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Clipped vs. Flighted

Discuss indoor freeflight and managing freeflighted birds around the house. How to live with a flighted parrot.

Re: Clipped vs. Flighted

Postby marie83 » Sun Feb 24, 2013 6:09 am

aww sorry to hear that about your GCC. Personally I would have dealt with it differently but obviously you felt that was best and that it certainly wasn't the worst possible thing to do in the circumstances. I'm glad he pulled through okay :)
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Re: Clipped vs. Flighted

Postby Andromeda » Sun Feb 24, 2013 9:47 am

friend2parrots wrote:thanks for sharing Bubbas story (Im sorry the little fella had to go through that!


marie83 wrote:aww sorry to hear that about your GCC.


Thanks for the sympathy; I am sorry he had to go through that, too, it was really horrifying.

friend2parrots wrote:I'm going to go back and edit that post to say, "most accidents that a flighted bird (who is already proficient in indoor flight) can experience can be prevented by precautions taken by a diligent owner"


Honestly if we are talking about proficient fliers I think all accidents are preventable. If you take precautions in the kitchen, in bathrooms, in rooms with mirrors, with windows, with ceiling fans, with other pets and with doors leading outside it's hard for me to imagine what would happen with a proficient flier.

It's a totally inexperienced flier that is a potential danger because while they can see an obstacle like a wall they don't necessarily have the control to turn or slow down to avoid a collision. Still, I just think this is a reason to never clip a bird in the first place. If they are allowed to fledge it's not a problem.

marie83 wrote:Personally I would have dealt with it differently but obviously you felt that was best and that it certainly wasn't the worst possible thing to do in the circumstances.


I'm curious how you would have handled it? Also for the purposes of other people reading this thread it would be good to hear because if there are ways to ensure the safety of a bird with a brain injury without clipping I am all for it.

If he had flown into a window or a mirror that would have been my fault but he planted himself against a wall that he could see from his cage. I couldn't come up with any solution to prevent it from happening again other than clipping but I certainly could have overlooked something!
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Re: Clipped vs. Flighted

Postby marie83 » Sun Feb 24, 2013 12:28 pm

Andromeda wrote:It's a totally inexperienced flier that is a potential danger because while they can see an obstacle like a wall they don't necessarily have the control to turn or slow down to avoid a collision. Still, I just think this is a reason to never clip a bird in the first place. If they are allowed to fledge it's not a problem.

marie83 wrote:Personally I would have dealt with it differently but obviously you felt that was best and that it certainly wasn't the worst possible thing to do in the circumstances.


I'm curious how you would have handled it? Also for the purposes of other people reading this thread it would be good to hear because if there are ways to ensure the safety of a bird with a brain injury without clipping I am all for it.


Its not too far out there, I'm taking in to account your reasoning with him being a rescue and a neglected feather chewer so you didn't want him cagebound longer than necessary. If he had of been my bird though, I would just have kept him cage bound for a lot longer whilst he was healing rather than outright clipping (even a mild clip). I have found it better to allow more settling in time in older birds anyway and tend to keep them in their cages longer than those who are still babies, like Madison, Tico and Ollie were when I bought them home.

I would choose to do this purely because birds can and do fall off perches and I would have made the assessment that without full use of the wings, when he is used to them for balance, the chance of him dropping off of a perch would be higher than before also he would have less chance of saving himself.
I also believe from my own experiences that birds learn very quickly the boundaries of the room and even when spooked they are unlikely to make the same mistakes twice (im talking seperate occassions rather than a double crash and its not to say it cant happen) as they tend to lower their flight speeds, hence why I would leave the bird cage bound for a few weeks rather than restrict its flight for months.
Hope this explains my choice :)

As I've said before I'm not 100% anti clipping, I do believe there are some circumstances where a clip is appropriate (although very rarely) I can totally see why yours might be one of those rare circumstances.
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Re: Clipped vs. Flighted

Postby Elaihr » Fri Mar 21, 2014 4:33 pm

My Pi is fully flighted and purposefully so. I've always been fascinated by birds, and I think being able to fly is kind of a big part of being a bird (except for penguins, kiwis and so forth of course), so clipping has never been an option. I wish I could fly, and if my bird can do it, why not let it? If I couldn't keep an animal without taking away something so essential to them, I'd prefer not keeping one at all :)
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Re: Clipped vs. Flighted

Postby thelonelysnake » Wed Mar 26, 2014 1:37 pm

A little off topic, but about how long does it take for feathers to grow back out? I am getting a baby African Grey soon however the breeder has the wings clipped very short. I want to keep the bird flighted (or at least mostly flighted with only a couple feathers clipped to slow them down some, but only at first). But I would like to know about how long I will have before I can expect some successful flapping rather than being taken by surprise one day and having him or her get away and have to chase it around the house. :flapping:
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Re: Clipped vs. Flighted

Postby AnarchoBoxer » Tue May 06, 2014 4:41 pm

Tuco was clipped when I got him, but I vowed never to clip a bird's wings. To me it is like declawing a cat, removing the toes from a human, and circumcizing babies without their permission. My opinion is that birds are equipped and meant to be able to fly, and to take this away from them would be selfish of me.

Unfortunately, Tuco spent the first year+ of his life in a small cage with clipped wings before he came home with me, and so he doesn't really know how to fly yet and when he does, it fatigues him quickly. When he does fly, he tries to come to me. A goal of mine is to at least do indoor free flight with him. Where I live there is a robust population of red-tailed hawks, so I wouldn't be comfortable outdoor flying anything but a large macaw.
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Re: Clipped vs. Flighted

Postby Michael » Tue May 06, 2014 4:44 pm

Good plan. I recommend the perch to perch target flying method to not only build up flight skills but also flight muscles. Then turn to working on recall and challenging flights indoors.
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Re: Clipped vs. Flighted

Postby AnarchoBoxer » Sat May 10, 2014 5:47 am

Michael wrote:Good plan. I recommend the perch to perch target flying method to not only build up flight skills but also flight muscles. Then turn to working on recall and challenging flights indoors.


Thanks for the advice!
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Re: Clipped vs. Flighted

Postby Helga » Mon May 12, 2014 10:10 am

I wouldn't take away Senegal parrots ability to fly. Mine is fast and agile, she can stop nearly as fast on free air as a bat. I have safety chains at doorways..so they can not be opened freely when bird is free. Cheap and easy way to secure the house..just that chains have to be tight -no room left the bird to escape.
Ofcourse I have to be very careful when I open refrigerators door. She knows that sound, and it's quite a feeling when a Senegal arrives with full speed and stops on ones shoulder.

Sorry about writing mistakes.
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Re: Clipped vs. Flighted

Postby Wolf » Mon May 12, 2014 11:11 am

Helga wrote:I wouldn't take away Senegal parrots ability to fly. Mine is fast and agile, she can stop nearly as fast on free air as a bat. I have safety chains at doorways..so they can not be opened freely when bird is free. Cheap and easy way to secure the house..just that chains have to be tight -no room left the bird to escape.
Ofcourse I have to be very careful when I open refrigerators door. She knows that sound, and it's quite a feeling when a Senegal arrives with full speed and stops on ones shoulder.

Sorry about writing mistakes.

I know what you mean, only my Senegal flies at full speed and lands on the side or back of my head.
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