I need some advice on wing clipping

[Ilovebirdies]

So I have had my nanday for about a year and half now. I had been taking him to get his wings and nails clipped at the pet shop I had bought him from for the last year and a half, but last time I had taken him to get clipped they gave him back to me with a bloody beak. I noticed this right away and asked the man that had clipped his wings and nails about it and he said that he hadn't clipped his beak and that it was probably just from when my parrot had bit him. I had asked him again and he reassured me that it was from him and not my bird. I believed him and decided to walk around the store to get my parrot a treat. I had looked back over at my bird and noticed that there was a blood droplet running off his beak. I went back to talk with the man about it but he refused to acknowledge that my bird was actually injured. My dad had been with me and my dad wouldn't acknowledge it either. I told my dad that I had wanted to leave so we did. In the car I was freaking out over it. I let my parrot chew on a napkin that was in the glove box of the car on the drive home to maybe help with the bleeding. Once we got home I let my parrot drink a little and gave him some more napkins to chew on. He got better really quickly. I had looked up the place and found some of the reviews for it and they had a very low rating with many people saying that their animals are abused as well as having diseases. Needless to say I did not go back there. I looked online for a new place to take him but I was out of luck. The only places I could find were Petco and PetSmart but they had low ratings as well.

Sorry about the long story! I just thought I should provide a bit of background info. Back to the problem. It seems that my parrot has decided that when I try to put on his harness it means something bad is going to happen (he was wearing his harness when he went to get his wings clipped). I decided I would let him grow his wings out. But apparently he isn't very good at flying and he is very skittish so he has gotten himself hurt a few times. So I decided I should clip his wings before he ends up breaking his neck. But like I said he wont let me put on his harness. We have a great relationship and he is usually only friendly towards me, but he wont even let me clip his wings. He tries to fly away when I try to put his harness on and flies away as soon as I grab him to clip his wings. He is currently cautious around me and doesn't really want to come out of his cage. So my question is, is there anything that will keep him calm for a few minutes while I clip his wings? I just need him to stay still for a minute or two so I can do this. Some sort of natural sedative. If you have any info it would be greatly appreciated.


P.S. I am currently trying to get him to wear his harness again. If you have any tips on getting him to be okay with his harness again that would be greatly appreciated too! I would just really like to get his wings clipped as soon as I can.

Thanks in advanced

 

[Flboy]

Hi, what part of Florida?

 

[CDavis]

Learn how to clip his wings yourself then you control all aspects of the clip that is what I do wil my birds and concrete perches almost eliminate the need for nail and beak trimming

 

[Ilovebirdies]

I live in Polk County. I Have found a few vets but they are either too far away or I cant afford it. Plus I don't think he would let anyone but me handle him after the last time.

 

[Flboy]

I am in lake county. When you call a vet, ask specifically about clipping nails and wings. Ours is $9!

Also, if you go the sanded perch direction, watch your birdie's feet! Many don't do well on these and develop sores!
You have a good assortment of perches? Simple branches, PVC wrapped in twine, all cheap and easy!

 

[Terry57]

I'm so sorry that happened to your baby!
Please don't rely on concrete perches, they need many different kind of perches, and the concrete ones can definitely hurt their feet like Flboy mentioned. It's okay to have one, but your baby may still need nail trimming. Hopefully you can find a vet who is reasonable.

 

[Teddscau]

First, you probably want to rebuild his trust. He experienced something very upset and obviously still frightened. At this point, you'll probably want to go back to the basics with bonding. Read to him, offer him treats, and listen to songs he likes. Work on reinforcing "commands" (I don't like that term since it sounds like you're forcing him to do things) and reward him with treats and lots of praise when he steps up and what not. If you don't already have him clicker and target trained, why not start now?

When Noah came into my life in June, he hadn't been handled in two years (since he was little). We spent a lot of time together doing fun stuff while he was in his cage and clicker and target training him through the bars. In a month, he was trained in the basics (step up, step down, touch, fly to me) and finally quit butchering my fingers (it wasn't his fault, it's a parrot let thing and we had some issues communicating in the beginning).

Anyways, bond with him and don't do anything he's uncomfortable with. I probably wouldn't even think about showing him the harness until your relationship is back to how it used to be. After you two are close and he completely trusts you again. Just have the harness out where he can see it, but don't even try touching it. Look up desensitization techniques for animals. Take things slowly.

Eventually, when you can put the harness on again, just have it on him when he's out of the cage having fun. Plus, if he has a harness, why don't you work on flight training? All of my birds are unclipped, and although there have been crashes, they all got a lot better at flying and almost never injur themselves, even when they hit something. Why don't you work on flight recall with your conure? Start only a couple of feet away from him, then slowly increase the distance he has to fly. He'll slowly get better at flying. If he becomes an experienced flyer, he'll be able to maneuver quickly to avoid obstacles and, if he's going to crash into something, he'll know to quickly decrease his speed to avoid injury. Even birds who seem completely hopeless when it comes to flying, like my Lara, can eventually become experts with a lot of practice. Lara had become morbidly obese because of her awkward size and difficulty flying and moving around her cage, and as such, she flew less which made things even worse. She couldn't maintain lift at all and couldn't fly upwards more than a couple of inches. Now that I've encouraged her to fly and removed their cage from their aviary, she's amazing. She can fly across the room, fly upwards, and will fly from branch to branch to get places. Just work with your boy and with enough time, you probably won't even consider clipping his wings again.

If you do end up wanting to clip his wings after teaching him to fly, you can just do it yourself (without the harness). It's very easy to do and a lot less stressful for him. As for nail clipping, I've never had to do it for any of my birds except for Pollo. His nails aren't worn down enough from his perches, even though my other budgies have short nails that have never needed a trim :/.

 

[Marileen]

Maby these video's can help???

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-bdcmHcsuQ"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-bdcmHcsuQ[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we-vkdC8g_0"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we-vkdC8g_0[/ame]