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My Rehomed Macaw is Clipped!

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My Rehomed Macaw is Clipped!

Postby Wahnthac » Tue May 15, 2018 4:43 pm

I'm pretty much just posting this as a sorta rant, sorta crowd-sourcing hope.

I just got a GW macaw from a local bird store 1 week ago today. While tirelessly seeking knowledge about other aspects of what to expect, there's one thing that doesn't seem to have a definite answer.

She's clipped. Her wing feathers don't look great (I don't have any experience with a clipped bird, so maybe it just looks bad to me). If I can get a picture of her wings open, I'll post it to see what anybody here thinks. Anyway, it makes me so sad that somebody took those gorgeous wings and destroyed them. She also does this thing sometimes where it looks like she's trying to pluck feathers out of her wings, but I never see her get one out. Just makes this awful crunching noise near the base of the wing.

I have read a lot about birds who damage their follicles and can't grow certain feathers back. So I'm worried, but hopeful that she will one day get to grow those feathers back and get to experience flight. I just have no idea how long I'm about to have to wait, or what the signs will look like if she will be unfortunate enough to not be able to grow those feathers back.
Wahnthac
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Re: My Rehomed Macaw is Clipped!

Postby Michael » Tue May 15, 2018 4:50 pm

Unfortunately, this is pretty much the norm. Ignorance still dominates. People who don't like birds, cut birds into the shape of animal that would be more convenient to their lifestyle.
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Michael
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Re: My Rehomed Macaw is Clipped!

Postby Pajarita » Wed May 16, 2018 9:29 am

Well, if her wings were clipped, she will regain all her remiges in two years so it' just a matter of waiting. But the 'crunching' sound worries me because it could be that she was not actually clipped but that she is barbering them. Barbering is when they cut the feather with their beak instead of pulling them off by the root -which is plucking.
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Re: My Rehomed Macaw is Clipped!

Postby Zorro_the_bhc_2015 » Fri Jul 27, 2018 3:13 pm

Do u have preening toys to prevent plucking?
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Re: My Rehomed Macaw is Clipped!

Postby Pajarita » Sat Jul 28, 2018 8:24 am

I'll be honest with you, Melissa, I have never found that preening toys help discourage or even prevent plucking. I know that it's a very common advice given to people with pluckers but I don't really think it works...
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Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes


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