Dilemma about wing clipping

miki

Member
Jun 26, 2014
66
73
Hi--

Glad that your bird is okay. It's best to give your bird at least a partial flight feather clipping so that she can at least glide to the floor, instead of falling really hard. I keep my pet Congo African Grey Parrot, Aziza's flight feathers clipped, because I figure that the potential for her getting into trouble is too great a risk to take.

Theoretically, clipping a bird's flight feathers sounds cruel. In practice, and in reality, however, it's not. It's for the pet bird's own protection, and yours too, if one gets the drift. Hope I've been of some help here.
 
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Mulligan

New member
Feb 5, 2023
19
Media
6
22
Parrots
One female Congo African Grey
Hello everyone.
I am having to face a dilemma I never thought I would.
A bird's flight is something I adore and I know it is healthy for them to fly so I've always kept my feathered friends flighted. My newest baby, who came to me five months ago with her flight feathers clipped already, is growing her wing feathers out now and she can fly again. I was SO looking forward to her getting the wings back, and now I have to face something I've never had to face before. She is afraid of flying. And moreover, she gets startled very easily and flies around the apartment in a panic. Yesterday morning when she did that (she saw something outside that startled her) she flew around and hit my balcony glass door. I was so worried and scared, but thankfully she was okay. She was dizzy for about 20 minutes and couldn't balance properly, but after that she pretty much returned back to normal.
The thing is, I do not want to clip her wings. But at the same time, I don't want something bad to happen to her. Now the reason I'm posting is because I'm wondering if any of you have gone through something like this before and trained your bird to not get startled. Also, I don't really know what to do about the glass. And besides the one balcony door that doesn't have anything covering it, even my windows that have blinds could potentially be dangerous if she hit the blinds hard enough. I don't want to take away her flight, but I don't know if I'm just being selfish and maybe I should care about her safety first. None of my birds ever got startled as much as she does. I don't know if she will just get used to not getting startled over time after she figures out that she can fly again because it seems like she has really lost her confidence. She won't fly to me, even though she can. It seems she is afraid to fly. She is a one year old female green cheek. Apparently from what the breeder tells me, her flying skills were incredible before I got her. So for the first seven months in her life, she was a flighted bird. She has quite a cautious and gentle personality so when she tried to fly a bunch of times when her wings were clipped and bailed on the floor, I think it really frightend her and now she is afraid to fly even though she can.
Any advice on any points I have made in this post will be helpful. Thank you for taking the time to read.
She is new. Give her time. However, the glass doors and windows are scary. How about a few decals on the glass (only until she is older) so she knows something is there. Sit about 5 feet from her and get her used to flying to you at the short distance. I'm guessing - I am not an expert.
 

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