Should I clip my birds wings?

[Safamirza🤍]

Hello! I need some advice on my cockatiel and his wings.

Every time he flies a great length, he does this weird “flipping” thing with his right wing and makes a weird shrieking sound. I don’t know if the sound is him in pain, or if it’s an annoyed sound (because someone told me that maybe he does it bc he’s mad his wing is doing the flip thing ??) so what we do is that we make him gently flap his wings and then he stops doing the thing.

I took him to the vet and he told me that my tiel’s wing is completely fine and that he is very healthy. He didn’t run an x-ray or anything but he said that MAYBE there is some sort of defect with that wing? (He only said this to me once when I told him about the wing flipping thing.) Even though the wing itself looks and seems to be fine ??

I honestly have NO clue why he does this.
A few weeks ago we clipped these 2 new long feathers poking out of his wings because I was scared as to why he’s doing that wing thing everytime he flies really far. (Really far means like from one end of the living room to the other, without stopping. Maybe like 20-40 ft??)

I need some advice. Should we let his wings grow and let him learn to properly fly? He’s not a terrible flyer but he’s not that good either. I’m also afraid about him crashing into something rlly hard and getting hurt as he’s learning to fly ( How bad is wing clipping really? How do people prevent their birds from flying away or getting hurt?

Like I said I don’t know the reasoning for him doing the wing thing and I don’t know if he has some sort of defect with that wing. I want him to have a long and healthy life but I don’t know what’s best for him; clipping or no clipping.

Thanks if you reply

 

[SailBoat]

Sounds like a combination of resetting the location the feathers as the cut likely is twisting them out of location. The scream is likely the reaction to the feathers relocating themselves.

Try letting the wing feather fully grow out and as they do, I am beating the screams stop as the twisting reduces.

if you are going to clip your Parrots wings, have a trained professional do it. If for no other reason, when something goes wrong, they have the equipment and training at hand to save you parrot.

 

[Safamirza🤍]

Sounds like a combination of resetting the location the feathers as the cut likely is twisting them out of location. The scream is likely the reaction to the feathers relocating themselves.

Try letting the wing feather fully grow out and as they do, I am beating the screams stop as the twisting reduces.

if you are going to clip your Parrots wings, have a trained professional do it. If for no other reason, when something goes wrong, they have the equipment and training at hand to save you parrot.

Thanks for the suggestion when we got him his wings were clipped and we were told by the vet that they weren’t clipped correctly.

 

[LaManuka]

Thanks for the suggestion when we got him his wings were clipped and we were told by the vet that they weren’t clipped correctly.

Unfortunately this can be the case with babies, their wings are clipped unevenly or incorrectly before sale and it can result in the kind of discomfort that you are seeing with Kiko. Personally I would not clip a cockatiel's wings, they are *extremely* strong flyers naturally and it often means that they can still fly even if their wings are clipped. Plus clipping does not guarantee that they won't ever fly away, many is the story that we see here from parronts who lose birds outside when they thought they were safely restrained. I do believe that your Kiko will gradually become more confident and adept in the air as those feathers grow, and the distress that you are seeing now should dissipate once those old flight feathers are moulted out in the next few weeks or months

 

[Safamirza🤍]

Unfortunately this can be the case with babies, their wings are clipped unevenly or incorrectly before sale and it can result in the kind of discomfort that you are seeing with Kiko. Personally I would not clip a cockatiel's wings, they are *extremely* strong flyers naturally and it often means that they can still fly even if their wings are clipped. Plus clipping does not guarantee that they won't ever fly away, many is the story that we see here from parronts who lose birds outside when they thought they were safely restrained. I do believe that your Kiko will gradually become more confident and adept in the air as those feathers grow, and the distress that you are seeing now should dissipate once those old flight feathers are moulted out in the next few weeks or months

Thanks for your reply I think you’re right. I’m gonna let his feathers grow and hopefully after he molts he flies more confidently and better

 

[Squeeing_Onion]

Thanks for your reply I think you’re right. I’m gonna let his feathers grow and hopefully after he molts he flies more confidently and better

Awww good luck with your little guy! From what I read that sounds like a good approach; another thing I’d add for consideration is to teach him how to fly.

Parrots instinctually know how to get up in the air - but taking off and landing on different surfaces, changing direction, flying “down”, these are learned skills.

You could start by having him fly in smaller rooms where he isn’t so likely to take such a long flight that overtaxes him, and teaching him flight recall.