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Clipping a budgies wings, good or bad?

mswendra38

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Marina Velasquez
Hello everyone! this is my first time posting and I have a question. I just got a 7 week old budgie and where I bought it from they told me to bring him back in about 3 months to trim his wings. I am not sure that I want to do that. I would like to know the pros and cons on wing clipping. Thanks everyone! have a wonderful day!
 

sunnysmom

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Welcome to the forum. I don't believe in wing clipping. It's much better mentally and physically for a bird to be flighted. Some people believe it's easier to train a bird when it's wings are clipped. However, I think it's more forced dependency when they're clipped and not giving the bird a choice to be with you or not.
 

TikkiTembo

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We clipped one bird because we were told it would tame him. It didn't work! Now he is flighted and much happier. Though, if my Cockatoo became aggressive while flying, I'd clip him. I'm not sure if he'll ever fly or not.
 

Khizz

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I am also quite against wing clipping. As @sunnysmom said, some people say it makes them tamer. As already mentioned, this isn't really guaranteed, and to me it seems unfair to take flight away just so you can have a pet be dependent on you. There are lots of other lovely animals that are naturally cuddly and easy to tame, like a good rescue cat or dog.

Other people do it for practical reasons, to stop them from crashing into walls/windows. However, I find this still unnecessary as there are very simple modifications you can make to your home to prevent this. I hang ribbons in front of my windows. When Mabel flies past, the ribbon flutters and she knows not to fly into it. She is not clipped and does laps round the room every day. Today she even went slightly nuts with a severe case of the zoomies :laughin:

If you don't feel comfortable with it, you don't have to :)

(btw these aren't the only reasons, anyone favouring wing clipping for other reasons shouldn't feel attacked I hope)
 

Shezbug

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I don’t personally see any benefits to clipping a bird, I do however see numerous benefits to leaving the bird as nature designed.
All the reasons and benefits given as to why it’s a bonus to clip birds can be proven totally incorrect if you read enough by people who actually know what they’re talking about and even by new bird owners who have experienced birds with clipped wings.
Nothing is more rewarding than watching your bird do as it was intended to do! Except for maybe having that bird use them gorgeous amazing wings to get to where you’re at so they can hang with you ;)
 

Khizz

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Incidentally I'm not mentioning my other bird Jeff as he is what is known in Latin as Perches Potatous :rolleyes: Aka he will fly when he darn well pleases!
 

Fergus Mom

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mythic55

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Seriously controversial.

My birds are not clipped.
However I did have a large parrot with a minor clip once, which eventually grew out. The home ceilings were almost 40ft tall- and surrounded by windows with exposed electrical chords. The woman who did it was to stop the vertical flight (it was two feathers if I remember correctly)- could still fly across the room, still glide down- just couldnt get all the way up to the tower to get caught in the chords or hit the windows.

But for the average bird, and the average home- I dont think it is necessary. I will note: I dont think you will find many on this site that will step up and admit it even if they did approve.
 

Zara

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Welcome to the Avenue Marina! :starshower1:
 

Fuzzy

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:welcomesign: Marina!
So glad you are questioning their suggestion. Your budgie will be much healthier mentally and physically being able to fly! :fly2: The saddest reason to clip wings is to tame/train them.
 
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