Thinking about crossing over to the dark side...

[born2fly]

...please talk me out of it.

My Red Bellied came to me fully flighted but from what I know he was always clipped until the previous owner just let the feathers grow. He's not tame but started to come out of the cage on his own and seems to enjoy it. The problem is he is easily spooked or he will take of for no reason but he's a very very poor flier. Just today he had 2 pretty bad crashes, I mean headon with the wall.

I really don't want to clip his wings but want him to enjoy being out of the cage and not get injured.

[Azure Hanyo]

Honestly... If it were me, I would clip until he was nice and tame and let his wings grow back. I know that is not popular opinion, and supposedly may cause him psychological trauma but...if your bird is so scared he keeps flying into things, he might accidentally injure himself or worse.

I see a debate in the not-so-distant future.

[ptuga72]

My *not so popular* opinion is that clipping while you tame/train might be a good option for you. It doesn't have to be a severe clip, nor does it have to be a permanent thing. Of course the emphasis is on working with him so he isn't so nervous and understands obstacles in his flight path, not just clipping.

[Kim S]

If the problem is the crashing and not the taming I would never cut his wings. I wouldnt cut them anyway, but thats my oppinion.

My point is, if he has troubles flying now, it sure as hell isnt going to get better if you clip him again. He needs to learn how to fly, and the only way to learn is to crash every now and then. I know its scary, but thats the only way to learn.

And like it has been said before on this site. Clipping wings is not the option for taming. Parrots are prey animals. They have the flight or fight response. You mentioned he gets 'spooked' and flies off. What do you think will happen if he gets spooked and cant get away?

[HyperD]

How about doing some flight training with him?

[Azure Hanyo]

How about doing some flight training with him?

Wow I feel silly. This question seems like the obvious choice!

[CheekyandMalolo]

What is Flight Training? Sorry to hijack your thread, but my partners Cockatiel fails at flying. He has a really severe clip(we got him at 12 weeks, it took until he was about 8-9 months old before he started growing new flight feathers, and would just drop like a rock before then), and really cannot fly very well at all. He's been slowly getting better, ever so slightly. But he can only fly up to the curtain rails with any sort of direction. Sometimes he'll end up doing laps around the room until he finally crashes into something and lands on the ground. He now has all his flight feathers(finally!), but has never managed to grow more than 1 or 2 tail feathers before he breaks it off by landing on his bum!

[Kathleen]

http://trainedparrot.com/index.php?bid=12

[born2fly]

My problem is that he's 6 years old and I am his third owner, and as far as I know he rarely had time outside of the cage. It took me 3 months just for him to come out on his own. I also belive he was first clipped before he learned to fly.

So would the same flight training apply as if he was a young parrot?

[Kim S]

The point of flighttraining is teaching the bird to fly to his perch on command. He will learn to recognise that perch as a place to land. When he is flying around the room he will start looking for that perch and try to land there in stead of smashing into the wall. Knowing where to land safely will improve his confidence.