I feel like there are too many hazards. There are 3 ceiling fans on the first floor where the bird is. There is a heat lamp for tortoise that would burn her severely were she to land on it. The kids come in and out a lot, as do friends, so there are a lot of "open door" hazards.
I understand that a small, unflighted bird on a floor is at risk, too. She seems to hop/fly from one piece of furniture to the next to get around.
The bird was clipped when I got her. I'm not ruling out letting her become flighted but I'm not sure I will, either. I understand that she could still fly away if she were outside, clipped or unclipped. I just figure she's less likely to get outside if she can't fly out the slider.
About the same time I got my CAG in 1990, a Grey flew out the door of a house a few miles from me. There was a lot of press about it at the time. People kept finding the grey in various places around the North Shore. Thing was, every bird that was found and captured was the wrong bird. There were 4 or 5 CAGs found flying around in the area, and none were the missing bird from Nahant. The missing bird never went far. She was found on the beach a few weeks later. They figure that she had flown out the door and over the water. When she touched down in the salt water in the dark, the was probably the end for her. All the press coverage at the time stressed the importance of keeping the birds' wings clipped, including interviews with avian vets at Angell Memorial Hospital. It shocked me that there were all these escaped CAG's flying around north of Boston.
The OP makes a compelling argument for keeping birds flighted, but some of the arguments made in the thread don't seem to hold water upon close examination. Dogs and cats are born with genitals, yet we are routinely told that neutering and spaying these animals makes them happier and healthier. Is this just propaganda aimed at curbing the problem of unwanted puppies and kittens? Maybe. But these are permanent life-altering surgeries that are not only tolerated, but strongly recommended. Kittens adopted from most shelters are spayed and neutered at a very young age, depriving their growing bodies of all sorts of hormones they are supposed to have. Does Sweden lock up vets for neutering cats? It's irreversible.
Criminalizing the clipping of feathers seems like charging one with child abuse for giving a kid a bad haircut. In both cases, it will grow back. I understand that birds are wild and dogs are domesticated, but the argument that "God made them that way" can't apply to one pet and not to another, can it? And I understand that there are psychological effects to clipping wings, but we once had a poodle that would sulk for a week everytime she got a haircut. I imagine the radical hysterectomy she got at 5 probably upset her and changed her life, too. And those parts don't grow back.
It will be a while before I have to decide whether to clip this bird's wings. There will be a lot of things to factor into the decision. I guess the thought of it being a criminal act to clip wings made me angry enough to post. A decision like this should be between you, your bird, and your vet. The government should not be involved. (Now where have I heard a similar argument?
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