Trained Parrot BlogParrot Wizard Online Parrot Toy StoreThe Parrot Forum

How to Properly Clip a Parrot's Wings (Don't Clip at All)

Comment or discuss articles from the trained parrot blog.

Re: How to Properly Clip a Parrot's Wings (Don't Clip at All)

Postby Michael » Thu Feb 21, 2013 11:05 am

User avatar
Michael
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 6286
Location: New York
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal Parrot, Cape Parrot, Green-Winged Macaw
Flight: Yes

Re: How to Properly Clip a Parrot's Wings (Don't Clip at All)

Postby Minimac » Sat May 11, 2013 1:07 am

After several close calls with clipped birds, everything from getting outside to flying into walls and almost flying into a cieling fan (the fan provided enough air movement to give my Sun the lift he wasnt usually able to get), i was very lucky not to lose any of them, I thought about it and realized that having clipped birds gave me a false sense of security, and did nothing for the safety of the birds. Clipped birds can get a lot further (and faster) than most people realize and usually just far enough to get themselves into a lot of trouble. I havent clipped for 2 years now and have only had one incident. while outside in their cages to get some sun, one of my Hahns macaws opened a food hatch and got out, which my dogs immediately noticed, had he been clipped he probably would have ended up on the ground and would have been dead before i knew he was out. Instead he flew to a nearby tree and called to me to come get him, and with a little coaxing flew back to me. with a little common sense and preparation it is easy to make a house safe, i have even put aviary mesh on the security gate on one door so i can leave the door open when the birds are out.
User avatar
Minimac
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 1
Number of Birds Owned: 21
Types of Birds Owned: Hahns macaw, Sun conure, Yellow collared macaw, Nanday conure, African grey.
Flight: Yes

Re: How to Properly Clip a Parrot's Wings (Don't Clip at All)

Postby Michael » Sat May 11, 2013 9:02 am

Excellent. Thanks for sharing your insight.
User avatar
Michael
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 6286
Location: New York
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal Parrot, Cape Parrot, Green-Winged Macaw
Flight: Yes

Re: How to Properly Clip a Parrot's Wings (Don't Clip at All)

Postby angelblue » Sun May 26, 2013 6:08 am

I havealways had a clipped bird. The reason for this is ignorance....but I thought it was safety. I did own two flighted cocketiels and one died when it was startled and jumped up flying into the celing and breaking her neck. The other consumed paint....I didn t even realize she was doing this until she fell ill.....lead poison. When we got my amazon my husband insisted she remain clipped and she has been....now we are divorced and he has custody of her she will likely suffer a loss to the wild because he takes no other precautions when he brings her outside. I have two parrots I recently brought home from a horrific environment....and the first thing I did was clip them so I can handle them. The ironic thing is I still cant handle them because they are afraid to fall.it never dawned on me that I may have ruined their ballance. I plan to not clip again but in the meantime while their wings grow it is hard and i am sad that I have harmed my babies. I havent had much help figuring this out. MICHEAL since Kili was clipped in the begining....was she also handfed? If not, you had to convince her to step without that advantage. I am now thinking how can I teach my birds to step up when they are scared of falling. I have them trusting me to pet but not to pick them up. How can i teach them to trust my moving stick or hand ....now that they bite only wnen scared I guess I have to be more vigilant in watching for clues. Anyone else who has rehabilitated parrots please chime in.Thanks. :irn: :amazon:
angelblue
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 19
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Amazons. Yellow nape, orange wing and Panama
Flight: No

Re: How to Properly Clip a Parrot's Wings (Don't Clip at All)

Postby pennyandrocky » Mon May 27, 2013 5:46 am

all mine came from neglect or abuse backrounds. what i do to make them accept my hands is allow them to explore on their own. i pull the cages next to a comfortable seat and lay my hand out palm up. holding them still they get curious and come to play with them. when they approach my hand without hesitating i will try to pet their head if they get nervous i back off. once you build trust then you can work on stepping up and anything else you want to teach.
pennyandmya
pennyandrocky
Amazon
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 915
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: green cheek conure,ducorps cockatoo
Flight: Yes

Re: How to Properly Clip a Parrot's Wings (Don't Clip at All)

Postby angelblue » Sun Jun 16, 2013 8:17 am

Yes, I have done this. They are not terribly curious, but it works a little. Thanks.
angelblue
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 19
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Amazons. Yellow nape, orange wing and Panama
Flight: No

Re: How to Properly Clip a Parrot's Wings (Don't Clip at All)

Postby mcabrera » Tue Jul 02, 2013 4:49 pm

Hi Michael,
I have a question, I just got an indian ringneck he is about 5 year old, and I don't know if his wings were clipped. He will try to fly, but after a few seconds he will fall on the floor and I am afraid that he could hurt himself . how do I teaching him to fly? thank you.
mcabrera
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 1
Number of Birds Owned: 7
Types of Birds Owned: 5 cockatiels, 1 lovebird, and 1 Indian ring neck
Flight: Yes

Re: How to Properly Clip a Parrot's Wings (Don't Clip at All)

Postby clawnz » Sun Dec 15, 2013 2:47 am

Michael Sazhin
Great to read your thoughts and reasons for flighted birds.
Bloody shame there are so many closed minds out there and no matter how much we state the truth it still does not get past the solid brick wall. Closed shop.
I am in total agreement with you, and I have 7 flighted cage free birds and one clipped that one day I hope will be flighted, but he needs to learn about a harness, as he comes everywhere with me, including work.
i try to push flighted, as we both know birds need to fly and any form of clipping is handicapping and that is never going to be a good practice with a bird you truly want to have a strong bond with.
I have meet Barbara Heidenreich and enjoy her workshops. She has a true talent for communicating with the birds she comes into contact with.

Can I quote some of your stuff on any of the forums I hang out on? Needless to say I will always give you the credits.

Clawinnz on youtube and photobucket. or just clawnz other places.
Bird Nut.
Clive
clawnz
Parrotlet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 12
Number of Birds Owned: 5
Types of Birds Owned: Cockatiels Eastern Rosella
Flight: Yes

Re: How to Properly Clip a Parrot's Wings (Don't Clip at All)

Postby Nokota » Thu Jan 16, 2014 11:17 pm

Michael. I used to be a strong proponent of keeping all my birds fully flighted during all circumstances too, though there was an occasional circumstance where I would put one or the other into a partial clip. (Vivi caught some bug and it disoriented her, she kept hurting herself) and I have something I think you should add to your list of exceptions.

Sexual harassment.

My budgie, Peeper, is convinced that my cockatiel, Vivi, is an incredibly attractive female budgie. He constantly follows her around, bothers her, tries to feed her, tries to preen her, and tries to mount her. Occasionally Vivi allows his attention, particularly the feeding, but for the most part tries to fly away. This leads to ridiculous chase scenes that progress all over the house, with the end result that poor Vivi is exhausted and comes to me for support. The two land on my shoulders and proceed to fight. I was terrified one of them would lose a toe while on my shoulder. For a while I'd tried to restrict them to not being out of their cages at the same time, but my mother had this lovely idea that nothing was wrong with it and found Vivi's constant hounding rather funny, and kept letting them both out while I was sleeping or away. I finally put Peeper into a partial wing clip. He can still fly clear across the room and go anywhere he pleases, but he gets tired somewhat more quickly and he can't fly in circles without losing height. I only clipped a small number of feathers to achieve this. Now that Peeper knows that Vivi can get away from him if she needs or wants to, he's considerably backed off and the two interact without Peeper constantly putting pressure on Vivi to mate with him. I still won't allow the two to be together in the same cage for obvious reasons and shut both cage doors when either or both of them are out, because they tend to gravitate towards the same cage (Or rather, Peeper follows Vivi when she wants a drink of water) and I don't know how to foresee how circumstances could change in an enclosed space, open door or not. My mother still doesn't see the danger and lets them both out at the same time with access to both cages. I'm still working on her.

Michael, I'm very curious what you would do if Truman suddenly became passionately attracted to Kili to the point of driving her insane and creating a similar situation. My solution worked for my situation, but how would you deal with it? And would your solution change if you had a relative who kept taking the birds out without taking the situation seriously?
Nokota
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 31
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Cockatiel, Budgie
Flight: Yes

Re: How to Properly Clip a Parrot's Wings (Don't Clip at All)

Postby Michael » Fri Jan 17, 2014 12:45 am

Nokota wrote:Michael. I used to be a strong proponent of keeping all my birds fully flighted during all circumstances too, though there was an occasional circumstance where I would put one or the other into a partial clip. (Vivi caught some bug and it disoriented her, she kept hurting herself) and I have something I think you should add to your list of exceptions.

Sexual harassment.


No, I hardly believe in exceptions any more. Most issues can be resolved or prevented through alternating out of cage times without clipping wings rather than disabling the bird for something it doesn't understand.

Nokota wrote:Occasionally Vivi allows his attention, particularly the feeding, but for the most part tries to fly away. This leads to ridiculous chase scenes that progress all over the house, with the end result that poor Vivi is exhausted and comes to me for support.


At least they're getting exercise :mrgreen:

Kili used to chase Truman around trying to attack him. In the aviary they could go on an hour flying end to end. But eventually they run out of energy and with time became more lazy and gave up doing this.

The other thing is to find other things for the birds to do to keep them from flying and doing what they shouldn't do.

Nokota wrote:The two land on my shoulders and proceed to fight. I was terrified one of them would lose a toe while on my shoulder.


Same problem can happen with clipped birds.

Nokota wrote:Now that Peeper knows that Vivi can get away from him if she needs or wants to, he's considerably backed off and the two interact without Peeper constantly putting pressure on Vivi to mate with him.


Ok, it's the easiest way to try to change behavior and I'm glad it's working. Hopefully he will stop wanting to do that but I'm afraid that when his wings grow back out he'll revert back to that because the real lesson has not been learned. All he has learned is not to fly as much when it's hard to.

Nokota wrote:Michael, I'm very curious what you would do if Truman suddenly became passionately attracted to Kili to the point of driving her insane and creating a similar situation. My solution worked for my situation, but how would you deal with it?


Kili would rip Truman a new one so I think that would be over in no time and he wouldn't try that again. But in theory, like I said, the main thing is to teach birds good behavior when out and put more of their emphasis toward that. If they are busy flying recalls to you for example, they are too focused and too tired to do stuff with each other. This is essentially how I taught Kili & Truman to stop getting in fights all the time (opposite problem). Since they both keep having to fly to me, they are pretty wiped out and pay less attention to each other and more to me. Keep practicing this until they also learn how to be around each other better but that takes a long time.
User avatar
Michael
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 6286
Location: New York
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal Parrot, Cape Parrot, Green-Winged Macaw
Flight: Yes

PreviousNext

Return to TrainedParrot.com - Parrot Training Blog Comments

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 14 guests

Parrot ForumArticles IndexTraining Step UpParrot Training BlogPoicephalus Parrot InformationParrot Wizard Store