Absolutely TERRIBLE “instructional” video on wing clipping!

[FlyBirdiesFly]

Was watching bird videos and came across this... I’m furious. I don’t even need to point out all the things wrong with this video because I’m sure you’ll see what I’m talking about. Just watch and see... it gets worse. Any birds raised by this awful breeder will likely grow up to have severe neurological issues. Plus the business is called “Animal Exchange”... not a great message to bird owners.

[ame="https://youtu.be/OfOzC7vvims"]https://youtu.be/OfOzC7vvims[/ame]

 

[ChristaNL]

vid from 2008 ... maybe she has died of old age since then?

 

[EllenD]

Oh my...That's the problem/danger with YouTube...Everyone is an expert on anything they want to be an expert on...

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

vid from 2008 ... maybe she has died of old age since then?

Yes I know the video is 10 years old but the fact that it’s still up means that people can watch it and take this horrible “advice”. I can see an inexperienced owner looking for instructions on how to clip wings themselves and clicking on this video!

 

[Kiwibird]

Perhaps the worst of it is that the lady comes across as a caring 'expert' and SOME of what she's saying is true (like how to identify the different feathers of the wing etc...). I'm honestly surprised that as recently as 2008 anyone was still advising one sided clips. I also think a lot of people who don't know better would probably feel a one sided clip was 'kinder' since it wasn't both wings not realizing it throws them severely off balance. I'm honestly surprised anyone was advising one sided clips as recently as 2008! In probably the past 5 or so years, it has really been discussed and the general consensus of the avian community reached that birds shouldn't be clipped before becoming proficient fliers either, as it is likely they will never be able to learn later on. This video offers 2 suggestions that are now considered outdated/cruel and should be removed.

And just a word as someone who clips my bird- I notice even when 2 or 3 flight feathers have grown back on one wing and not the other, Kiwi's balance while doing his flapping exercises is thrown off. He's so good about clipping at this point, I pretty much clip them off as soon as they grow in instead of waiting for a bunch to show up so his wings are always evenly clipped.

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

Perhaps the worst of it is that the lady comes across as a caring 'expert' and SOME of what she's saying is true (like how to identify the different feathers of the wing etc...). I'm honestly surprised that as recently as 2008 anyone was still advising one sided clips. I also think a lot of people who don't know better would probably feel a one sided clip was 'kinder' since it wasn't both wings not realizing it throws them severely off balance. I'm honestly surprised anyone was advising one sided clips as recently as 2008! In probably the past 5 or so years, it has really been discussed and the general consensus of the avian community reached that birds shouldn't be clipped before becoming proficient fliers either, as it is likely they will never be able to learn later on. This video offers 2 suggestions that are now considered outdated/cruel and should be removed.

And just a word as someone who clips my bird- I notice even when 2 or 3 flight feathers have grown back on one wing and not the other, Kiwi's balance while doing his flapping exercises is thrown off. He's so good about clipping at this point, I pretty much clip them off as soon as they grow in instead of waiting for a bunch to show up so his wings are always evenly clipped.

And not only is she clipping before fledging AND clipping only one wing, she also clips ALL the primaries on this African Grey, which is a heavy bodied bird and only needs around 4 primaries trimmed... then she proceeds to say that she clips all the way down the wing on cockatiels. These clips are DANGEROUS. Birds clipped like this will spiral to the ground, fall straight down like a rock and could severely injure themselves. I agree that to an uneducated first-time bird owner, this lady could easily come across as an ‘expert’ to them. Just horrible.

 

[ChristaNL]

Oh I totally agree with you-> that is terrible information to put out in the open.


I was just hoping she would have stopped (permanently) by now...


-
the comments are plain scary "I will clip all my birds bla bla bla".

 

[Amsterdam]

Oh I totally agree with you-> that is terrible information to put out in the open.


I was just hoping she would have stopped (permanently) by now...


-
the comments are plain scary "I will clip all my birds bla bla bla".

the comment section is where i got shocked...

 

[Kiwibird]

I guess I missed her talking about butchering the wings. You are 100% right- you can't cut off all their feathers or else they'll have the same ability to fly as us (i.e. drop like a rock) yet still retain that instinct to occasionally take off if something scares them significantly. The goal of clipping should be to keep them from getting lift and slow them down, not to disable them and put them at risk of injury.

 

[Anansi]

That video disgusts me. it's amazing how anyone can rationalize anything to make things easier for themselves while avoiding all those pesky feelings of guilt. A one-sided clip only serves the purpose of traumatizing a bird to the point that the very idea of taking flight terrifies them beyond their instinctive desire to do so. Essentially, it's birthing a phobia in the poor bird's psyche.

One sided clipping, cutting all the primaries, clipping before the bird has fledged... it's like she was ticking off boxes on all the wrong things to do! All she left out was turning on a ceiling fan and leaving the toilet lids open whenever your bird is out and about! Ridiculous!

 

[noodles123]

Clearly this is the same woman who wrote that terrible piece from "The Spruce" on why parrots make good pets. UGH/LOL!

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

This woman even acknowledged that she clips only one wing so the bird feels off balance and is scared to take flight... unbelievable. I watched some of her other bird videos and she literally does everything wrong. She even said that parrots need grit in her cockatiel care video!

 

[Kalel]

Wow! I'm sorry lady, but there's only one correct way to clip a baby bird-that is to NOT clip! Sad.

 

[OutlawedSpirit]

Wow, just wow. My heart just ached for that poor baby grey. I could only just picture where that bird is at now as I watched her butcher that baby. Hopefully whoever took that baby home was smarter than her.

I know whenever we've taken in a bird that had a one sided clip like that, even if it was as bad as being all the way through the tertiary flights like she was talking about doing to tiels, the first thing we always do is clip the other side just as far so at least the bird is balanced. I hate when we have to do it, but a balanced bad clip is better than an unbalanced one.

Who cuts a baby that harsh even if it's an even clip and the baby has fledged? For people who want to take babies home clipped, we start with a "baby clip" and go from there. We only take 2 or maybe 3 feathers at first until the bird gets used to it, especially on a heavy chested bird like a grey or even a linnie.

That video is just sickening.