Clipping Wing?

[phantompharter]

Hi All,

We have a 4 month old Wiero (Cockatiel) named Didge who we have had for 1 month now.
He is our first bird, and we have just begun to clicker train him (Just getting him to recognise that a click means food).
Generally he is very well behaved and affectionate, and he comes happily with us on our shoulder most of the places we go to – work, friends houses, shops, parks, beach etc.

He was hand-reared and when we bought him from the breeder he had one wing clipped quite far – all primary feathers cut. (I have added his photo to this post).
He does fly off our shoulders occasionally, but manages to get a few metres at most and then careens out of control and ‘crash’ lands.
We are worried that he will hurt himself on these occasions.

Now I know we are a way off teaching him to fly just yet, but as it takes so long for his feathers to grow back we want to know how best to deal with his clipped wings so that when it comes time to flight him he will be in the best position to do so. We want him to be a fully flighted bird.

We are wondering:
1) Would clipping the second wing help with his flight navigation during training and while both wings grow out;
2) Does he need clipped or full wings to begin flight training;

Thanks for your advice!
Casper and Erin (and Didge)

P1110299a.jpg (218.92 KiB) Viewed 13542 times

[Kim S]

Jeesh! Of all the bad ways of clipping your bird, this must be the most stupid one. How is he suppose to keep balance?
They dont just loose flight but they also loose the controll they have over where and how they land. They litarlly spin out of controll.

It depends on how far the first wing is clipped. Normally I would say to clip the second wing the same way so he will have balance again. The problem is that, by looking at him, I think he is clipped very heavily. If you clip the second wing the same way theres a chance he will crash just as hard. Not becourse he loses controll, but he has no lift anymore.

Please keep an eye on the chestbone, the bony edge you feel on his chest. Skinny birds (and young birds often are skinny) will have little fat and muscle mass to cover that bone. So if he falls on there it can rupture his skin.

[pchela]

Yes, one sided clips are terrible for the bird. But the wing that is clipped looks like it is clipped far too severely. As Kim says, I'm not sure what the best route for you to go is in this situation. You don't want to butcher the other wing as well but the bird needs to be balanced. Anybody have any suggestions?

[lainmai]

As butchered as it would be the only thing I can advise is to mimic the cut on the other wing to regain the balance. Your best bet might be to talk to a vet on this but I'm pretty sure they'll tell you to cut the flights off and wait for the next molt to either clip them properly or allow the bird flight.

Personally I'd clip the bird again after its first molt and allow it partial flight so it can regain strength in its wings as well as confidence before allowing it to be fully flighted after the experience the poor thing has had!

...the breeder obviously does not know a thing about clipping a bird =(

[Michael]

Don't take a parrot outside unrestrained whether clipped or not. Especially a cockatiel because they can fly well even while clipped.

[YungAndintrigued]

Lol. micheal out of everything in that picture all you responded about was him being outside.

[Michael]

Yeah well the last discussion I remember about cockatiels was of one in Entranced's tree...

[a.susz]

i had clipped cockatiels many many years ago and they were still able to get lift to the ceiling....

[MandyG]

I bought Mojo's camping cage off of a couple that used to keep a cockatiel in the cage. The bird was always clipped so they thought it was safe for it to ride between the house and garage on their shoulders and they weren't very careful of keeping doors closed. It lived in their heated garage and the man left the door open while doing something and the bird flew away (despite being clipped its whole life) and when they found it they weren't able to get it down from the tree because the poor bird had no idea how to get down. The cold got to the poor thing before the people could get him down. They had no idea that cockatiels are such great fliers.

Sorry for continuing to be o/t, I'd just rather you be aware of the potential hazards than to learn about them after something horrible happened!

[Erithacus]

I had a cockatiel 20 over years ago. He flew away with the wind despite of having clipped wings.