Clipping wings for safety?

[Atticus]

I have two birds, a lovebird and a budgie. Spring and summer is coming up and we get REALLY hot summers. The ceiling fan has to be on almost the whole day, and I have read horror stories of birds flying into them and... you get it. There is a room where we dont usually go into that we can place them so they can roam around without the fan, but that is not something we really want to do, because we dont want them to poop everywhere. they love coming out the cage, and we dont want them to be deprived of that for a whole two seasons.we are thinking of getting their wings clipped so they wont get hurt but can still walk around. Is this a good idea? any possible unintended consequences that we should be aware of?

It is also worth noting that our lovie is not tame (the budgie is). As a result, he goes straight up to the curtain rod and sits there looking at everyone, without even coming near us. The process is coming along well but I dont know if we can get him tame before summer because of his traumatizing past. help?

 

[LaManuka]

Oh dear, to clip or not to clip, what a vexed and often heated debate/argument this is!

I am a non-clipper. We live in Brisbane where it’s plenty hot and use floor-standing pedestal fans with a protective grille in the summer, never ceiling fans. Birds accustomed to flying who are suddenly clipped can easily injure themselves when they take off expecting to be able to fly and hit the floor instead. They can land in unexpected places like sinks of water or cooking pots when they are suddenly unable to manoeuvre. They can easily get trodden on or be injured or killed by other household pets that cannot normally reach them. The list goes on. My lorikeet sometimes lands on the grille of my pedestal fan but I can shoo her off with no harm done.

Ceiling fans cause horrific injuries to unclipped birds to be sure, but there are alternatives that will both allow you to keep cool(er) and enable your birds to keep their wings intact.

 

[Rozalka]

Clipped wings don't mean safer bird

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[Tami2]

Hello Atticus and welcome to the PFs, glad you joined us.

Clipping/Non-Clipping is indeed a Hot Topic. But, it is also a personal choice.

You need to read all the ins and outs, get properly educated and then decide what is best for your family.
I have a red line in my house. If Levi starts dive bombing and attacking my family he will get his flight privileges revoked. I will not have that happening in my house.

When I went to pick him up when he was a baby, the breeder clipped him. (without asking me)
He was clipping for half of his life. Once I read the pros and cons of clipping, I chose to allow his flight feathers to grow in against his Vets advice. "For his Safety", she exclaimed. I completely understand both sides of the issue.
But, I will tell you. I was very concerned about Levi constantly landing hard on his chest, smashing his beak & tail on the floor with each landing.

Our issue once he was fully flighted was he got nasty. And it broke my heart. My sweet adorable, loving, cuddly bird became nasty. My husband and I suffered some pretty awful bites. So much so that hubby no longer likes him. When I mentioned this to his Vet, some bird people and in the bird stores they all confirmed that they have seen this behavior. I had to reduce Levi's time out of his cage. Prior to this he was out with us all the time when we were home.
He hated this new routine and so did I.
Luckily, it worked out and as his behavior improved so did his freedom. I haven't gotten a nasty bit in months now, thank God! It was a difficult time.

Another negative was taking him outside with us. He lost his outside free time, fresh air & sunlight once he was flighted. He still goes outside in the warmer weather, but remains in his cage.

I do know ppl that clip in the warmer months and allow the feathers to grow in winter.

So, read up and make the best choice for your family. Good luck!

 

[Nightguest]

When we first got Apple (our little Lovie) his wings were clipped - though we did let his wings grow back naturally. What I can say is really listen to the while 'clipped does not mean safer'.


While Apple's wings were clipped he climbed everywhere and got into places that we still have no idea how he managed. The problem was that if he got to the high places, he sometimes would forget to climb down (or maybe be too scared to climb down) so we would need to bring him down ourselves or he would jump down (trying to fly) and would not have a nice landing. He did learn about the 'bad' places on his own and how to get out of them + climb down, but it took about 2-3 month of constantly being on guard, and even after that little accidents happened (he is totally fine btw, nothing major happened, but enough to give us a fright a few times).



The falling part also meant that he fell into strange places (behind our bed a few times) once on the room radiator (thank god never when it was hot) so we then added beams/boards to stop him dropping there, blocked off paths with some cloth (our pipes made an excellent walking path - but it would take him above the kitchen which wasn't great). There was also the issue of him quietly walking under our chairs - which do move - so we had to always do a bird check before moving them (if we sat on them). One of our friends laughed and said that what we did was in ways more dramatic than baby proofing a house.



My advice is if you do get your bird's wings clipped, look for every place he can fall into and cover it up - then be prepared for him finding even more places because he will find a way to get into them!


After he started to fly, he still showed a preference of walking/climbing to places, but at least he would get down on his own safely - also since he started flying again he made no effort to get into the places we blocked off pre-flight (I think we somehow taught him where the no-go areas are).



We don't have a ceiling fan though, so I don't really know how to protect a flying birb from that...it does sounds rather scary!


Funny thing is, about 5 month before his wings grew back to flying condition, we got him a friend (Blueberry) and though she could fly, she basically copied him and walked everywhere - her flying was minimal during the time Apple couldn't fly.


Oh and - if you do get his wings clipped, look for a place that does it properly and comes recommended by other good owners.

Whoever clipped Apple's wings before we got him did a <insert expletive here> poor job at it and looking at the broken feathers as they 'naturally' fell out made us extremely angry. We think he had to go through 2 full wing molts before his wing feathers actually were strong enough to stay in properly. Several grew through the badly cut feathers that were left behind then broke at the cut off point...and so on and so forth (we didn't even know it was possible for a clipped feather to re-grow that way...until we looked on the fall feathers themselves).

 

[SailBoat]

'IF' you elect to clip... Have it done by an Avian Professional, preferably by a Certified Avian Vet (CAV). Yes, it cost far more! The proper clip is so that the Parrot cannot gain height, but slowly flies to a soft landing.

Do Not Go To 'Pet (not so) Smart,' as they and other such stores do not train their staff... You could come home with a Parrot that has the flight abilities of a Dropped Rock!

 

[CharlieChick]

Do you have an air conditioner?
Can you afford to buy it and keep it on for whenever your bird is out?
If yes then the whole problem is solved.
If no then... I don't really know what to say. I don't have any other idea... sorry.
In summers, if I keep my birds out to fly without ac on... they themselves would prefer to go their cage after 10-15 minutes on some days.
Maybe try some other method?
Like a table fan covered with a thin cloth and kept in a corner where the bird can't reach it?
Good luck!
Thank you

 

[Betrisher]

Clipping your birds doesn't mean they won't be able to gain height and fly into the fan. Plenty of clipped birds have been able to fly just far enough to kill or injure themselves. The whole point of clipping is to destabilise the bird so that it loses confidence in its ability to fly and HOPEFULLY won't attempt to. Birds are indomitable creatures and if a way can be found, they will find it.

Like LaManuka, we use fans with grilles (quite cheap at Bunnings if you're in Australia). Ours are wall-mounted so the birds can sit on those with no worries at all, since they can't penetrate the grille.

I don't think it would be a kindness to shut your birds into a room with no fans in the height of summer. Just sayin'... I put wet bedsheets over my cages and point a fan onto them. That seems to help cool the birds a bit. (NB. Mine live outside on an enclosed deck, so they cop the full daytime heat).

Birds will often undergo personality changes at various times in their lives. Puberty can be difficult, especially with larger birds. However, we once had a fischer's lovebird who went *troppo* at puberty and began chasing family members around the house with the intent of savaging them. Much blood was spilled! We did not clip her because we felt that mutilating her during this tumultuous time was not an answer. I've never been fond of winning an argument simply because I was bigger and stronger and could force an outcome. I'm a negotiator by nature, but that's me. In the end, you have to decide for yourself.