Flighted vs. Clipped Wings

[Sterling1113]

It is entirely possible to NOT get into each other's face about this issue, as long as everyone respects the next person's decision on this subject, without coming across as "I'm right - you're wrong."

I feel like the moderators on this thread are pretty spot-on about keeping people with the "I'm right - you're wrong" and "holier than thou" mentality away from this forum in general.. most of the time when any of those comments come up in a negative, rude, or attacking way they're removed pretty quickly. Which is definitely a good thing.

 

[Anansi]

Yeah, I think everything has remained positive on this thread and I've enjoyed reading the responses. I, for one, don't necessarily mind repeated topics. New members are constantly coming through, which equates to new, and sometimes challenging, points of view. I love the chance to learn something new, and with the aggregate level of experience on this forum the chances of that happening are always rather high. It's one of the reasons I love it, here.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Thank you, Stephen! Your kind words are much appreciated.

 

[BeakFace]

They are all flighted and wouldn't have it any other way. Like you say it would be cruel. They are so happy and I love to do recall with them. So much fun and they love it. Such a beautiful site to see. I know sometimes it has to be done for various reasons and I respect peoples choice to do what feel is right them.

 

[MikeyTN]

Cruel or not is a personal opinion on this matter. It is up to each individual to decide as they do molt and clipped feathers do grow back, it doesn't last a lifetime. So please don't use the word "cruel". Thanks!

 

[thekarens]

FWIW being flighted killed our grey. He was startled and flew into a wall, which lead to seizures and then death. We spent a few thousand dollars and he still died.

Having said that I'm not pro or against. I think each owner has to weigh the pros and cons of their own situation and decide what's best. I've let her wings grow out, but if she's a crazy flier (she hasn't learned how to fly yet) she'll get clipped.

 

[SandyBee]

Each bird has its own requirements as well as living situation. Our Amazon is fully flighted, keeps him fit and healthy. Our African brown head we keep clipped. I'm guessing he never learned to fly and when we tried to grow his wings out started flying into everything very hard. He was going to seriously hurt himself. There is really no absolutes as we have both in the same household.

 

[riddick07]

I have one fully flighted bird. The rest are in varying degrees of being clipped. Monkey my fully flighted girl was clipped very early and her chest muscles were very underdeveloped. When she finally started acting agreeable I let them grow out and never plan to clip her again. She absolutely loves flying. She is a very stocky little thing now since her chest muscles tripled pretty much after she started flying. At first she had no idea she even could or how but now she will fly to get from the top of her play stand to the bottom. She will even fly on the floor to pick on the kitten and then fly back up. Since she loves it so much I've decided to let everyone else grow out and see how it goes. Most of the cockatiels have at least half of their flight feathers back.

The girl cockatiels don't really act different since they spent their first year fully flighted and even with a clip flew extremely well. Now they can just go faster. My one male cockatiel is only missing a flight feather or two and still runs into random things. I haven't decided if I will leave him fully flighted or not. My other cockatiel is the only one who will stay clipped. He doesn't like people much and will fly attack to prove this point.

My other birds are fully clipped because they haven't grown any flights back yet. I believe clipping is an individual bird thing and what the person is able to deal with on an every day basis.

 

[goalerjones]

I just ran into this topic on Facebook from a site called birdtricks. They of course said in effect, "if you don't fully flight your bird your an idiot and you shouldn't be allowed to have a bird".

My take on it is, if you're in a position to present yourself as an authority AND you want people to come to you for help when things go wrong, DONT be a jerk.

 

[Kiwibird]

I have one fully flighted bird. The rest are in varying degrees of being clipped. Monkey my fully flighted girl was clipped very early and her chest muscles were very underdeveloped. When she finally started acting agreeable I let them grow out and never plan to clip her again. She absolutely loves flying. She is a very stocky little thing now since her chest muscles tripled pretty much after she started flying.

This is a VERY big problem in clipped birds I don't think many people know or think about. I don't know if Kiwi had chest muscles when we got him. He was really scrawny when we brought him home. I hold out little hope of him learning to fly on his own at this age, but he's been getting "flapped" around on our hands several times a day to compensate for 6 years now. He used to just tip over and get very winded after a short time. Now he holds himself up, and can go for about 2 laps around the living room at a time before he's ready for a rest. It's so cute because you can tell he's trying soooo hard. On another note, while he is now very strong, the skin on my hand has toughened up because of those talons digging in- he's not letting go of mommy's hand anytime soon

 

[jenphilly]

Tessie's post was wonderful and so perfectly worded

Victoria responded about flighted and clipped birds in our home... Ivory came home with a butcher clip job and could not even lift herself off the ground. But we worked with her to build up muscles (she was cage bound too). She has 3 flight feathers back, but flies extremely well, she can go room to room and maneuver thru doors and such to get to where / who she wants.

While my first opinion / option would be to let a bird fly, there are times especially during puberty that being clipped helps with training. But even when we clip, we would only take a feather or two at time, just enough to slow them down or make it easier to catch them when they were being bratty. Once a bird is bonded and is not one to show aggression to anyone in the home, I would not clip.

I totally agree its personal and it depends bird to bird, even in our house, some birds will never be clipped again, but as Victoria mentioned, we have one nasty male cockatiel and he definitely is a concern to have flighted and then another is such an idiot with flying, he is such a worry he'll break a neck one day.

I must admit, I also saw the topic and thought oh geez, that one is gonna get nasty, but I think its a great show from everyone to share opinions and experience with no name calling or attitudes. Even if its been discussed before, awesome thread so far Everyone who posted to this point, pat themselves on the back

 

[Gizmomania]

Except for Maalik, all my birds came clipped. I've since allowed all my birds to grow out their flight feathers. Ziggy, I believe, has never been allowed to fly in his 10 years. His feathers are grown out, but all he can do is point his body towards where he wants to be, and to flap his wings on queue. I'm still hoping he will figure out the flight thing, but don't hold out a lot of hope that he will.

My birds are all SO happy to be able to fly. Plus, I love to watch them in flight. It's a beautiful thing!

 

[Jayyj]

Alice arrived with one wing butchered, the other fully feathered. The result of this was she could get up to about head height in the air, then would lose balance and spiral back down to earth, hard. Apart from her sometimes appearing winded from the fall, this resulted in a couple of potentially dangerous situations, once with her crashing into a bike that was parked in the hallway, and second time landing on the cat -mercifully this scared the cat more than the bird, but I can easily see a braver, hungrier animal thinking 'Hey! Lunch is here!'.

Nobody here has mentioned one sided clips so hopefully they're rare, but they seem a pretty horrible thing to do to a bird. Alice remains a very nervous flier, and I'm sure it's down to the fear that any second one of her wings is going to give way and she'll plummet again.

I'm not experienced enough with different birds to have a firm opinion about clipping, but I do notice that since Alice's feathers have grown back, her response to things that scare her has changed dramatically. Before, if anything scared her she'd climb to the top of the cage and sit there fluffed up and quaking for 1/4 of an hour - now she shoots a few feet up in the air, considers the danger, and usually flutters back down to earth as though nothing had happened. It seems as though having the option to flee is enough to make her feel in control of the situation, and it has definitely improved her confidence significantly.

 

[Anne]

None of my parrots are really flyers. In the winter I don't clip them, but they don't fly eather. They have the opporunity. In the summer I mostly clip them for safety. I am so afraid that they otherwise escape through an open door of window.

 

[BeakFace]

Your up late Ann. Of course I don't know where you are located so maybe not. That's always a scary thought loosing a bird that is flighted. I have taken some safety measures at my house but it is always a concern. I was out the other day and someone brought in a clipped bird to have it trimmed and somehow it got a way and flew out the door. OMG is all I could say. Anyway we all ran out side and thank goodness it landed on the ground in the parking lot and the guy doing the trimming caught it. The owner was a wreck but so was I.

 

[PeiteandTutti]

I have one with clipped wings and one without and it breaks my heart every time the clipped winged tries to follow the other and falls to the floor- she shakes and shakes from the experience, when her tail grows back I am not clipping it again.

 

[Kiwibird]

@ JayyJ- I've never heard of just clipping one wing before. At least birds with 2 clipped wings have no lift and can glide to the floor in a controlled manner. One clipped wing means lift in one wing and not the other. Seems it would throw the birds balance off (and sounds like it does). Maybe they intended to clip both, but he was just too scared so they didn't finish the job or something?

 

[Anansi]

@Kiwibird: No. Sadly, the intent of clipping a wing only on one side is to instill a psychological phobia in the bird about the prospect of flying. An evenly clipped bird can still manage some degree of flight and, given a solid wind, can even fly a considerable distance. With a one wing clip, the bird can never go in its intended direction and flight becomes a negative event in and of itself. The idea is that they become far less likely to even attempt flight.

I consider this approach to be psychologically damaging to the parrot. And potentially physically dangerous as well.

 

[hacatta]

I got a parrot shop here that actually preach about clipping one side of the wing.
It is the only parrot shop close by.
I got i a really big argument with him about it,i was sooo angry with him and walked away,never been there again.
Those birds would only crash wrong,and really injure them self.

My birds are all flighted,and am really happy with it,well until they refuse to go back in the cage.
Even the one i just got and isn't tame flys free everyday,and then he goes in his cage for a treat.

My mother has 8 parrots 2 of them clipped.
Her galah has the problem that her feathers grow wrong ,especially her tail.
Because off it she flys head first into walls with sharp turns.
Her wings are not wholly clipped ,she can jump on the couch and such.
And her eckkie ,he is in the hormonal stage where he will attack anyone without warning,so for our safety,my little sister didn't dare to come in the living room anymore.
And she did had to consider the safety of the other birds.

 

[Anne]

@beakface: I live in the Netherlands, so when I typed that message I was having my coffeetime this morning It was around 11 a.m. (I am always confused when you use am and when you use pm, but I think am is in the morning and pm is at night. Is that right?)