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new young parrot taming/training - clip or not?

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Re: new young parrot taming/training - clip or not?

Postby jksmith5151 » Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:03 pm

Hi Micheal,

I truly appreciate all of the great information posted. I think I found my favorite parrot forum! I do have a question please. I think it would be amazing to allow my new Senegal parrot to be flighted but at the moment she is clipped. All of her primary's are clipped. This week is her 4th week home. She is 8 months old. The breeder clipped her wings before I brought her home. They told me she would be safer clipped.

Background: I do not know how she was handled or how much socialization she received during the 8 months they had her. For the past few weeks it seems she hasn't been shown too much of the 'world'. She been very nervous with any new little thing she sees. I also do not know if she ever learned to fly. I do know they allow their parakeets and cockatiels to fly in an aviery after being weaned but I don't know about the parrots. I did notice that the Blue and Gold Macaw that they have is flighted. I could probably ask them this weekend about that though. They have an aviery at their home and they bring their birds for sale in small travel size cages every weekend to their parrot store at the big fleamarket. I bought Cassie from them because I've known them for a long time. They always seem to work hard to match the right bird to the right person and they they make sure all of their birds are very healthy. I cetainly didn't want to buy from a pet store so going to them seemed my best choice. Cassie so far has been a joy to have home.

Anyway.... lol, forgive my rambling, my question is... after Cassie's flight feathers grow back, what might I expect? Let's say worse case, she never previously learned to fly. I would love to let her have all of her pretty feathers. If she's never flown, is it too late for her to learn to fly or is she still young enough to learn okay? In the future I would love to teach Cassie to fly to me like Kili does with you. That is so special and I would love that so much if Cassie could do that. I would also love teach her the pretty wings trick in the future. I have so much to look forward to with her and I would love to do all I can to make her happy.

---- Kimberley Smith
jksmith5151
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Re: new young parrot taming/training - clip or not?

Postby Michael » Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:24 pm

This would be the same thing is Kili or possibly better. Kili was clipped once at the store and never since. She isn't the greatest flier because she's missing feathers that don't seem to grow back in anymore. She didn't know how to fly at all. That's why I came up with parrot training perches and used the targeting method to teach her to fly. This topic shows the videos and method I used to teach her to fly again:

http://theparrotforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=228

So it is obvious the bird can learn how to fly again or even if it never had. However, if the bird was clipped too soon (or for too long) it will go through many crashes and accidents as it relearns to fly and I'm sure they'll hurt much more than when it's just a baby learning to fly.

Breeders don't clip parrots for safety, they clip them for convenience. Don't let them lie to you. Truman came to me not-clipped as per special request and there weren't any problems as the result of him being flighted. He barely crashed and learned to fly very well. Kili is still mentally retarded to some extent for the lack of learning to fly during the right time. She flies ok, but the difference is very clear with Truman. He can think on the fly and change his mind in the air as he goes. Kili has to think of where she wants to go first and then go there. If she misses, she has to land somewhere immediately and then start again. In reality, to the typical pet owner this can actually be a bit convenient because the parrot can learn to stay in parrot designated areas (if done properly) and be less flighty later on. But it also has a downside in that the parrot will never be as good at flight and is at higher risk of getting hurt.
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Michael
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Re: new young parrot taming/training - clip or not?

Postby laducockatiel » Thu Jun 09, 2011 6:49 am

I agree totally with Michael here. Birds were designed to fly, they have feathers (which are lighter do help them fly easier), they have wings (to help them take off and to control flight), and they are not designed to just walk around! If you want to train your bird the it will run away and be completely scared of you. When i got my bird he flew around to get used to his surroundings and your bird will not be able to do this if you clip his wings. It will also be hassle for you as you will have to keep on clipping hi wings or waste valuable money on preventing what birds were made to do. I coulnt live with myself if did this and my bird will also not be able to do fight recall. Consider these facts please.
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