I was intent on not clipping his wings, until today. Now I don't know

This morning my worst fear happened. Fidget was on his play stand in the kitchen eating as I was entering the kitchen I slipped and fell down the stairs, at the same time my son was opening the door to go outside. Obviously fidget got a massive fright from my fall, he flew straight out the half open door.

We ran out after him but he was no where to be found. Got the ladder calling him we checked over walls etc nothing. I decided to walk around he block in tears and thank goodness I found him high up in the tree in front of the house behind ours.
Took me about 15 mins to coax him down, scared as he was he made his way down branch by branch and eventually flew the rest of the way down to me.

I was so happy I cried.

But nowim fighting with myself. I never want this to happen again, so do I clip or not?

I recomend clipping out of pure safety. There are downsides to clipping. Less exercise, boredom. etc. Birds need to be birds. I highly recommend you recall train him. If he was recall trained, you could have just gotten in sight of him and called him to flly to you. There are many videos and other literature on how to recall train. That would be your best bet.

This was my fear you lived through. I feel now that you have a strong bond with Fidget you know he will come to you, you should feel more at ease. No guarantees he wouldn't do it again. But, he did come back to you. Great job on building his trust with you, and him learning how to fly down. That is a hurdle with flighted birds. Also get a travel cage, and get him used to the outside of your house and surroundings. That will also help him realize if he does get out again, not to freak out and keep flying away. This is what I do with my bird. I have a harness I use as well when we go out for walks. IMO a flighted bird is happier AND healthier than non. Probably get some flack, but i feel this also helps the bird mentally as well.
Good luck in whatever you decide.

We are recall training, I think he was just scared but at the same time I think that is the only reason I got him to me so quickly. The tree he landed in was Ina very busy main road, those noisy metal things are scary fr a lil birdie

He is also only 9 weeks old now. Can't believe the trust and bond we have already built up

People who believe a clipped bird cannot fly away are sadly mistaken, I know this from heartbreaking personal experience. I believe there is a far healthier and safer protocol here - when the bird is out the doors are locked from the inside. A simple chain on the door will suffice if you already live behind locked doors. This insures that the person inside, who knows where the bird is, is the only on who opens the door. Clipping is actually an extreme measure that limits a birds natural movements, and can cause all sorts of issue including a lot of biting. I remain amazed at how clipping can be such a common practice. Don't get me wrong, there are times when it is temporarily necessary, and even a few times when it is permanently necessary, but you wouldn't cut off your dogs's legs (assuming they would grow back and it wasn't painful) just to keep him from running into the street, you would exercise safety measures and training.

To Avoid a lost bird you lock the doors, make sure you know where the bird is, etc. to recover a lost bird you make sure you have the sound of the bird's same species or flock mates voices recorded, make sure you have a net for such a small bird, and work really hard on target training. I also suggest harness training, so your bird can be famil
Air with his own yard and know how to stay close to home.

How old is figit? Clipping before 6 months old has serious developmental repercussions that most people totally ignore or deny, but they are serious, and I find it horrible that they are not talked about to more when discussing the clipping issue. I highly suggest reading the article on this by dr. Steve Hartman of Hartman aviaries and the parrot university. I cannot link it because the site sells things, but go ahead and google him and you will find it on his website.

Living with birds involves risk, but it doesn't have to involve needless deprivation. I am a string believer that the practice of clipping without extreme cause is the second worst thing ever to happen to the life of pet birds in general.

Oh, one note, birds who get clipped too young and are later allowed to fly often have to be taught to fly down. A well loved bird often wants to come home, wants to come down to his people, but flying down is actually a very difficult skill, leaving a bird stranded in a tree, desperate to come down but unable to do so.

I haven't clipped Buddy and don't plan on it but I can understand the fear because I've felt it before with my other birds. I'm working on recall training with Buddy but even after he's trained I know I will still worry about the what ifs. We have one dog that will zip out the front door. To chase him, I grab leash, shoes, purse, car keys and jump in the car for the chase. He's fast. I know I'd panic more chasing a bird because they can go high where I can't. And we have Hawks around here looking for dinner.

And accidents happen like you said. When the nieces and nephews come over, I'm always yelling at them AND their parents about closing the door. They are HORRIBLE about leaving doors open. My lines, "we are not air conditioning the neighborhood.", "the dogs might run out, if they do you get to chase them.", "shut the door that's how the snake got in last time!" Yes a snake in the house, that one gets their attention. I figure if I recall train that should help a lot if the issue unexpectedly comes up, I hope it doesn't.

Hello, I understand that. You could try recall but if you have a bird like mine.... Well they may refuse to do it! If i were you i would totally! I do for my GCC because she fly's in to the windows! One time she hit the window so hard she couldn't stand or use her legs! I almost had a heart attack! Thank goodness she is ok and is back to normal That's why I do so she won't hit the windows. And its not like she just did it once, she hit the window like almost every day!!! So that was the end of that...

Have you ever thought of putting a screendoor in front of or behind the regular door? As you are opening the regular door the screen door will be closing. It will be a slim chance of him getting out if he flew at the door. It also works great with dogs.

I'm going to interject real quickly here- clipping is a highly controversial topic; one that is a personal decision, and there is no right or wrong here.

Everyone has their own reasons as to why they do or don't clip, so please keep responses civil!

Thank you!
~The Mod Team

So hard. Please don't be hard on yourself. Whatever you choose, clipped or not, there will be pros and cons. I lost two budgies as they flew into walls and died. I lightly clip my gcc's wings so he can't get much speed or height for safety. Not perfect but a give and take for me.

Oh my that must have been so scary watching your baby fly away! First, I hope you are all right from falling down the steps! Second, I'm so very happy that you got your baby back! As for clipping, for me I would clip if it was for the safety of the bird or us. I currently don't have mine clipped, however if my kids were still living at home I think I would have them clipped (birds not kids..lol:09. Hubby and I are very very careful with the doors but something could happen like happened to you and I do still worry. I would clip if my fids flew into walls, windows..etc. My Sassy bird was going though a stage where she was flying, landing on hubby, biting him and flying away. If she continued that, I would have clipped her. I know people have very strong feeling and opinions on the subject and I understand reasons for keeping them flighted also. I would like to keep mine flighted, but not if they are a danger to themselves or others, and like others have said, there's no right or wrong answer here. Just my 2 cents worth...

Because my last post was so strongly worded I do feel the need to say that I still have a lot of respect for people who clip, I simply feel that most of the time people do not have all the facts because a lot of the cons are downplayed by many people.

Whether the bird is clipped or not there will always be a chance of a frenzied flight, birds are surprising that way, and I have, tragically, had a bird with a fairly short clip fly away. Because of the clip the bird had little to no control, and landed in a tree, climbed to the top, and was unable to be retrieved. It was devastating, especially knowing that bird wanted to come home, she was such a sweetheart, but she knew she could not fly, and if she had tried to fly down with clipped wings from that height, she would have died anyway. I deeply hope someone found and kept her rather than the alternative.

Beside standard protocol and locked doors, I also suggest a game for the family. For a week everyone starts each day with ten pieces of candy. For small children they may not be able to actually hold it themselves, because you can't eat it until after supper. Every time someone catches someone doing something not bird safe (leaving a door open, not locking the doors before the bird comes out, cooking while the bird is out, having the bird out while a ceiling fan is on, whatever is not safe for the bird) the catcher gets a piece of the offender's candy. So it trains everyone to have an eye out force not bird safe things. And trains everyone to avoid doing them. It rewards people for catching the dangers before something bad happens.

SilverSage, great advice and thank you. I like the candy game, thanks for sharing that.

I own 2 flighted birds...

Mango came flighted and would fly quite commonly... But she was very aggressive, and needed to be clipped. She has since grown them back in. She doesn't fly as much. But I have bonded with her and if she chose to fly again that'd be fine.. She mostly just flies to come to me.

Sprite came clipped... Ugh. He's VERY nervous and took us 2-3 months to bond because he's so skiddish. Since getting his wings he's become a ton more confident... He was clipped at 3 ish months and then we got him..

I have nothing against those who chose to clip, but the breeder decided to clip just a tiny baby who had no idea how to fly. She said she lets them learn, but Sprite clearly has no idea how to fly, lol. It's funny watching him try.

Sprite recently got out. He spent the night outside. It was TERRIFYING. I wanted to clip him. But I couldn't. He's so happy being flighted. He's still nervous but has become more confident in many ways. I have an aviator harness, but haven't done any training yet...

Personally, just try to teach him recall training. And I second the letting him see his neighborhood. I would just walk him around the block or so so he can get an idea on how it looks. Once you have a harness on him I'd def walk him around a lot.

Whatever you choose I wish you the best

Doing the proper training to wear the harness is sooooooo rewarding right now I only have one who wears it without being nervous, but she is so much happier for it. The elastic lets her fly to the end, turn around, and come back to me without landing

I also keep my door locked at all times. This way even the door can't open suddenly when I'm near it with my bird on my shoulder.

As for clipping, accidents can always happen, but I never understood why when it comes to birds people jump to clipping as a solution. For dogs people train the animal or change the environment it lives in. The same can be done for birds.

I'm relatively new to birds, but I have 5 already, and 4 of them I got as clipped babies and taught them to fly. (The 5th one was a recent adult rescue cockatiel whom I had to part-clip because he was injuring himself flying into the walls). Now all the 4 are fully flighted and SO HAPPY birds! There is a huge difference in their behavior since they got flighted. Just observing… Anyway - I totally understand your fears!
First thing - storm doors with springs! They are required by our city and they add extra safety.
Second - Have you ever thought of beaded curtains? I'm planning on buying something like this to protect them flying to our bedrooms:
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Curtain-Strands-hanging-hardware/dp/B003A0OJA4/ref=sr_1_3?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1411367646&sr=1-3&keywords=bamboo+door+curtains]Amazon.com - Natural Bamboo Beaded Curtain 125 Strands (+hanging hardware) - Window Treatment Curtains[/ame]

It might be a bit awkward, but birds cannot fly through them quickly when the other door is open.
If I was you I wouldn't clip (although a few months ago I'd say a different thing)

Thank you all for your responses. I am still fighting with my self on this.
Fidget can fly so well, he maneuvers around my house with such ease, I don't know if I can bare to take that away from him.

I spoke to the breeder and she said if I decide to I must take him to her and she will do a slight clip so he can still fly well but not get to much height. Hubby is set on getting him clipped but my heart is still undecided.My other issue its spring now by us so keeping doors closed all the time is gona be difficult.

Im just so happy I got him back yesterday. at this point I just don't wana experience that ever again

SilverSage said:

People who believe a clipped bird cannot fly away are sadly mistaken.

Click to expand...

I had a very sad experience with a bird named Captain Kirk. He was a lovebird that I had for about 6 months when it happened. I had just gotten him clipped when I got food poisoning and ended up in the hospital over the weekend. I made the mistake of entrusting feeding my bird to the wrong person. She took him to her house and left his cage outside so he could talk to the other birds. He of course chose just then to figure out how to open the door. He flew away straight into the pool. That was about three years ago, but his pictures still hurt.