Wing Clipping Pet Parrots - African Grey Parrots, Amazon Parrots, Macaws, Cockatoos and Conures

Wing Clipping Pet Parrots - African Grey Parrots, Amazon Parrots, Macaws, Cockatoos and Conures

To wing clip or not to wing clip that is the question.

This is a question most pet bird owners will ask themselves at some time. There has been so much written on this subject you probably feel that it has been done to death however I have not read any articles written by breeders on this subject and I felt that an article from a breeders view point may help to give another perspective on wing clipping in relation to African grey parrots, Amazon parrots, macaws, cockatoos and conures.

It seems to me that there are several types of potential purchaser. There is the person who has already had some experience in keeping a parrot as a pet and wishes to purchase another one and there is the complete novice who has never had a bird before and certainly has no experience of what it means to have a bird living in a home environment. It is usually the latter who does some research and reads amongst other things the various articles that have been written stating that it is detrimental to a baby birds health and welfare to clip it. They are led to believe that the bird will not develop properly if it has been clipped, that it will suffer mentally and possibly start plucking or develop some other phobic behaviour. A few are also under the misapprehension that wing clipping is a permanent state and that the feathers will never grow again. This of course is not the case if the bird has been correctly clipped. However, I have seen some cases where the birds have been so badly clipped that the feather follicles have been permanently damaged and it is my recommendation that should wing clipping be required you should always contact a reputable breeder or avian veterinarian to perform this for you. Perhaps we should follow up this article by showing people the different safe methods of wing clipping.

People are also led to believe that they will be able to train the baby bird to obey you on command and behave in a similar manner to a dog. This is quite misleading. Birds are not dogs. For the benefit of this article let us suppose 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 the interim period when he flies on top of the door and the children run in and startle him and he flies into the window and breaks his neck or suffers permanent brain damage, or they slam the door and he traps and breaks his legs or worse. I am sure that all breeders will have their own examples of these situations as I have.

Then of course there is the household with children! Train the children, yes, I agree, but will they remember that he is on their shoulder when they answer the door and what do you do when their friends come round and they do not realize that they should close the doors. I feel that these problems need to be addressed and not simply by saying well they should not have a bird as a pet then. But by giving them the choice of a temporary solution until everyone is trained to think bird and the bird is familiar with his surroundings and the members of his new flock. If a new bird is fully flighted and he flies outside, make no mistake, he is gone. He does not know where he is, he does not know who these people are and nothing is familiar to him he will just keep flying.

When a baby bird first goes to a new home it is quite obviously very different from the secure environment he has left with the breeder, who always has their birds welfare at the top of their list of priorities and would not subject them to any dangers. The new home is wonderful everyone is giving the bird plenty of attention but have they remembered to close all the windows and pull the curtains so that he does not fly into the windows. Are all the doors shut. What happens to this fully flighted bird in the summer when everyone is outdoors, he has to stay in his cage. As he does when the children are playing in case they leave the doors or windows open A bird who is clipped in these circumstances becomes a part of the family and can go where you go. If he is on your shoulder you do not have to remember to put him back in the cage to answer the door he can go with you. In short surely it is better to have a clipped bird than a missing, lost or maimed bird.

Clipping is not permanent and if done correctly it only restricts the birds ability to fly and when the bird moults the new owner is more able to make an informed judgement on whether to have him clipped again or whether he can cope with a fully flighted bird. As with everything nothing is black and white and to say one should never wing clip or alternatively one should always wing clip is far too dogmatic an attitude to have. Unfortunately we have a situation at present where there has been so much publicity about not wing clipping birds that many veterinarians are refusing to clip birds' wings. This is leading to people either finding someone who may or may not be experienced to clip the bird for them and in one case in particular where this unfortunate attitude led to the loss of one African grey parrot who flew from his cage through the open door as his owner entered. This owner had taken him to the local vet to have his wing clipped but he refused to do it and said it was detrimental to his health and well being. Where is this poor bird now. Possibly with someone who cares, if he is lucky, if not he may have possibly fallen prey to crows, rooks or hawks. Either way he is no longer in the familiar loving home he knows with his family who love him. 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 think that as long as we have birds as part of our lives then we have a duty to protect them from dangers and if this means that we restrict their ability to fly then this is something we may have to do. Remember this is not a permanent state and as the clipped feathers moult out and the new ones grow you can start to train your bird and when he fully regains his flight, clipping will quite possibly no longer be necessary. I hope that this has gone some way to showing that there is another view point and a different approach to the subject of wing clipping. I would however like to point out that this article is not advocating the clipping of any babies wings before they are fully conversant with flight. Nor is it advocating clipping for clippings sake.