To Clip or Not?

[scarperchick]

ive been doin some thinking on whether or not to clip my babys wings... we have only ad her a cpl of days so wont be doing it yet as she gets stressed very very easily due to sufferin neglect..in 2 days tho i think im doin well as now i can get my hand in cage to put a treat in or sort one of her toys out without her goin totally nuts as long as i dont go near her.. then well thts the only time she makes a noise with her wild screaches... other than that shes so silent i neva knew a bird could be tht quiet.. but bk to clipping.. im orderin her new cage nxt week as this one she came with is toooo small n to try ( hopefully) to train her i think im gonna av to get her wings clipped..in the hope tht i can let her out and train her to be held... the vet said that i may neva manage to do tht considerin how wild she has got but im gonna do my best to try...altho had she been a healthy bird wi no neglect n she was happy i have to admit i would think twice b4 clipping her ))

 

[erik7181]

Bottom line, clip or not your birds still gonna fly.

 

[Ladyeclectic]

ive been doin some thinking on whether or not to clip my babys wings... we have only ad her a cpl of days so wont be doing it yet as she gets stressed very very easily due to sufferin neglect..in 2 days tho i think im doin well as now i can get my hand in cage to put a treat in or sort one of her toys out without her goin totally nuts as long as i dont go near her.. then well thts the only time she makes a noise with her wild screaches... other than that shes so silent i neva knew a bird could be tht quiet.. but bk to clipping.. im orderin her new cage nxt week as this one she came with is toooo small n to try ( hopefully) to train her i think im gonna av to get her wings clipped..in the hope tht i can let her out and train her to be held... the vet said that i may neva manage to do tht considerin how wild she has got but im gonna do my best to try...altho had she been a healthy bird wi no neglect n she was happy i have to admit i would think twice b4 clipping her ))

In my experience with my little Green-cheek, clipping really does help to tame them. She was somewhat clipped when we first got her but had absolutely NO problems with flying away if she didn't want to do something. Made any attempts at taming her, if not impossible then, very difficult. Once we had the vet clip her more thoroughly, and she realized she had to trust us much more to help her, things seemed to click almost immediately. She still gets around her cage pretty well and flutters away if she gets spooked, but it's really helped her come around that no, we're not going to hurt her.

Still, nothing works better on a new, mostly-wild bird than just being there, talking softly and letting it feel your love.

I'll admit, this thread has totally made me reevaluate what I want to do clipping-wise.

 

[scarperchick]

In my experience with my little Green-cheek, clipping really does help to tame them. She was somewhat clipped when we first got her but had absolutely NO problems with flying away if she didn't want to do something. Made any attempts at taming her, if not impossible then, very difficult. Once we had the vet clip her more thoroughly, and she realized she had to trust us much more to help her, things seemed to click almost immediately. She still gets around her cage pretty well and flutters away if she gets spooked, but it's really helped her come around that no, we're not going to hurt her.

Still, nothing works better on a new, mostly-wild bird than just being there, talking softly and letting it feel your love.

I'll admit, this thread has totally made me reevaluate what I want to do clipping-wise.[/QUOTE]

well i wont be doing anythin as yet im gonna see how she goes for a while first..i think it will be a while b4 i can even think of goin near her ne mind gettin her to step up or anythin if she eva will... i think theres been more to it than just general ignorin her n she seems really terrified... id be happy if she just started the general cherpin ne mind anythin else lol

 

[Ladyeclectic]

Try not to stress about it Sandie. Believe me, been there done that: my first two weeks (as several members of this board can attest ), when I wasn't stationed by the cage talking to my Mishka, I was a nervous ball of energy wondering why my new birdie didn't love me yet! *rolls eyes* It took a while before she peeled herself from the back of the cage to eventually sit on her rope perch and make grinding noises with her beak (conure-way of showing contentedness). In that time I was just there talking, reading aloud, and pretty much acting like a crazy person holding conversations with themselves.

Seriously though, they absorb everything. Make simple greeting phrases (mine goes crazy-happy now whenever I say "Hello Mishka" or "Who's the pretty birdie"), always acknowledge her when you're in the room (and out of it), and be a calm pleasant presence. Everything else will sort itself out after that.

But when you do eventually take her to the vet I'd recommend a wingclip. I didn't understand it when people would suggest I clip the one thing that gave security to my poor scared baby (her ability to fly) but it's helped so much in winning her trust. I waited two weeks before taking her to the vet though and we had a good bond by then, if not necessarily the touching kind.

 

[bogo1]

Great post, Von and a perfect illustration of choosing to clip...or in Cal's case to not clip based on what is best for your bird given the environment that she lives in. And I think that the more you care for birds, the more you realize that there is rarely if ever one absolute answer. Each bird/situation/parront is different and those differences should impact the choice.

 

[Marnie]

even though the 1st 2 posts are 4yrs old, they still ring true to me.
very well said.
i agonized over clipping Pandora but once i realized it would be the best thing for her to be safe, i went ahead with it.
best thing i ever did. she is so much better now and does not stray from her room here. once in a while she will wander a bit, but she knows where her cage is and will be back in it in the blink of an eye.
she is very smart.
here is a shot of her where she ended up on the hall gate.

my dogs are very bird safe so i don't have to worry about her on the floor.

 

[StRiNgROCk]

Well Guys,
I go to an elderly ladies home to trim her Parrotlets beak. but when company comes, or the phone rings, or any other startling event happens, the bird ends up so freaked out that it usually crashes into things

 

[Doris48]

Now this is a problem Im having.I didnt read every post on this thread so dont know whats been said...BUT Ive never trimmed Twitters wings,On the same note I lost my first greencheek because he flew out the door. I have since put up a screen door on the entryway to the back door.I also have screened in front porch.
I have dogs so I dont want my greencheek to get trampled if he happened to land on the floor and couldnt fly away..My dogs are super good but not perfect and could accidentally step on her.

BUT Paco has decided he likes my 18yo son.He has Aspergers and is having NON of that bird.He isnt afraid of it, just doesnt like it on him..So I may have to trim Paco if I cant teach him to stay away from the 18yo.Hopefully it would just be for awhile..

 

[CAGLulu]

I know this is an old thread, but since it has been brought up today, I will come with my opinion regarding clipping or not - and it is just MY opinion


Personally I would never clip my parrot's wings. It is a bird's instinct to fly, so by taking that from them is pretty much like someone taking our legs from os.. And yea I know feathers grow back, but still... Many if not most of you clip your parrot's wings, because then they will not be able to escape and fly away. I see this as a bad argument because it is us who have chosen to keep them as pets, they have not chosen us. So it is our responsibility to keep them safe and that is not by clipping their wings and take away their flying ability. If we could communicate with our fids like we human communicate, and we asked them if they wanted their wings clipped, what would their answer be? I'm pretty sure it would be a "NO!"

Once again, this is MY opinion

 

[MikeyTN]

I personally don't like to clip. BUT if you have raised chicks, you will learn to clip and here's the reason why. I let them all learn how to fly to build up their wing muscles and when you have to chase them down to handfeed and you have high ceilings and can't reach them, it becomes a problem. At the same time they can go a bit wild IF allowed to free roam. Almost impossible to train when all they want to do is fly to the highest spot in the room. The training process begins once the wings are clipped. Occasionally you'll get lucky with a baby that don't fly off and doesn't need to be clipped, I've encountered a few of them. Trust me, it is a lot easier to train once they're clipped. Then during molting process if you want them to grow back their wings to train and see how they do, you sure can try. In my opinion clipping promotes feather destruction, that's after many of the adult birds that I had was fine until clipped, then the feather destruction begins....So I do not clip, only the youngsters or adults that needed training. Or those that do fly attacks as they can be quite dangerous.