Proper wing clip for Senegal

[JimH]

I am against wing clipping but my parrot Bishop is clipped temporarily while recovering from a respiratory ailment. He was getting dizzy and breathing with difficulty after a flight, so my vet said it would be better to clip him until his lungs heal and his body is under less stress.

My bird is a Senegal, which I know is a heavy-bodied bird for its general size. The vet clipped the first six feathers on each side so supposedly Bishop could glide to the ground, but he seems to be landing very heavily. Not enough to hurt his beak or keelbone, I don't think, but it's pretty rough.

For my own info, how many feathers per side is a safe clip for a 140 gram Senegal?

[Michael]

None.

What's a "safe clip?" Safe that the bird won't fly out the door window? Happens with none clipped or all clipped. Safe that the bird won't fall and hurt itself? Happens with flighted birds sometimes too... but once you start clipping you are invoking an unnatural circumstance so even with a few it will fall and get hurt. 1-3 is not that big a deal cause birds can fly with some molted/broken feathers. 4 or more and they start having trouble flying. By the time you get to 8 they fall like a rock.

[JimH]

No offense intended, but I made the context of my question pretty clear. I already said I'm against clipping as well.

My vet suspects my bird's lungs may be underdeveloped so something like this may happen again and require another temporary clip. In case this happens, I just wanted an idea of what would be an appropriate clip for a Senegal of Bishop's weight to land with minimal risk of injury but without him actually being able to fly.

[Michael]

Well like I tried to explain, there is no safe clip. You start with making it harder and harder for the parrot to fly as you clip more feathers. That actually makes the exertion go up rather than down. Then you reach a point where the parrot goes down more than it goes forward and that makes it get hurt. While the harsher clip discourages flying more because it goes from being hard to impossible, it also hurts more to fall. I think your vet made a mistake. If the goal was to reduce exertion on the bird, it would be best to keep it caged or flying in a very small room rather than clipping.

[JimH]

Interesting possibility. I live in the Finger Lakes and decided to take my bird to Cornell because it's such a renowned vet school/hospital and my bird could be cared for by a specialist who teaches avian medicine. I hate to think he wouldn't know what is better for the bird.

What's done is done, so I'll just have to work with what I've got. Bishop has adapted well to his temporary disability so now it's up to me to make sure I protect him from its drawbacks the best I can.

Thanks for the input. Other people here are welcome to add their comments.

[jane19]

I second Michael that getting an asthmatic (or pneumonia patient) to exert harder in order to get on his normal daily activity is not very nice. I would probably get sued if I tell a human patient to put 5kg weights on each foot when they do their daily jogs while having an asthma flare up. But I guess when it comes to bird care a lot of people adapt the bird brain themselves.

I think for now it is better to keep the bird confined a little longer than usual, say 8 hour play time reduced to 6 and bedtime earlier or something, if keeping it in a small room is not possible. And if next molt is too far away you can pluck alternate trimmed feathers and let it grow out again.

[LadySaphine]

Interesting possibility. I live in the Finger Lakes and decided to take my bird to Cornell because it's such a renowned vet school/hospital and my bird could be cared for by a specialist who teaches avian medicine. I hate to think he wouldn't know what is better for the bird.

Sorry to butt in like this... but I am super jealous of you. xD I want to go to Cornell after high school but I can't bring Peanut...

[JimH]

Hmmm. Methinks the "extra exertion" argument does make sense. Not happy about this. The vet asked a ton of questions about Bishop's behavior before he suggested the clip, so maybe he factored that in. Bishop has never been a frequent flyer, other than a strange daily marathon every evening at 6 pm when he flies the whole house like crazy for several minutes. Talk about exertion. He always panted afterwards for 10-15 mins. Anyway, he took off to do this once after the clip and when he saw he wasn't going anywhere he simply stopped trying to fly and hasn't tried since.

I will call the vet today and ask directly.

[JimH]

Oh, and LadySaphine, there are a ton of student apartments in Ithaca that accept pets. I'm sure you could find roommates.

[JimH]

Well, the vet says he would not generally clip a bird with a respiratory problem for the reason you guys stated. He said he only did it in this case because of the behaviors particular to the bird/my answers to his questions. He said he does think he clipped one feather too many after hearing my description of Bishop's landings and recommended that I keep a low table or chair with a pillow on it that is close enough for Bishop to target accurately and that he can climb down from. I trained him to the target spot this afternoon and he can do it with no problem.