Wings clipped too short?

[Birdlover11]

If you seen my other thread you've know that I took my budgie to the vet for a check up and a wing clipping, I thought that I should post this question on there but not that maney people were responding. Anyway, after I came home and put Pepsi back in his cage to recover he tried to fly up to his favorite perch but he fell down. He tried again and again but he couldnt get back up. The vet told me that even tho that the wings are clipped he can fly. He can only jump a few inches than fall down. He know has to get around the cage by climbing the bars. I feel terrible if a bird gets his/hers wings clipped can they still fly a enough to get around the cage or did the vet clip them too short? He stays most of the time somewhere high because he scared that a predator might get him.Help please.

 

[OtterKin]

In my experience, budgies can still flutter pretty well even with a full clip, if they have strong wing muscles. My best guess is that his wing muscles aren't that developed, and he's startled by the change. How long has it been? It might take him a couple days to adapt.

 

[Birdlover11]

I got him clipped on Saturday, almost 3 days ago. He's a juvenile, around 6 or 7 months

 

[OtterKin]

Can you see how many flight feathers the vet clipped? My birds all get full clips when I do clip, because they all have strong flight muscles and can take full advantage of even just one flight feather on each wing. However, in a bird that hasn't been able to exercise those muscles, a full clip would cause him to fall like that. For now, just make it easy for him to get around by adding more perches.

 

[Birdlover11]

Thanks,I didn't see how much flight feathers the vet clipped because she took him into another room . I think she clipped all of them.

 

[friedsoup]

As stated above it will take so getting used to by both of you it's called dependant transportation for that reason your bird now depends on you for major transportation so use this time to take him out and let him rid around on your shoulder and really bond with you (carrying cherrio's or rice crispy in your pocket is a good idea) since he cannot fly this is the time to take his mind off such things as that curtain rod or door jam and start teaching him tricks like climbing rope and anything you can think of for a small bird, between fun rides to the store and training time you and your bird will bond and you can help him be more social by introducing him to as many people as you can, this should enrich both of your lives greatly. So you've got the hard parts over now comes the fun challenging part so embrace it and keep us posted.

 

[MonicaMc]

If he's clipped too severely, he may now be in even more danger of hurting himself... I don't mean to guilt trip you, I only worry about his safety. Please, read through this article.
Should you clip your parrot

There are pros and cons to each side of the debate, and so many people are uneducated about both sides of the debate that they make decisions without full knowledge of why they are doing it. Worse yet, when a bird is too severely clipped by someone who doesn't know the birds body or strength and doesn't weight this into how much of the feathers should be removed.

Depending on the size of the bird and what shape they are on, only 4-10 feathers on each side need to be clipped. Here is a diagram of sorts...

The blue feathers are primary feathers and the red feathers are secondaries. The secondaries should never be clipped.

The cyan line shows a "half clip" - if cut there. This provides support for new growing feathers while still reducing flight.

The green line is the "covert clip", that is, a more severe clip than the "half clip", and may require less feathers to be clipped because you are removing more of the feather itself.

The yellow line indicates a "show clip" - which usually leaves 2-3 feathers on the end of the wing. Depending on the bird and his/her strength, this may, or may not, still allow flight. I am not a big fan of this clip.



In short, if he can't glide down, he's been clipped too far. Please offer him safe places to land by placing down some paper towels or kitchen towels that can easily be switched out for clean ones and the dirty ones washed.


Here's a good article that mentions a decent way of trimming a birds flight feathers without completely reducing flight.
Managed Flight, Not Wing Clipping





I once had a budgie that was an excellent flyer when I bought him. He didn't eat for the first 2 or 3 days that I had him, so panicked, I clipped his wings, and he started eating after that. At the time, I didn't know how to properly trim a birds flight feathers, so I gave him a too severe of a clip. This meant that he couldn't get more than 3-6 inches off the ground. When he finally did get his flights back in, he still couldn't fly. He didn't have the muscle tone required *FOR* flight. I had to "teach" him how to fly again, and I did this by tossing him onto my bed for 10-15 minuets 2-5 times per day for two weeks, thus forcing him to use his flight muscles.

After this "vigorous" training regime, he was able to fly again without assistance, but he was no longer able to fly with the grace and agility he once had.

 

[DebsFlock]

IMO a good clip for a given bird won't allow the bird to get much, if any, lift, but allows them to land in a controlled way rather than dropping like a rock. So I wouldn't expect him to be able to fly "up" at all. MonicaMc's diagram is great. For most small birds, the clip will be all the way to the secondaries in length, but a varying number of primaries will be cut. It usually takes a lot to ground a budgie, 'tiel or GCC. My Cape is NOT as good a flier as my two smaller birds and he gets only the first four primaries clipped and only about 2/3 of the way to the coverts. Scooter gets everything up to the coverts but we leave the outer two for vanity.

When someone else does the trimming, I have an explicit discussion about which feathers and how much to trim..

I'm guess the OPs budgie just needs to get used to the clip.

 

[OtterKin]

I wasn't surprised when my budgies took off flying with one flight feather grown in- but I am still surprised when my GCC with all flight feathers clipped takes off and can gain 6 feet in elevation. Hmmm....

Right now the Linnie and English Budgie are the only ones with full flight capabilities. The American Budgie has flight feathers only grown in on one side so far, so he's a bit lopsided. He knows his limitations however, and doesn't attempt anything too extreme. The tiel has a few flight feathers grown in, but she is the clumsiest bird I know and flies into walls and other objects. Since she is also prone to fright flights, I will keep her clipped, though not a full one because she needs the little extra help landing a few feathers can offer, dear thing.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Just so you now, it's a good idea to make sure you vet does everything in front of you unless you request otherwise.

 

[Birdlover11]

Thanks for all of your answers. I don't think his wings are cut too severely , just yesterday I saw him glide a little o the other side of the cage. But he can't fly up. He figured out how to get around the cage by climbing . Can his feathers grow back or do I have to wait for the next molt ? Thanks for the diagram and the article, it changed my view on wing clipping.

 

[OtterKin]

You will have to wait till the next molt. Not being able to fly up is the goal of wing clipping. Let them have enough leverage to break a fall, but not gain altitude. That said, you might find once his muscles are more conditioned that he can still fly up. As someone else said, it takes alot to ground a budgie.
Don't get to comfortable with his flightless status due to this, because he might surprise you one day.

 

[MonicaMc]

As much as I'd love to see all parrots flighted, I don't mean to completely convert you... I can see where there are times that a clip *may* be safer for the bird in mind. The main point of that article is to say that there *are* dangers in clipping a bird, and that you should not get a birds wings clipped too severely. They should still be able to glide to make a *safe* landing.

You will have to wait for him to molt, as mentioned by the previous poster.

 

[DebsFlock]

Actually, I once saw an article somewhere about grafting on feather tips, so it is possible! But I don't think I'd go there, I'd wait for the molting process.

 

[MonicaMc]

Deb, that's known as imping, and not something commonly done in parrots... usually done in raptors or other wild birds to get them flying again so they can get back up on their "wings" - in a manner of speaking.

I have seen it done with parrots... I think in a small parrot, they used some tooth picks as support between the two feathers, and again in a B&G. In each case, the feathers used were molted feathers from other birds.

Looking it up, I see it's been done in some other species as well.

Imping; Replacing Mowglie's Clipped Flight Feathers by Steve Hartman    The Parrot University
Parrot test out feather transplants - City Parrots - Urban parrot conservation
https://www.facebook.com/notes/bris...comment_id=2344553&offset=0&total_comments=27


I assume that the process to get a budgie imped would probably far exceed the value of the bird and probably wouldn't be worth it for most owners when they can just wait for the feathers to molt out and be replaced with new ones.

 

[Birdlover11]

Oh no, I ment that i found out the dangers of both sides of the argument