hurts himself, but when he is flighted he almost always hurts himself. We have done flight training with him and we let him have time to be flighted throughout the year, but always without fail, he still will get startled and his first instinct is to slam into a wall or a window, no matter how much we have taught him. When he is clipped and startled he either glides to the floor and calmly waits for me to pick him up, or simply screams and I comfort him. It is because of this too we've had to get him a cage that is more wide than tall because he would fall off his perches in the tall cages provided to him. His happiness, health, and safety is our priority and we go through great lengths to ensure he is in a safe environment. Cygni has no shortage of stimulation, outdoor time, foraging, cuddles and love from us, even though we do get his wings clipped.

 

[Zara]

He does get a period of time during the year where I let him be flighted, but overall he gets them clipped.

A little cruel? He gets to lick the cake but not eat it?
If you are going to clip, why not just keep them clipped? Instead of give the false hope of flight and then snatch it away?
(Not attacking, just asking)

 

[Dostc426]

A little cruel? He gets to lick the cake but not eat it?
If you are going to clip, why not just keep them clipped? Instead of give the false hope of flight and then snatch it away?
(Not attacking, just asking)

That's fair enough to ask! Its usually has to do with the timing of his appointment, but we do like to do some refresher flight training with him to hopefully help with his clumsiness (nope he's still our clumsy boy.) When we do get his wings clipped (again they only clip the 3 main flight feathers, so he can still glide and gracefully land) we want to time it so they are all grown in and not have one still growing and then have him being uneven.