Escape!!!!!

[luvmytooo]

I hear you Mare Miller. I do feel it's something we are taking away from
them that they are meant to have. I feel terrible about even thinking
about it. But on the other hand , I dont ever want to lose my birds, bottom line.
So , it's a tough call , but I'm thinking maybe in the warm months , maybe I
will clip their wings and then let them grow out in the fall.
Accidents can happen anytime , I'm just trying to find a happy medium.
I figure that there's more of a risk during spring summer early fall , then
the colder months.....idk.
I hate , hate , to do it to Yoshi , but I feel I should...

 

[PortaPerch]

A recent segment of "Petkeeping with Marc Morrone" told how to exercise a bird with clipped wings. A house is just a slightly larger cage to a large flighted bird, so not the exercise it really needs. Even our flighted cockatiels would soon get fatigued when we tried to catch them in the house. That in no way compares to the outside.

 

[luvmytooo]

I suppose I need to think about keeping Sassy clipped? She has a clip from her previous owners but she can still fly about 20-25ft., not a lot of lift. My concern with her clip job was that the tips of her cut feathers are sharp and jagged feeling, is that normal? Seems like it would be irritating to her.

My other feelings on this is, isn't it healthier emotionally for a bird to be able to fly? That's what I've always assumed,,maybe 20-25ft. is sufficient? I would be devastated if I lost my bird threw an open door, (not including Amigo).

Until this forum, I had never ever heard that clipping their wings is emotionally traumatic for them. Every Avian vet I've ever been to has automatically clipped their wings if they needed it, withou asking first, and recommended it. I've personally never seen any evidence of this. They tried to tell me that they stopped clipping Loki's wings because he supposedly got depressed when they did it (the pet store and not a bird store), but he's never shown me that and I've clipped his wings a couple of times now.

They're sharp if you just cut them bluntly, which is how Sugars currently are (and drive me nuts), but my vet has an awesome way of doing it do that they aren't blunt or necessarily "sharp". She uses cat clippers and puts the feathers pushed upwards, so that after the shaft is clipped, the feathers come down in a V, keeping the clipped edges protected. This also promotes a smoother glide, according to her. I'm going to have her show me how exactly to do it before we move since I've never see another vet do it that way before.

I

I would also be very interested about how she clips too !
I think using the cat clippers instead of scissors keeps the shaft
from being splintered maybe ? Then there are no sharp edges ?

 

[KatherineI]

I would also be very interested about how she clips too !
I think using the cat clippers instead of scissors keeps the shaft
from being splintered maybe ? Then there are no sharp edges ?

I'm not sure if it keeps them from being splintered, but because the feathers then come down in an upside down V, sort of covering over the part that's been clipped, if you get a face full of wing, you feel feather and not the shaft. And it looks quite pretty too, doing it that way. It takes a bit of time if you aren't used to doing it, but the results are worth it.

 

[MyFriendOscar]

My conure got out a few months ago- my parents were taking care of him for a few months and got VERY lax on clipping His wings. They tried to be careful not to open doors if his cage was open, but one day when I came over, I opened the door and out he flew! Luckily he landed in the first tree, terrified, calling "whatcha doing, whatcha doing, whatcha doing"... Terrified. I had to climb up to get him, he was too scared to fly back down! Now he stays clipped. All the time.