Clipping?

[clairekd13]

We have a wooden ledge wrapping all the way around the entire walls of my house near the ceiling, and my fully flighted parrot loves to fly up there and eat the paint that flakes off, as well as the plaster from the wall, dust and dead insects.
It interferes with interaction and training because he loves to fly up there and eat the debris. It is quite high up. He is capable of flight recall but he is often too distracted to focus. As soon as I reach my hand out after standing on a chair or something, he'll step up without hesitation.
But this is not the biggest problem.
I'm not sure how much of the debris he actually ingests but it is obviously not healthy for him! I've noticed his droppings are very runny and seems to be mostly comprised of very runny fluid with a small amount of white urea. This is by no means normal! He is also often fluffed up in his cage which is unusual.
Not only this, but I accidentally broke a leg from the couch after climbing on it to reach for him. My mother was extremely angry :/...
Even though I love having flighted parrots as it should be, the problem is only worsening. My parrot is 2 years old and has been fully flighted his entire life. But I can't have him getting very ill and I've tried everything else to keep him from flying up to the ledge but nothing seems to work, he is very strong-willed and if he wants to do it, he will. I've tried scraping the debris away but he chews the paint and plaster off the wall. Thus, the only option I've been able to think of has been to clip his wings.
He's had his fair share of crashing into walls and windows and this has never changed my opinion on flight but his health is not up to scratch and this is all I can think of doing to prevent him from eating anything else.

What do you suggest I do? I'd look for any other option. If I must clip, what are the consequences?
For example, may he turn to aggression and biting to get away from problems? I've always been able to read his opinion quite clearly- if he doesn't like it he'll fly off. He doesn't bite, will he have to turn to this as a method of getting his point across?

[clairekd13]

Sorry, I sounded a tad ignorant.
I do know about the psychological consequences of clipping- possible trauma, feather plucking etc.
As well as the physical consequences such as accidentally cutting a blood feather. I'm planning on going to a vet of course, if it does occur which fingers crossed it won't.

My last question about consequences was me mainly
wondering if anyone has had experience with a loving bird whose wings were clipped and then became very aggressive.

[Michael]

Yes, there are plenty of examples where people had nice flighted birds and then clipping created so much drama that things changed. The problems aren't only psychological but physical. They lose their ability to exercise and it's bad for their muscles and cardio-vascular system. If you are having trouble training him now, it won't get any better by clipping. You need to work on training motivation and creating alternative more desirable places for him to hang out. Clipping doesn't solve the problem. It only masks it while creating many others.

[Pajarita]

They also need to fly to maintain a healthy respiratory system (one of the main causes of death in companion birds are respiratory infections). But your problem is not your bird, he is doing what all normal birds do (fly to the highest perch and chew on whatever he finds), your problem is that the room where he is kept is not bird-proof (cover the wall around the ledge with Plexiglas so he cannot chew it). The other problem here is that you are assuming that the diarrhea (if it is diarrhea and not polyuria) is caused by his ingesting paint and plaster, which might very well be but, in reality, you don't know and he could have any of a number of medical problems which also cause diarrhea/polyuria like bacterial/viral/fungal infection, chlamydiosis, giardia, metal poisoning, liver damage, kidney malfunction, etc. so, please, instead of clipping your bird, take him to an avian vet first and take care of the problem and, once he is OK, just bird-proof the room. There is always an alternative solution to a problem with a parrot that will not mess up the bird...

[liz]

Myrtle is my flighted Amazon. She travels on my shoulder through the house when she is not eating or playing.

We have two cats who go out the front door. I say "kitty wants in" and Myrtle holds tight while the door is open.

Two weeks ago the wind was so bad that it pulled the storm door out of my hands and Myrtle off my shoulder. The wind pulled her backwards. When she spred her wings to right herself the wind took her and blew her in the other direction. It was only because she was able to fly that she navigated enough to grab a twig on the top of my neighbor's 20 foot high tree. This can happen to a clipped bird too but they would not have the ability to navigate.

Myrtle is back with me thanks to a miracle due to prayer. She is not a pet she is my baby so Mom and I prayed. She was in the tree for about 3 hours calling down to me for help. The wind was too bad for her to let go of her twig. When it calmed for a second she would step one inch down her branch. At the rate she was going it would have taken days to climb down.

The miracle: A young man about 14 years old kept walking up and down the road. He pulled off his shoes in the driveway and asked if we needed help. (He probably thought we had a cat up the tree.)
He said he could climb anything and he ment it. At the top he spred his body weight over multiple branches to get close enough to her. She did not know him and told him "no". I told her to get on him. He broke the twig she was on and put it to his shoulder. She held on tight while he climbed down close so I could get her. This young man had never been near a bird before.


She now jumps off when I head for the door.

[clairekd13]

Thanks everyone, I knew clipping was probably not a solution. It was merely my lack of experience and ignorance that led me to believe that could be my "last resort".
Of course, I am trying my best to convince my mother to take my parrot to a vet but she is a tough nut to crack. She grew up in the country where everyone had pet birds they had simply found in the wild (back where laws were not enforced). If animals got sick, you just had to deal with it. Thus, it's difficult to convince my mum to take any pet to the vet. I'm trying my best, but in the meantime I'll do what I can at home to keep him from deteriorating and/or chewing on any more possibly toxic materials.

I've been thinking, considering he loves to chew and thus he is flying up to that ledge, perhaps I could just reward him with an old string or something to chew? Would that be motivational enough for him to
a) stop chewing at the ledge
b) be positively reinforced for doing tricks and behaviours?
Thanks again everyone.

[clairekd13]

All though I have tried to bird-proof all the rooms (they all have this stupid ledge full of debris)
by vacuuming the excess dust, paint etc. there's not really anything else other than that I can do as its my family's house who don't really take much interest in my pets. If anyone had any suggestions that would be really helpful.

[GreenWing]

Liz - loved reading that story, so glad Myrtle is okay!

Clairekd13 I know what you're talking about when you have a flighted bird up to mischief. My Sennie LOVES flying and stealing my little eyeshadow compacts and cosmetic brushes as I put my makeup on, and she flies off with it with me chasing after her. She thinks the whole thing is absolutely hilarious. Nonetheless, things have been so much better since bird-proofing my cosmetics by keeping everything in a little box and putting things away after application. As others said, bird-proofing really is the solution. Put a tapestry up that will conceal the paint so your bird can't get into it. Tapestries are beautiful and many are really inexpensive, such as batik tapestries (and hey, since I sew I'll probably be making parrot-oriented tapestries in the future with a portion of proceeds donated to Ginger's parrot rescue).

Lastly, from personal experience having a flighted bird means a happier bird and therefore less problems. Clipping will cause more issues, like aggression and screaming, not to mention health issues as well.

[clairekd13]

I'll give it my best shot. As I said before, I was really reluctant to clip my birds wings at a vet because he loves to fly, and I've spent so much time teaching him to recall. Not only this, I have a cat and it worried me to think if a situation did arise, he would not be able to get away. Thanks so much for providing me with an alternate and much, much better solution!

[cml]

Myrtle is my flighted Amazon. She travels on my shoulder through the house when she is not eating or playing.

We have two cats who go out the front door. I say "kitty wants in" and Myrtle holds tight while the door is open.

Two weeks ago the wind was so bad that it pulled the storm door out of my hands and Myrtle off my shoulder. The wind pulled her backwards. When she spred her wings to right herself the wind took her and blew her in the other direction. It was only because she was able to fly that she navigated enough to grab a twig on the top of my neighbor's 20 foot high tree. This can happen to a clipped bird too but they would not have the ability to navigate.

Myrtle is back with me thanks to a miracle due to prayer. She is not a pet she is my baby so Mom and I prayed. She was in the tree for about 3 hours calling down to me for help. The wind was too bad for her to let go of her twig. When it calmed for a second she would step one inch down her branch. At the rate she was going it would have taken days to climb down.

The miracle: A young man about 14 years old kept walking up and down the road. He pulled off his shoes in the driveway and asked if we needed help. (He probably thought we had a cat up the tree.)
He said he could climb anything and he ment it. At the top he spred his body weight over multiple branches to get close enough to her. She did not know him and told him "no". I told her to get on him. He broke the twig she was on and put it to his shoulder. She held on tight while he climbed down close so I could get her. This young man had never been near a bird before.


She now jumps off when I head for the door.

Liz, I am glad that Myrtle is okay! Have you come back to the forum as well ?