To Clip or... To Clip... that is the question

[fiddlejen]

So my non-tame baby budgie birdies are starting to get some significant lift. They came from the petstore, at the end of January, entirely unable to fly. I have worked with them following various advice, and they will consent to stand on my fingers once out of their cage. I think they know their names but don't deign to acknowledge them. Recall? Ha. Ha. Ha. My apartment is not parrot safe, nor parakeet safe, and lingering weakness in my leg has me off-balance for herding them when they jump.

Caliope my acrobat... when she gets lift there's no telling where she'll land. And she's a climber. A week ago, as I prepared to take birdies to my friends who watched them for me, she jumped away and flew over & behind the couch. I made my way back there, but no birdie. She reappeared in front of the couch, below her cage, looking up at it, awaiting a ladder or finger from Big Scary Person (aka, Me) to transport her back inside.

Where is she going to land next in my non-keet-safe house?

Unsurprisingly, when I picked up my birdies on Sunday, I had every intention of calling first thing Monday for an appt for wing clippings.

But then... but then... Monday morning, too early yet to call, I was adjusting some cage accessories when Jefferson decided to exit the cage. Little Miss "I'm A Birdie" Jefferson. Miss "I'm A Birdie, I Have Wings, I'm sure I'm supposed to be Able to Fly" Jefferson. My little birdie who will Not be so undignified as to clamber around, not if there's any other option.

And now she has wings. She Flew to the ground. Then she stood and LOOKED at me. (She's really good with those "Look"s.) She allowed me to present my finger for a step-up & a finger-ride around the apartment. And then back to the floor, to the cage-ladder.

Actually, about 12 inches from the ladder, or so.

And, little Miss "I'm a Birdie I Can FLY," well, she Would NOT Walk the few inches to the ladder. No. But, she can't really fly that well. She's getting the "up" part. About 10 inches Up, and then down, gets her about 2-inches closer to the ladder. And then she stands & rests & catches her breath, and goes again. You have Never Seen a little birdie work so hard to travel such a small distance! But. She Would Not Walk, when she could fly. She's a Birdie!

Well I can't even recall now if she actually climbed the ladder, or if she accepted a finger-lift after a few rungs. (I think, the latter.) But man. There goes my resolution. I can't imagine clipping only one. And really I think Caliope is in danger when she flies.

But oh, my little Jefferson. She is SO DETERMINED. She wants to fly! It breaks my heart to think of not letting her. I mean, it's not permanent. But she's still nearly a baby. (Although she acts like a little adult.) And she just really really Wants to be her little budge Birdie self. And FLY.

 

[Inger]

Ahhhh there you go. I’m a non-clipper, and there would have to be an extreme situation to get me ho change my mind. It breaks my heart to imagine Bumble not flying; she takes so much joy in it.

Have you done any target training with them? It can help with your bond, and also with recall training.


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[Amsterdam]

please do not clip it could also harm the relation you have with your budgie.

 

[reeb]

Can you make your house more budgie safe? I think that is the first step, and that will ensure that the little ones can fly safely if you choose not to clip.

I personally don't clip my birds' wings, but I think it is entirely up to the person. If wings are clipped well, they will allow the bird to glide to the ground safely, however if they are not then it can be seriously dangerous, with birds that just drop like rocks and injure themselves. If you do plan on clipping, take your bird to an avian vet, usually they will just clip some of the primary flights! Good luck with your choice.

 

[EllenD]

please do not clip it could also harm the relation you have with your budgie.

Amsterdam, though I look-up to you for all you have done for the Budgie world, and by the way I'm so glad you've started to post again...However, this is totally untrue. Clipping your bird's wings will NOT do anything to hurt or damage your relationship with them...Even though this is a hot-topic with heated arguments on both sides, we all need to make sure that all of the info and advice we give on the subject is actually true and factual...

Here's the deal...All of MY OWN BIRDS are fully-flighted, they are out of their cages whenever I'm at home and they follow me all over the house, they have T-Stands/Play-Stands all over the place, in every room literally, so that they have their own, safe territory that they know they can go to (with toys attached to all of them) no matter where they're at, and this keeps them out of trouble for the most-part...So for MY OWN BIRDS I choose to leave them flighted 24/7, 365...

HOWEVER, THAT BEING SAID....We ALL need to realize that not everyone can allow their pet birds to be fully-flighted all of the time!!! Our own lives and and our own situations are not those of every other bird owner in the world, and there are MANY FANTASTIC, LOVING, RESPONSIBLE BIRD OWNERS WHO CANNOT ALLOW THEIR BIRDS TO BE FULLY-FLIGHTED DUE TO SAFETY ISSUES!!! So what a lot of the people here who are "No one should EVER clip their bird's wings under ANY circumstances, 100% of the time" are actually saying is that "If a person or family cannot safely allow all of their birds stay fully-flighted inside of their homes 100% of the time, they they shouldn't be bird owners at all"...Is that what you are really trying to say? I certainly hope not, because there are several long-time, well-loved, senior-members of this forum who are very, very active here, that do quite a lot of our community, and who are known as being some of the best Parronts in our community who keep their bird's wings clipped all the time because they have no choice due to a safety issue, a health issue that they or their spouse has, etc...And just because you aren't aware that these members who you respect and who you think are fantastic bird-owners keep their bird's wings clipped, that doesn't mean that once you find out who they are that you're going to automatically think of them as being "Bad Parronts", or that you'll now tell to "re-home their birds because it's not fair for them to keep them clipped", are you? I don't think so...At least I hope not, because their birds couldn't be in any better of a household or family, nor could they be more loved than they are right now, flighted or not...

The bottom-line is that it's the 100%, totally ideal situation if you can SAFELY keep all of your pet birds/parrots flighted all of the time. Yes, that's a wonderful situation for them if you are able to SAFELY do it, and if them being flighted isn't posing any potential risk to them or to you or anyone else who lives in your home...But as I'm sure every member of this forum knows, regardless of where they live in the world, their financial situation, their gender, their race, their religion, their sexual-orientation, etc., few situations are always, 100% ideal...

If leaving your bird or birds fully-flighted inside of your home creates ANY POSSIBILITY of risks to their safety, their health and well-being, their security of staying inside of the home 24/7 and not slipping out of a door, or is often making it impossible to get them back to you or to the safety of their cages, OR if them being fully-flighted is posing any of these threats to you or to anyone else who live in your home, then my suggestion is to at the very least HAVE THEIR WINGS CLIPPED ONCE ON A TRIAL-BASIS, CONSERVATIVELY, so that you'll have about 2-months or so before their wings grow back-in fully and they can fly again, and during that 2 or so months you can actually see what your lives will be like with them not being able to fly, BOTH THEIR LIVES AND YOURS, and THEN make a decision about continuing to keep their wings clipped for the long-term. I suggest doing this because if you've never had your bird's wings clipped before and they've always been able to fly around your home, then you really don't know if them not being able to fly is going to be the solution to your problems...If after 2-months of having their wings clipped these problems you've been having, the safety-risks and risks to their health and their lives, or to yours, have been eliminated or at least greatly-reduced, then by all means, KEEP THEM CLIPPED! However, on the flip-side, if having their wings clipped over the 2-months has not greatly eliminated any of your issues and has not reduced any of the safety or health risks to them or to you, then YOU NEED TO FIGURE OUT JUST EXACTLY WHAT IS CAUSING THESE ISSUES, AND WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO ELIMINATE THEM! And 2-months of having them clipped and not able to fly should expose the causes of these issues and make it very obvious what you need to do in your home to fix them...And if after this 2-month exercise you are able to fix the issues in your home that are posing safety and/or health threats to your birds or yourselves, or you are able to figure out how to allow your birds to stay fully-flighted AND safe by making certain changes to your home, your schedule, your regular routines, by installing/adding safety-precautions or extra-steps to your regular routines to ensure their safety, etc., then great, keep them flighted...But if the only solution to keeping your birds safe and healthy, and keeping yourselves safe and healthy is to keep your bird's wings clipped all the time, then that's what you have to do because the safety and health of both you and your birds needs to always come first. The responsible thing to do in this situation is NEVER having the thought-process of "I must keep my birds fully-flighted all the time, for the rest of their lives, regardless of whether it is posing a risk to their safetly, their health, or their lives, because them being able to stay flighted is the most important thing. That's just absolutely ridiculous, as if a bird being killed in an accident or flying out a door and being lost in the wild forever is worth it as long as they were able to fly prior to the tragedy happening, versus a non-flighted yet happy, healthy, and well-loved bird living out their entire expected-lifespan or longer in a loving, responsible home with an owner or owners who loved them and who they loved back...

Let us not forget how many pet birds/parrots physically cannot fly for one reason or another, yet they live long, healthy, happy, loved lives with their owners who love them dearly...Obviously this isn't what anyone wants to have happen, but the point is that just because a pet bird/parrot is not able to fly in their home does not AT ALL mean that they are unhappy or less-happy than they would be if they were flighted, or that all flighted pet-birds/parrots are happier and have better lives than all non-flighted birds/parrots...NOR DOES KEEPING YOUR BIRD CLIPPED IN ANY WAY EFFECT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM AT ALL! THAT'S JUST A FALSE-STATEMENT THAT SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SAID BECAUSE IT'S JUST NOT TRUE. You know what will "ruin your relationship with your bird"? If you keep them locked inside of a cage most of the day or all of the day; if you pay no attention at all to your bird or don't give any affection to your bird; if you yell at your bird, scream at your bird, flick your bird's beak when they nip/bite you, if you slap/hit/pound on your bird's cage when they are being loud; if you cover-up your bird's cage with a sheet/blanket during the daytime every time they are noisy....I could go on and on because there are tons of things that you can do to "ruin your relationship with your bird", but clipping their wings isn't one of them.

 

[itzjbean]

If your apartment is not safe, and you having to chase them around, would you consider getting a very large flight cage for them to stay in? That way they don't have to be clipped and can still fly around the cage and then you don't have to worry about them escaping or hurting themselves from the non-safe apartment.

 

[Amsterdam]

please do not clip it could also harm the relation you have with your budgie.

Amsterdam, though I look-up to you for all you have done for the Budgie world, and by the way I'm so glad you've started to post again...However, this is totally untrue. Clipping your bird's wings will NOT do anything to hurt or damage your relationship with them...Even though this is a hot-topic with heated arguments on both sides, we all need to make sure that all of the info and advice we give on the subject is actually true and factual...

Here's the deal...All of MY OWN BIRDS are fully-flighted, they are out of their cages whenever I'm at home and they follow me all over the house, they have T-Stands/Play-Stands all over the place, in every room literally, so that they have their own, safe territory that they know they can go to (with toys attached to all of them) no matter where they're at, and this keeps them out of trouble for the most-part...So for MY OWN BIRDS I choose to leave them flighted 24/7, 365...

HOWEVER, THAT BEING SAID....We ALL need to realize that not everyone can allow their pet birds to be fully-flighted all of the time!!! Our own lives and and our own situations are not those of every other bird owner in the world, and there are MANY FANTASTIC, LOVING, RESPONSIBLE BIRD OWNERS WHO CANNOT ALLOW THEIR BIRDS TO BE FULLY-FLIGHTED DUE TO SAFETY ISSUES!!! So what a lot of the people here who are "No one should EVER clip their bird's wings under ANY circumstances, 100% of the time" are actually saying is that "If a person or family cannot safely allow all of their birds stay fully-flighted inside of their homes 100% of the time, they they shouldn't be bird owners at all"...Is that what you are really trying to say? I certainly hope not, because there are several long-time, well-loved, senior-members of this forum who are very, very active here, that do quite a lot of our community, and who are known as being some of the best Parronts in our community who keep their bird's wings clipped all the time because they have no choice due to a safety issue, a health issue that they or their spouse has, etc...And just because you aren't aware that these members who you respect and who you think are fantastic bird-owners keep their bird's wings clipped, that doesn't mean that once you find out who they are that you're going to automatically think of them as being "Bad Parronts", or that you'll now tell to "re-home their birds because it's not fair for them to keep them clipped", are you? I don't think so...At least I hope not, because their birds couldn't be in any better of a household or family, nor could they be more loved than they are right now, flighted or not...

The bottom-line is that it's the 100%, totally ideal situation if you can SAFELY keep all of your pet birds/parrots flighted all of the time. Yes, that's a wonderful situation for them if you are able to SAFELY do it, and if them being flighted isn't posing any potential risk to them or to you or anyone else who lives in your home...But as I'm sure every member of this forum knows, regardless of where they live in the world, their financial situation, their gender, their race, their religion, their sexual-orientation, etc., few situations are always, 100% ideal...

If leaving your bird or birds fully-flighted inside of your home creates ANY POSSIBILITY of risks to their safety, their health and well-being, their security of staying inside of the home 24/7 and not slipping out of a door, or is often making it impossible to get them back to you or to the safety of their cages, OR if them being fully-flighted is posing any of these threats to you or to anyone else who live in your home, then my suggestion is to at the very least HAVE THEIR WINGS CLIPPED ONCE ON A TRIAL-BASIS, CONSERVATIVELY, so that you'll have about 2-months or so before their wings grow back-in fully and they can fly again, and during that 2 or so months you can actually see what your lives will be like with them not being able to fly, BOTH THEIR LIVES AND YOURS, and THEN make a decision about continuing to keep their wings clipped for the long-term. I suggest doing this because if you've never had your bird's wings clipped before and they've always been able to fly around your home, then you really don't know if them not being able to fly is going to be the solution to your problems...If after 2-months of having their wings clipped these problems you've been having, the safety-risks and risks to their health and their lives, or to yours, have been eliminated or at least greatly-reduced, then by all means, KEEP THEM CLIPPED! However, on the flip-side, if having their wings clipped over the 2-months has not greatly eliminated any of your issues and has not reduced any of the safety or health risks to them or to you, then YOU NEED TO FIGURE OUT JUST EXACTLY WHAT IS CAUSING THESE ISSUES, AND WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO ELIMINATE THEM! And 2-months of having them clipped and not able to fly should expose the causes of these issues and make it very obvious what you need to do in your home to fix them...And if after this 2-month exercise you are able to fix the issues in your home that are posing safety and/or health threats to your birds or yourselves, or you are able to figure out how to allow your birds to stay fully-flighted AND safe by making certain changes to your home, your schedule, your regular routines, by installing/adding safety-precautions or extra-steps to your regular routines to ensure their safety, etc., then great, keep them flighted...But if the only solution to keeping your birds safe and healthy, and keeping yourselves safe and healthy is to keep your bird's wings clipped all the time, then that's what you have to do because the safety and health of both you and your birds needs to always come first. The responsible thing to do in this situation is NEVER having the thought-process of "I must keep my birds fully-flighted all the time, for the rest of their lives, regardless of whether it is posing a risk to their safetly, their health, or their lives, because them being able to stay flighted is the most important thing. That's just absolutely ridiculous, as if a bird being killed in an accident or flying out a door and being lost in the wild forever is worth it as long as they were able to fly prior to the tragedy happening, versus a non-flighted yet happy, healthy, and well-loved bird living out their entire expected-lifespan or longer in a loving, responsible home with an owner or owners who loved them and who they loved back...

Let us not forget how many pet birds/parrots physically cannot fly for one reason or another, yet they live long, healthy, happy, loved lives with their owners who love them dearly...Obviously this isn't what anyone wants to have happen, but the point is that just because a pet bird/parrot is not able to fly in their home does not AT ALL mean that they are unhappy or less-happy than they would be if they were flighted, or that all flighted pet-birds/parrots are happier and have better lives than all non-flighted birds/parrots...NOR DOES KEEPING YOUR BIRD CLIPPED IN ANY WAY EFFECT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM AT ALL! THAT'S JUST A FALSE-STATEMENT THAT SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SAID BECAUSE IT'S JUST NOT TRUE. You know what will "ruin your relationship with your bird"? If you keep them locked inside of a cage most of the day or all of the day; if you pay no attention at all to your bird or don't give any affection to your bird; if you yell at your bird, scream at your bird, flick your bird's beak when they nip/bite you, if you slap/hit/pound on your bird's cage when they are being loud; if you cover-up your bird's cage with a sheet/blanket during the daytime every time they are noisy....I could go on and on because there are tons of things that you can do to "ruin your relationship with your bird", but clipping their wings isn't one of them.

Didnt knew that Ellen from what ive read on the internet i read alot of topics about ppl who said it could harm the relationship, but geuss what its not the first time you teach me someting good to have people like you on the forum Ellen!!

 

[EllenD]

And just to add something else that WE ALL need to think about before we speak (or type)....We all need to learn to put ourselves into the shoes of other people BEFORE we pass judgement on them, and BEFORE we tell them not to do something (or to do something), not because we are thinking about their own, individual, specific situation and basing our advice on what is best for them and their birds, but rather because just telling someone to not clip their bird's wings because that's what WE DO for our own birds, and because it's what WE FEEL is the "best" thing to do in EVERY situation and EVERY household that has a bird in it...well...That could quite literally result in the accidental death of their birds, or result in their birds getting out a door and gone forever, or it could also result in a horrible injury, not only to their birds (which they may not have enough money to pay the Avian Vet to fix), but also a horrible accident to them because it may cause them to force themselves to do things that they physically cannot do, such as climbing-up ladders or on top of furniture to get their birds down, or running and diving/jumping etc. to save their birds because they have gotten themselves into a dangerous location or situation (as they often do)....What is good for you and your birds is not necessarily what is good for everyone else and their birds.

And one last thing we all need to think about, and a question that we all need to ask ourselves, specifically when it comes to this whole "wing-clipping" controversy (I swear, there are some people who actually equate an owner clipping their pet bird's wings to an owner abusing their pet bird, either physcially, psychologically, emotionally, or verbally, they actually think that keeping a bird's wings clipped is the same thing):

Ask yourselves if you truly think and truly believe that if an experienced, educated, knowledgeable, responsible, financially-capable, and extremely loving and affectionate as well as very attentive pet bird/parrot owner just has to keep their bird's wings clipped full-time because keeping their birds fully-flighted poses a risk to their safety, their health, or their lives, that it would be better if that owner would just re-home their birds to someone who is able to keep them fully-flighted or surrender them to an Avian Rescue so that they can find them a home where they can stay fully-flighted, BUT not necessarily a new home with a new owner that is even close to the kind of bird-owner the original owner was...

***Just as an aside, at the Avian Rescue I work at, as well as many other Avian Rescues all across the country, whether or not a prospective adopter will be able to or simply willing to keep the bird fully-flighted isn't a factor that is anywhere near the top of the list of factors that are taken into-account when deciding whether or not to approve the adopter...In-fact, I'm not even sure that it's a question we ask during the interview-process, I'll have to check later when I go in, as I don't do any of the potential-adopter interviews or processes except for doing the mandatory-counseling new-adopters of both birds and reptiles are required to go through regarding their new pet's diet, and then the extremely specialized "Husbandry" that all reptiles/amphibians require to simply survive; that's the only part of the new-adoption processes that I have... (if the bird they are wanting to adopt is able to fly in the first-place, which many are not due to the extreme Feather-Destructive Behaviors that they are suffering from, or due to an injury/disability that their prior owners or other animals in their prior home caused them)...Either way, I can tell you that whether or not someone will be able to keep their new bird fully-flighted is not anywhere near the top of the list of things we worry about when choosing someone to adopt a bird/parrot...

There are literally tens of thousands of not only Parrots but also game birds, poultry birds, aquatic birds, sporting birds, etc. in-need of a responsible, capable homes, but most-importantly homes that will not only love their new birds and show them affection and be attentive to them every single day, but that will not just re-home them or rather sell them at the first sign of some stress...So if we also eliminated any homes/owners who say that they might consider keeping their wings clipped for one reason or another, we might as well just start euthanizing the thousands and thousands of unwanted parrots in this country alone, just like we do with unwanted dogs and cats...Think about that for a second. In the US we euthanize thousands of dogs and cats every single day who are in shelters, rescues, veterinary offices/hospitals who have been keeping them trying to find them homes, etc. And when it comes to dogs and cats being euthanized at this rate every single day in the US, it's just simply normal to us to think about, it's just the way it is and the way it has been for a long, long time here....Now try to imagine thousands of parrots in Rescues, Shelters, Veterinary offices/hospitals, etc. being euthanized every single day, right along with the thousands of dogs and cats....Doesn't seem right, does it? It just made my stomach turn a bit to thnk about...

So I'll be damned if I'm going to tell anyone that it doesn't matter if they have some kind of physical-disability that prevents them from being able to keep-up with their flighted-birds around their home, they still shouldn't clip their bird's wings, or tell an elderly person or couple that it doesn't matter if they have Arthritis and that if they can't chase after their bird every single day, all day long, that they have to re-home them instead of simply keeping their wings clippled...Or even worse, that it's better to constantly keep their bird's life at-risk if that means that they can stay fully-flighted...Nope. And I'm actually confident enough in my past experiences and knowledge to say that not only will clipping your bird's wings NOT "ruin your relationship with them", but rather IT CAN ACTUALLY STRENGTHEN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR BIRDS!!! Especially if while your birds are fully-flighted they are constantly perched up on high-spots in your house, not spending much, if any time with you because you're not able to even work on hand-taming them much because they just keep flying away, and it's impossible to work with them/hand-tame them while you have your hands inside of their cage and they're territorial about it...And you have physical disabilities that prevent you from being able to interact with your birds while they are fully-flighted, but the minute you clip their wings they start learning that they now need to rely on you to get around, and that they CAN rely on you to not only get around, but to care for them in every way, and this results in them learning to trust you, trust your hands, and they then finally give you their trust, which results in the bond between them and you becoming the type of bond that a lot of us are so fortunate to have experienced and have in our lives....And that type of bond is just simply impossible for some bird/parrot owners to obtain as long as their birds are flighted...And their bird's lives while they are flighted in-turn is not good either, as they are social Flock-Animals, yet they are always alone and trust no one, have no bond with anyone, etc., as long as they are flighted, because their owner is unable to handle a flighted bird...Doesn't mean they won't be the most amazingly awesome Parronts in the world...Just means that they need to do their Parronting in a bit of a different way than we do...

 

[bill_e]

Nike is about to get clipped for the second time in a couple of months. I usually have her clipped in the spring before our first camp out which I did already but apparently I must have gotten to her just before her molt because less than 2 months later she's back to being fully flighted. So off she will go to get clipped before the memorial day weekend. The clip she gets still gives her plenty of mobility and I'm 100% for clips for safety/escape reasons.

 

[CallumConure]

When I got Callum, he was clipped straight from the breeder (no rescue conures were in the area in the six or seven month period I was looking) and I have heard a lot of people say it helped deepen our relationship, kept him safe while he got used to me, but it didn't do any of that. Callum chose me the instant I took him home. I have hundreds of pictures of him cuddled up against my face and neck, fully puffed up, eyes half closed, and very happy to be beside me. The clipped wings just made him a floor-crawler that would peep and call for me to pick him up. I have a couple of videos of him whining (I use this as a term of endearment towards Callum because I'll affectionately call him my whiner bird because he is so vocal for a GCC) for me while on the floor. He still whines for me, even when he can fly around.

Now Callum is fully-flighted and follows me room-to-room. He'll fly to my grandma, to me, and (surprisingly) my friend who visits infrequently. I love him flying and love him following me around. But, just because I love it, doesn't mean everyone should or has to have flighted birds. I watch two BirdTubers and they both go on endlessly why a bird shouldn't be clipped and very rarely delve into the exceptions including health or safety for the birds. I see them argue how it affects them mentally, how it makes their muscles weak, etc. Personally I think this is just lazy because you can work on keeping up muscle mass and keeping their minds active with you. Birds thrive off of their flock, as so many of us here know. If they're left alone and unable to fly, well... that's just a sad bird anyways, regardless of if they have flight feathers or not. I'd rather have Callum clipped than see him slowly wither away while alone, rarely interacted with.

I realize the dangers that come with a flighted bird-- if Callum gets away, I may never see him again, no matter how much I cry, call for him, or look for him. I see so many sad stories on this topic.
I'm not too well-versed on this part, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I've hard the argument that clipped birds, if they also get away, are more in danger because that can't escape predators.

However, I love the blue of Callum's flight feathers and I think he's beautiful just as he is, so I leave him. Clipped birds are cute just the way they are too! I love how stubby their wings look when clipped. Some people may not like that comment, but I think Callum looked just as cute with clipped wings as fully flighted wings. Either way, clipped birds interact and love you just as much as their fully flighted flock members.

Personally, I don't have the heart to clip Callum's wings. I'd struggle with the decision even if it was in his or my best interest. I have a nasty habit of letting my emotions go first and then logic taking its turn next. Ultimately, I would decide to do it for him, even if I felt guilty. His safety comes way before my emotions. Keeping animals is always like this-- you put their best interest before your emotions because it's our job to help keep them safe and shower them with love. Even if Callum was mad at me, I'd still favor his safety over him being mad at me.

However, if someone needs to clip their bird, please don't only do one wing or absolutely butcher the poor bird's wings. That can negatively affect their health in a way we can't work on like with entertaining and training our birds can.

 

[Sandy19]

I let peanut learn to fly as a baby and then I clipped her wings shortly after because I felt it was unsafe, I have four other people in the house who also have to be constantly aware of every danger. I've kept her wings clipped until recently, as of right now she is completely flighted and seems to be showing off in front of us. She has now discovered something she hasn't been able to do since a baby and it seems wonderful to her. My husband says it's too dangerous and to clip her, but I think we can make it work as long as everyone is constantly aware that we have a flying bird. I don't think, however, that it would hurt our relationship if I clipped her wings. It would be the same as always. If you can manage a bird flying in a safe enviroment then let it fly, if you have doubts then clip the wings. They grow back if clipped by someone who knows what they're doing. Always make sure of that before you get a bird clipped.

 

[Sandy19]

I thought it was funny because now that she discovered flight she clearly showed off for my husband when he got home from work. She climbed on his arm and flew around the room in a circle and landed back on his arm. She was totally showing him what she can do. His heart melted too.

 

[Inger]

I thought it was funny because now that she discovered flight she clearly showed off for my husband when he got home from work. She climbed on his arm and flew around the room in a circle and landed back on his arm. She was totally showing him what she can do. His heart melted too.

OMG this is too cute [emoji3590][emoji3590]


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[CallumConure]

I thought it was funny because now that she discovered flight she clearly showed off for my husband when he got home from work. She climbed on his arm and flew around the room in a circle and landed back on his arm. She was totally showing him what she can do. His heart melted too.

That's absolutely adorable! My Callum gets excited and flies in circles and then lands somewhere.

 

[greytness]

I'm from the 'no clip' camp. Several of our 13 birds arrived to us clipped, but we let them grow out their flights. We also had to teach them what wings are for. Those who came to us not having been allowed to fledge are couch potato birds. Frankly I don't think they get enough exercise to keep them healthy in the long run, and I worry about that.

 

[SilleIN]

And just to add something else that WE ALL need to think about before we speak (or type)....We all need to learn to put ourselves into the shoes of other people BEFORE we pass judgement on them, and BEFORE we tell them not to do something (or to do something), not because we are thinking about their own, individual, specific situation and basing our advice on what is best for them and their birds, but rather because just telling someone to not clip their bird's wings because that's what WE DO for our own birds, and because it's what WE FEEL is the "best" thing to do in EVERY situation and EVERY household that has a bird in it...well...That could quite literally result in the accidental death of their birds, or result in their birds getting out a door and gone forever, or it could also result in a horrible injury, not only to their birds (which they may not have enough money to pay the Avian Vet to fix), but also a horrible accident to them because it may cause them to force themselves to do things that they physically cannot do, such as climbing-up ladders or on top of furniture to get their birds down, or running and diving/jumping etc. to save their birds because they have gotten themselves into a dangerous location or situation (as they often do)....What is good for you and your birds is not necessarily what is good for everyone else and their birds.

And one last thing we all need to think about, and a question that we all need to ask ourselves, specifically when it comes to this whole "wing-clipping" controversy (I swear, there are some people who actually equate an owner clipping their pet bird's wings to an owner abusing their pet bird, either physcially, psychologically, emotionally, or verbally, they actually think that keeping a bird's wings clipped is the same thing):

Ask yourselves if you truly think and truly believe that if an experienced, educated, knowledgeable, responsible, financially-capable, and extremely loving and affectionate as well as very attentive pet bird/parrot owner just has to keep their bird's wings clipped full-time because keeping their birds fully-flighted poses a risk to their safety, their health, or their lives, that it would be better if that owner would just re-home their birds to someone who is able to keep them fully-flighted or surrender them to an Avian Rescue so that they can find them a home where they can stay fully-flighted, BUT not necessarily a new home with a new owner that is even close to the kind of bird-owner the original owner was...

***Just as an aside, at the Avian Rescue I work at, as well as many other Avian Rescues all across the country, whether or not a prospective adopter will be able to or simply willing to keep the bird fully-flighted isn't a factor that is anywhere near the top of the list of factors that are taken into-account when deciding whether or not to approve the adopter...In-fact, I'm not even sure that it's a question we ask during the interview-process, I'll have to check later when I go in, as I don't do any of the potential-adopter interviews or processes except for doing the mandatory-counseling new-adopters of both birds and reptiles are required to go through regarding their new pet's diet, and then the extremely specialized "Husbandry" that all reptiles/amphibians require to simply survive; that's the only part of the new-adoption processes that I have... (if the bird they are wanting to adopt is able to fly in the first-place, which many are not due to the extreme Feather-Destructive Behaviors that they are suffering from, or due to an injury/disability that their prior owners or other animals in their prior home caused them)...Either way, I can tell you that whether or not someone will be able to keep their new bird fully-flighted is not anywhere near the top of the list of things we worry about when choosing someone to adopt a bird/parrot...

There are literally tens of thousands of not only Parrots but also game birds, poultry birds, aquatic birds, sporting birds, etc. in-need of a responsible, capable homes, but most-importantly homes that will not only love their new birds and show them affection and be attentive to them every single day, but that will not just re-home them or rather sell them at the first sign of some stress...So if we also eliminated any homes/owners who say that they might consider keeping their wings clipped for one reason or another, we might as well just start euthanizing the thousands and thousands of unwanted parrots in this country alone, just like we do with unwanted dogs and cats...Think about that for a second. In the US we euthanize thousands of dogs and cats every single day who are in shelters, rescues, veterinary offices/hospitals who have been keeping them trying to find them homes, etc. And when it comes to dogs and cats being euthanized at this rate every single day in the US, it's just simply normal to us to think about, it's just the way it is and the way it has been for a long, long time here....Now try to imagine thousands of parrots in Rescues, Shelters, Veterinary offices/hospitals, etc. being euthanized every single day, right along with the thousands of dogs and cats....Doesn't seem right, does it? It just made my stomach turn a bit to thnk about...

So I'll be damned if I'm going to tell anyone that it doesn't matter if they have some kind of physical-disability that prevents them from being able to keep-up with their flighted-birds around their home, they still shouldn't clip their bird's wings, or tell an elderly person or couple that it doesn't matter if they have Arthritis and that if they can't chase after their bird every single day, all day long, that they have to re-home them instead of simply keeping their wings clippled...Or even worse, that it's better to constantly keep their bird's life at-risk if that means that they can stay fully-flighted...Nope. And I'm actually confident enough in my past experiences and knowledge to say that not only will clipping your bird's wings NOT "ruin your relationship with them", but rather IT CAN ACTUALLY STRENGTHEN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR BIRDS!!! Especially if while your birds are fully-flighted they are constantly perched up on high-spots in your house, not spending much, if any time with you because you're not able to even work on hand-taming them much because they just keep flying away, and it's impossible to work with them/hand-tame them while you have your hands inside of their cage and they're territorial about it...And you have physical disabilities that prevent you from being able to interact with your birds while they are fully-flighted, but the minute you clip their wings they start learning that they now need to rely on you to get around, and that they CAN rely on you to not only get around, but to care for them in every way, and this results in them learning to trust you, trust your hands, and they then finally give you their trust, which results in the bond between them and you becoming the type of bond that a lot of us are so fortunate to have experienced and have in our lives....And that type of bond is just simply impossible for some bird/parrot owners to obtain as long as their birds are flighted...And their bird's lives while they are flighted in-turn is not good either, as they are social Flock-Animals, yet they are always alone and trust no one, have no bond with anyone, etc., as long as they are flighted, because their owner is unable to handle a flighted bird...Doesn't mean they won't be the most amazingly awesome Parronts in the world...Just means that they need to do their Parronting in a bit of a different way than we do...

EllenD- I have tried to write you a post, but it says your inbox is full.

Fiddlejen- Sorry for using your post to get in touch with Ellen.

 

[bill_e]

When I got Nike in December of 2015 I had the prior owner clip her wings which is how she stayed for about a year and a half.

I then decided to let her wings grow out and I noticed a remarkable change in personality.....or was it just coincidental that this changed aligned with the clipping? She stayed fully flighted for about 6 months, all the time our bond growing and improving, and then it was time for a clip so that we could safely take her camping with us.

Since then we've been clipping her in the spring after a solid 6 months or more of flying (twice now I think) and our bond continues to strengthen every day. The clipping has absolutely no adverse affect on our relationship

 

[fiddlejen]

Thank you all. I really did need to see all the comments here. They do have full lift now. I really must get them clipped. But I don't WANT to, and so it feels good to read people's thoughts who also feel that way.

But I absolutely needed the encouragement to go ahead! Because realistically at this time they either must be clipped, or else they must stay in the cage all the time with no handling- nor exploring-time. They will certainly get more exercise if I can safely keep them safe, and CURRENTLY safe does mean non-flighted.

Originally I had some high hopes of getting my house, or even just one room, conure- and parakeet-safe. But it's gonna take a lot longer now. My brain knows, they are young; they will have many years in the future to possibly fly. But that might never happen if I were to badly re-injure myself now trying to retrieve them from some awkward location. (Or worse, unsafe-for-them!). I did give into temptation several times. I have let them both fly inside a few more times since my first post. Each time, I had more of the bend-twist-reach moves which are currently quite unsafe for me.

(Also, Sunny has demonstrated what I had been suspecting. Although she pretends to ignore the budgies, in fact she's imitating them. Now when she jumps to the floor, she TRIES to fly before moving on to whatever else she had in mind.)

Calliope is my little explorer. Flight just gives her an extra method & more areas to explore. Clipping her wings will only restrict her a little again.

But Jefferson is the one who Wants to fly. Just Because. Because She's A Bird. And she flies straight so I've been so tempted. They're both getting full lift now. Last time I had them out, Jefferson flew the length of the house back to her cage, and only lost altitude when she tried to adjust her aim INto the door.

Then, I had real difficulty (twisting-reaching) to fetch her out from the spot where she actually landed.

Even so I've been procrastinating. I had to read this thread over several times yesterday before calling to find out if I needed appt, and verify place I was planning to take them clips safely & conservatively (they do). I will be taking them today.