Let an older bird's clipped feathers grow or no?

[lwis]

I am not the biggest fan of clipping wings.
I was curious whether it would be hazardous to let an older bird's flight feathers grown in when he has been clipped his whole life....lets assume that flight training would be done, and that efforts were made to familiarize him with objects like windows and mirrors and things like that.
What do you think?

[Polarn]

I think the hardest part will be to get it to start flying at all, besides that I think most of the work is to get the muscles built up, and as you sed watch out a little for windows etc, but that you have to do with a baby bird as well.
I'm not sure however if the birds flightskills will be as goos as a bird who has been flying its whole life... But I am pretty sure it can learn, but I think it will be walking for some time even after the feathers are back.

[pennyandrocky]

hi, just went through this with my cockatoo she was 7 when i got her she is a feather chewer and was clipped. when her flight feathers came in her instincts took over and every day she would hold the bars on her cage and exercise her wings. when she flew the first few times she crashed but she was not injured and never flew into any windows i hear about this alot on here from people trying to justify clipping but has it ever actually happened to anyone on here?

[liz]

Penny is right. Instinct will help it. It will exercise it's muscles while holding on the the perch just like a baby does. It will start with short distances and crash land. Landing is not instinct and the crashes happen a lot at first.

Myrtle was always clipped and caged. She practiced flapping on the top of her cage when she realized she could be free. Her first flight were to the floor. Not knowing what else to do she would walk to me to climb up to my shoulder. This was before she would let me touch her. Instead of being a scared little bird her flight has given her confidence.

Rambo who has no flight feathers is trying to build his muscle and flapps like a humming bird to stary airborne. That is how important flight is to them. By the way - Rambo doesn't get that far when he flies but he has perfected his landing. Of course one of his landings was on a dog. I am really glad we have interspecies friendship in this house. The dog waited for him to get off before she moved.

[felix11]

There are many people who have successfully trained older parrots to fly - while it will definitely be a lot of work I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun for both of you! Don't push him too fast - muscle takes a long time to strengthen, and flight should be enjoyable, not a chore.