How to properly clip wings?

[Michael]

Well I asked the person who does the clipping what percent of people bringing their birds in for grooming have the wings clipped and she told me over 80%! This of course doesn't speak for people who do it themselves or people who don't clip at all (because they never take the bird out of the cage). However, an unclipped always caged parrot is even worse than a clipped one that gets let out at least. Online forums (like this one) are a worse example of what proportion clips cause we generally attract more experienced or at least interested people. People who have the desire to go online to learn how to treat their bird better will surely at least consider not clipping. The rest of the folks out there...

[skeetersunconure]

hey well i have a sunconure named skeeter who was clipped when i got him the feathers still have not come in so he is still canntot fly but i have a dog anad she snuck intomy room one night and skeeter had let himself out of his old cage and was walking on my dresser and sandy (dog) came in and she is a terrier so she scared skeeter and he fell and she got him and shook him we rescued him and he is okay and since then got better cage but if he was flighted he would of been able to get away als there are times when i know he would love to fly and he gets so restless sometimes i would advise you to let them fly but its your descion and just think about as it can be a very hard one and believe me i thought about it for a long time before finally deciding skeeter would become a fully flighted bird from now on so good luck

[Banksie]

Well I asked the person who does the clipping what percent of people bringing their birds in for grooming have the wings clipped and she told me over 80%! This of course doesn't speak for people who do it themselves or people who don't clip at all (because they never take the bird out of the cage). However, an unclipped always caged parrot is even worse than a clipped one that gets let out at least. Online forums (like this one) are a worse example of what proportion clips cause we generally attract more experienced or at least interested people. People who have the desire to go online to learn how to treat their bird better will surely at least consider not clipping. The rest of the folks out there...

My thinking is that I would have thought that generally people who don't clip wings would generally clip nails/beaks themselves so wouldn't go to the vet for grooming. I can't express why I think this is the case as it will reignite the thread!

[Anna]

My birds have never been wing clipped and it works for us. They are extremely good at flying and they really enjoy it. For me, it´s unthinkable to have a clipped bird, birds are made for flying and I think that letting a parrot keep its wing feathers is the best thing one could do for it to stay healthy and happy.
In Sweden it´s more common to have fully flighted parrots, but of course some people clip. A good thing is that a lot of breeders harness train the babies before selling them which help people make the decision not to clip their parrots.