First off... why was the beak trimmed?
Second off... why were the secondaries trimmed?
Third.... can I strangle that vet? (forgive me if I'm angry at what this vet has done!)
The secondaries should *NEVER* be trimmed because they don't actually control lift - the primaries do. If both the primaries and secondaries are trimmed, there is a higher chance that your bird will injure him or herself because they can't break their fall. The only time one may want to consider trimming the secondaries is to slow a *flighted* bird, not to ground them... and this is something entirely different.
If your sun conure is young and he has a healthy beak, there is no reason to trim it. In fact, trimming it may potentially cause it to grow faster, although I have no proof that it will. There's just no reason to trim a perfectly normal, healthy beak - and beaks can be very sensitive parts of a birds body, so should only be done if required. If not required, birds may stop eating, particularly if a nerve in the end of their beak was hit.
It can take anywhere from a few weeks to a year for clipped feathers to regrow, and it all depends on what part of the molt cycle the bird is in and when that molt occurs.
Please, can you get us some photos of the wings stretched out? The fastest way to help a bird recover from a bad clip is to either imp them (inserting grown feathers into the clipped feathers - requires knocking the bird out) or pulling the clipped feathers (can be extremely painful, bird *should* be knocked out during the procedure). Short of one of those, it's just a waiting game to wait for those feathers to molt out and be replaced with new ones.
In the mean time, please place down blankets, pillows and other soft things for your sun to land on!
he may have clipped them too short but a normal clipping does not eliminate their ability to fly. My grandmothers African grey flew away a few days after being clipped. Luckily she was found 5 days later by a neighbor
