Do parrots get more tame if clipped?

jousze

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Hello.
As you may know I have a BFA called Mambo who has some agressivity problems.
This week I went to the birds shop to buy some things and I was talking with the owner and he told me to clip him, that this way he would become a lot more tame...
Iā€™m completely against clipping a parrot, I think it goes against nature, if they have wings it is to fly... but.... is this true??? Do they become more calm or more tame?
Thanks!


Jose :)
 

Owlet

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There's lots of debate about it. There's many that say it's easier to train them if they're clipped because they can't just fly away and avoid everything that they even moderately don't like, but there's some debate if that's a good thing or not. Clipping does not automatically make a bird tamer though, it will still require work and training to get them 'tame'.
 
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jousze

jousze

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There's lots of debate about it. There's many that say it's easier to train them if they're clipped because they can't just fly away and avoid everything that they even moderately don't like, but there's some debate if that's a good thing or not. Clipping does not automatically make a bird tamer though, it will still require work and training to get them 'tame'.



Itā€™s what I thought, I donā€™t have any problem with mambo flying away, heā€™s not scared of anything :/


Jose :)
 

ChristaNL

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Maybe if Mambo is in his adolescence and getting a bit too agressive...you may need to clip him lightly to save some (of your own) skin...but that is still years in the future...
Now you have a developing young parrot (can I still call him a 'baby' ? Since he is not a year old yet and still growing ...) and he needs his wings/ the exercise to grow into a really healthy parrot.


I am sorry he is still biting you a bit hard :( that cannot be much fun.
 
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jousze

jousze

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Maybe if Mambo is in his adolescence and getting a bit too agressive...you may need to clip him lightly to save some (of your own) skin...but that is still years in the future...
Now you have a developing young parrot (can I still call him a 'baby' ? Since he is not a year old yet and still growing ...) and he needs his wings/ the exercise to grow into a really healthy parrot.


I am sorry he is still biting you a bit hard :( that cannot be much fun.



Okayyyy!
Heā€™s the cutest sometimes but he has his moments.. and when he has them he bites really hard :/


Jose :)
 

itzjbean

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Ember my cockatiel came to me clipped and it has been very helpful in his training. He has to rely on me to go ANYWHERE and he is now (5 months later) just starting to grow in his flight feathers and flying around the living room and will step up whenever I ask which is very important if there was an emergency.

If you have an unclipped bird out of the cage and want it to come to you, or step up when asked.... they will likely fly away from you without a bond being established yet and doesn't help if you are trying to bond and train your bid when it just flies away.

For me personally, wing clipping has been a useful tool for training and building that bond early in the game, so that when their flight feathers grow in, they'll step up and come to you.
 
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jousze

jousze

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Ember my cockatiel came to me clipped and it has been very helpful in his training. He has to rely on me to go ANYWHERE and he is now (5 months later) just starting to grow in his flight feathers and flying around the living room and will step up whenever I ask which is very important if there was an emergency.

If you have an unclipped bird out of the cage and want it to come to you, or step up when asked.... they will likely fly away from you without a bond being established yet and doesn't help if you are trying to bond and train your bid when it just flies away.

For me personally, wing clipping has been a useful tool for training and building that bond early in the game, so that when their flight feathers grow in, they'll step up and come to you.



But mambo already steps up and flies to me every time I call him.
The only reason I was asking is for being less agressive..


Jose :)
 

EllenD

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It is definitely true that when you bring home a new bird, especially if the bird is not a hand-raised/tame bird, that if you clip them it will make taming, bonding, and specifically "earning their trust" much easier and quicker, simply because #1) The bird cannot continually fly away from you (and just as important, you won't be doing the usual action of chasing them all around the room from window to window with a towel, which really serves to make their distrust of you even more intense)...Also, when they cannot fly they tend to lose that typical feeling they have of being the "dominant" one in the room, especially if they are on the floor and the lowest thing in the room; that's when they tend to give-in and trust you most-often, when they need your help to get back up to their cage/territory and to not be the "lowest thing in the room", as they hate that...So yes, in my own experience it does help tremendously with earning the trust of a non hand-raised and non-tame bird, forming a relationship with them and bonding closely with them.

***All of that being said, clipping the wings of a bird who is already hand-tamed or that you have already bonded closely with in order to help to "train" them to do certain things, or to curb any aggressiveness that they may be displaying does not always work; it may help, it may not. It might make things wonderful and solve all of your problems, or it might not do a thing. I've not ever seen it make the situation worse, but I've not clipped the wings of many already-tame birds for that purpose, my experience is with hand-taming very young birds who were parent-raised and not socialized with people at all, and I have had great success with using a very conservative wing-clipping of only the outermost 5-6 primary flight-feathers and then working with these birds on a regular, daily basis for the 1-2 months that this type of conservative clip will give you...However, as far as your situation goes, doing this type of conservative wing-clipping on your already-tame BFA in order to work on curbing his aggressiveness may work wonderfully well, quickly, and make your relationship with him much, much stronger...or it may not help one bit. There's no way to ever know in your type of situation unless you try it out...Like I said, if a conservative clipping of only the outermost 5-6 Primary Flight-Feathers on each wing is done, they will grow back-in fully within 2 months or so max, so if you were to do it, you have to take full-advantage of every single day you have to work with him in that very short time-period of only 2 months, and that's usually the maximum, it depends on how quickly your bird's feathers grow-back in, and also how close to having a natural molt he is when you clip him...

****I'm not telling you that you should clip your bird's wings to try to ease his aggressiveness, and I'm not telling you that you shouldn't do it. I'm trying to simply give you BOTH SIDES of the wing-clipping story, which often don't get told, often whenever this topic comes-up, as soon as "wing clipping" is typed, people get upset and emotional, which is understandable for sure...but the facts are the facts, and we should be fair and present both sides of the story...Clipping your bird's wings in not at all painful for them, it will not cause any permanent damage to their feathers, it is completely temporary, and most important to keep in-mind and make sure of is that when you do clip your bird's wings that you have someone who knows what they are doing do it, and that you request, no, that you DEMAND that they clip BOTH WINGS, and that the ONLY clip the Primary Flight-Feathers, they don't go into the Secondaries, and that they only clip at-most the outermost, I'll say 4-6 Primary Flight-Feathers, as this will ensure that your bird can still glide across and down with total control, and so they will glide softly and with control to the floor instead of dropping like a stone, and that they just will not be able to gain any altitude...And it will also ensure that your bird's feathers will grow back in fully in at-most around 2 or so months...That's why it's important that you take full-advantage of every day you have with your bird's wings clipped as far as training them, working with them, spending as much time as possible with them, etc., because you don't want to have to clip them again.

****Something that I feel strongly about is that we all be respectful of BOTH SIDES of this discussion whenever it comes up, because everyone is in their own situation and must make whatever decision is correct for them, their bird, and their household when it comes to clipping their bird's wings. There are many circumstances where it's actually much safer for the bird to have their wings clipped full-time in certain households; The best example of this was written here not long ago by a very beloved member of this community, when they told their story and explained why they keep their very loved fid's wings clipped full-time, because their spouse, who is home all day with the bird, has some physical disabilities and cannot go chasing the bird around their home every day, and if their bird wasn't clipped it wouldn't be a safe living-situation for him in their home...and trust me, this bird is loved in that home as much as any human-child could be...So I just think it's extremely important to always take a step back and put ourselves in the shoes of others and think about that BEFORE we say anything out of strong emotion and passion on the topic.
 

Scott

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***All of that being said, clipping the wings of a bird who is already hand-tamed or that you have already bonded closely with in order to help to "train" them to do certain things, or to curb any aggressiveness that they may be displaying does not always work; it may help, it may not.

I had great success clipping my closest bonded goffins 2 years ago. Gabby was 21 at the time and experiencing a rather heavy molt. His aggression was the worst ever with biting and flying at me from a distance. Took him to my CAV for a well-check and the vet recommended a moderate clip. All was well medically, and the clip worked wonders! He quickly mellowed; wings grew out, and he remains as sweet as ever. As Ellen stated, results will vary.
 
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jousze

jousze

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Thanks everyone, this makes things clear!


Jose :)
 

bill_e

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I am a proponent of clipping for the safety of the bird and/or owner. With my Hawkhead who has been free flighted most of her life, we have a mild clip done in the spring prior to our summer camping season. This clip, which doesn't really prevent her from flying but does cause her to stay put a little more than without, does not seem to affect her personality at all. What it does do is cause her to really think about flying before she lights off rather than just going and this provides us with a little more preparation time when we're camping to assure that she's not gong to escape.

When I got Nike 3 years ago I had the prior owner clip her but she butchered the clip and Nike was totally flightless. As her wings grew in I started having a mild clip performed until about a year and a half ago when I just lit her be flighted. Being flighted improved her already sweet disposition even more and pretty much eliminated her hormonal behavior (I'm guessing it was the added exercise)

For the latest mild clip, which I think worked very well, the CAV left her first two primaries and clipped the next 5 just below the cape. Nike could still fly 75 feet through multiple rooms to get where she wanted to be but her bird feeder-like behavior of constantly hopping from one place to another stopped.....which was a relief.

Right now she is finishing up her molt and is very active...kind of a pain but gratifying to see her being a bird. She'll spend the winter this way until we clip her again for the summer.
 

Amsterdam

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im against clipping i have a budgie named blue when i first got him he was a bad boy tearing his cage apart like a really wild budgie then after a few months he started to trust me i can pet him now he sits on my shoulder and i didnt have to clip him aii was needed was alot of patience birds are not toys they have a heart too
 
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jousze

jousze

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Iā€™m with Amsterdam.. if a bird wants to escape is cause heā€™s not happy.
Heā€™s a friend and not an slave, so thatā€™s why I donā€™t like clipping..


Jose :)
 

greytness

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Clipping could also have the opposite effect, too. Perhaps looking for any biting queues from him might be a better place to begin at this point.
 
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My untamed african grey had his wings clipped but overall I don't think it helped because it just made him more scared and vulnerable so he would hardly ever move away from his cage even though it was always open.


Once his feathers grew back and he could fly around the house he seemed more relaxed and would sing a lot more. The downside of course was that one day he flew outside and never came back :(
 

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