Pet Parrots for Clipping Wings: African Gray Parrots, Amazon Parrots, Macaws, Cockatoos, and Conures

To clip or not to clip wings, that is the question.

This is a question that most pet bird owners will ask themselves at some point. So much has been written on this topic that you probably feel like it’s been done ad nauseam, however I haven’t read any articles written by breeders on this subject and felt that an article from a breeder’s point of view can help give another perspective on wing clipping in relation to african gray parrots, amazon parrots, macaws, cockatoos and parakeets.

It seems to me that there are several types of potential buyers. There is the person who has already had some experience with keeping a pet parrot and wishes to purchase another and there is the novice who has never owned a bird before and certainly has no experience of what it means to have a live bird. in a home environment. It is usually the latter who does the research and reads, among other things, the various articles that have been written which claim that it is detrimental to the health and well-being of a baby bird to cut it down. They are led to believe that the bird will not develop properly if it has been cut, that it will suffer mentally and possibly start plucking or develop some other phobic behavior. Some also have the misconception that clipping is a permanent state and the feathers will never grow back. Of course, this is not the case if the bird has been correctly trimmed. However, I have seen a few cases where birds have been clipped so poorly that the feather follicles have been permanently damaged and it is my recommendation that if wing clipping is necessary, you should always contact a breeder. reputable or avian vet to do it for you. Maybe we should continue this article by showing people the different safe methods of clipping wings.

People are also led to believe that they will be able to train the birdie to obey you on command and behave similar to a dog. This is quite misleading. Birds are not dogs. For the benefit of this article, let’s assume that your bird can be trained to obey your commands. How long does it take to train the bird and what do you do in between when it flies over the door and the kids run in? and they scare him and he flies to the window and breaks his neck or suffers permanent brain damage, or they slam the door and get caught and break his legs or worse. I’m sure all breeders will have their own examples of these situations like me.

Then, of course, there is the home with children! Train the kids, yes I agree, but will they remember that he is on their shoulder when they open the door and what do they do when their friends come over and don’t realize they need to close the doors? I feel these issues need to be addressed and not just saying they shouldn’t have a pet bird then. But giving them the option of a temporary solution until everyone is trained to think in birds and the bird is familiar with its surroundings and the members of its new flock. If a new bird is fully fledged and flies outside, make no mistake, it’s gone. You don’t know where you are, you don’t know who these people are, and nothing is familiar to you, you just keep flying.

When a baby bird first goes to a new home, it is obviously very different from the safe environment it has left with the breeder, who always has the welfare of his birds at the top of his list of priorities and would not subject them to any danger. . The new home is wonderful, everyone is paying a lot of attention to the bird, but they have remembered to close all the windows and draw the curtains so that it does not fly into the windows. Are all the doors locked? What happens to this bird in mid-flight in the summer when everyone is outdoors, it has to stay in its cage. As it does when the children are playing in case the doors or windows are left open. A bird that is shaved in these circumstances becomes part of the family and can go wherever you go. If he’s on your shoulder, you don’t have to remember to put him back in the crate to get him to open the door, he can go with you. In short, surely it is better to have a bird cut down than a lost, lost or maimed bird.

The clipping is not permanent and if done correctly it only restricts the bird’s ability to fly and when the bird sheds the new owner can make an informed decision about whether to clip it again or if he can cope with a bird completely. flown. As with everything, nothing is black or white and to say that you should never clip your wing or, alternatively, always clip your wing is too dogmatic an attitude to have. Unfortunately we have a situation today where there has been so much publicity about not clipping birds that many veterinarians refuse to clip birds. This is leading to people finding someone who may or may not be experienced to cut the bird for them and in one particular case where this unfortunate attitude led to the loss of an African Gray parrot that flew out of its cage at through the open door as its owner entered. This owner had taken him to the local vet to have his wing clipped, but he refused to do so, saying it was detrimental to his health and well-being. Where is this poor bird now? Possibly with someone who cares, if he’s lucky, otherwise he may have fallen prey to crows, jackdaws, or hawks. Either way, you are no longer in the loving family home you know with your loving family. Last summer there were hundreds of reports of lost birds. I wonder if they would all be lost if their flight had been slightly restricted.

I believe that as long as we have birds as part of our lives, we have a duty to protect them from danger and if this means that we restrict their ability to fly, that is something we must do. Remember that this is not a permanent state and as the clipped feathers are shed and new ones grow you can begin to train your bird and when it fully regains its flight, it may well be that they no longer need to be clipped. I hope this has helped to show that there is another point of view and a different approach to the subject of clipping. However, I would like to point out that this article does not advocate clipping infants’ wings before they are fully familiar with flight. Nor does it advocate trimming for trimming’s sake.