Could you give some examples of training gone wrong that results in birds needing to be clipped? I'm curious to know and eager to learn (and hopefully try to prevent these mistakes in my own training)
Well, based on indirect experiences, my uncle adopted a bird (baby) and never clipped it for the first 2 or 3 years. He had over 30+ years of large-parrot ownership under his belt when they got this one. At first (pre-puberty) flight was encouraged...the bird has always been given a great deal of enrichment, great set-up, perfect food etc etc...but then, at puberty the bird started flying after certain people (to be with them) OR attacking others---even if he generally tolerated them (as a mate defending or possible territorial behavior). He wouldn't respond to attempted target training by the time there was a need and his behaviors were reportedly quite strong--- they didn't know what to do about it because it just kept getting worse (and he wouldn't stay put ever, even though he used to). I know they consulted a lot of people and did research in an attempt to solve the problem (to no avail)
It was also a fairly open-concept house..
They DID try to target train him, but they probably should have started when he was a baby somehow because by puberty he just did what he wanted. It didn't help that his particular species is known to go through a sort of rebellious/nippy period that can last for 1+ years and occurs prior to sexual maturity itself...that period started around the same time that he became excellent at flying. Although they knew about the potential for behaviors during this pre-puberty period ahead of time, it all happened abruptly (so their trainable window was shorter than anticipated). He basically went from following the rules to breaking them without a lot of lead-time lol. Again, could they have done better? Probably--- I think ever parront or parent feels that way lol---hind-sight is 20/20)...but they did a lot more than a lot of people and still struggled.
I don't know specifically what went wrong, but there was probably not enough structure early on when he first was learning to fly--because they were just super excited for him to build his confidence and learn the skill...There probably needed to be specific boundaries set ahead of time (in their defense though, it was easy to overlook when he was young because he wasn't going off-limits in an undesirable way, so to them, there wasn't an obvious need...They wanted him to fly, so when he did, it was encouraged. I suppose some of it could have also been made worse by their initial reactions to attacks, but that part is pure speculation (that having been said, they have bird experience, so I doubt their reactions were that off-base). Part of it was definitely hormonal...He does have one of those stupid tents and that, in my opinion, is a mistake (I suggested they remove it at some point but as far as I know, he still has it).
The issue was that they couldn't turn back the clock and change what had/hadn't been done. They finally clipped him (as a very last resort in their minds--they were very against it all along) BUT that was like the breathing room they needed to get him to be receptive to training/calm down long enough to learn--now his feathers are back and he still flies around but not out of control/wherever the heck he wants/whenever the heck he wants. He now flies between perches within the house or when called---previously he was everywhere on his schedule. They really didn't want to clip him, but that is what they ended up doing and now things are much safer and the bird still flies --just not out of control.
