i think if you are going to clip your birds again bring them to the vet to see how its done even though people have explanedit it could go wrong and badly injure your birds

 

I think if I do decide to clip, I'll have a vet do it. I wouldn't want to hurt the birds. I saw one of the clipped feathers on the bottom of the cage the other day. Do the new feathers grow quickly?

once the clipped feather has fallen out, the new one should emerge within days. they seem to just pop out.

:hap: I feel a little sad reading this topic and obviously everyone has their own reasons for doing what they do.. I'm just torn with Munchkin at the moment. I haven't and wont ever clip Apples wings as he just doesn't use them above head height anyway, but Munchkin is like a little helicopter and goes straight up and then across the room at near ceiling height.. its not that i mind him flying, I love that he does its just that living in the tropics under a tin roof with only ceiling fans to keep cool is a major problem I wish there was some way i could make the fans safe but its just not possible.. and its too darn hot without them. and i so don't want to clip him but i'm feeling its going to be my only option, other than keeping him shut up in his cage all day

As I mentioned when I started this topic, both of my birds came with clipped wings. But they can fly. Sylvester can probably fly a couple of feet - like from my hand to his cage. But Tweety, even with the clipped wings can fly across a room. She doesn't have a lot of height - maybe 4 feet, but she can go long distances. I still don't see any sign of the flight feathers coming in. She is clumsy though. She sometimes bumps into things. I try to discourage the flying but if she gets spooked she will take off from my finger.

The new flight feathers wont come until the next molt or even the next. I clip only the first 4 flight feathers of my indoor budgies once only. For example when Chirpy was brought into the house, I clipped to stop him hirting himself and to calm him down. (Safety) He could still fly from cage to Gym. approximately 2 meters. When he grows his new flight feathers, they will stay. He will have learnt slowly where he can and can't fly. George and Angel have all there flight feathers and enjoy flying around the rooms.

I don't believe that there wings should stay clipped.

I was reading up on clipping wings. There is a method where you can clip every second primary feather, this is so that the feathers don't cling together and enable them to fly. You can do this the same way, but instead of cutting every second primary feather you can strip it and leave a shaft.

And if you do cut a blood feather, you must pluck the feather immediately and apply pressure to the skin around it till it stops bleeding.

I honestly don't see how that would work. My birds fly almost 100% perfectly with just ONE flight feather. (Learned that today: Piper's got a flight, not even one of the longer ones, and can fly just like she used to.)

 

And stripping the feather?? That doesn't sound good AT ALL. Stick to just cutting a few of the first primaries. Where did you find this information?

I read it in "The Illustrated Veterinary Guide, Second Edition"

Very interesting book

 

When you strip the feather I forgot to say that you strip it by cutting the fluff off rather than pulling at it. Sorry

Seems like that would make the feather more vulnerable to breaking. Not to mention uncomfortable for the budgie. Sometimes feather discomfort can lead to plucking as well... I'm no vet but I wouldn't be able to do that to any of my birds. And again, with budgies, all it takes is one little flight sometimes to allow them full (or almost full) flight.

Yeah I don't agree with stripping the feather either, but clipping everyother feather sounds feasible. Apparently that works by not allowing the feathers to cling to each other and make a solid wing. Inorder to fly properly the feathers need to cling to each other to make a solid plane, and by clipping every other feather it supposedly makes the wing ineffective, as each feather cannot work by itself: they work best together.

Piper's got one single solitary flight and she flies fine. :X Obviously, it's got nothing to cling to but the air around it when she flaps.

Perhaps it is for the heavier birds, such as macaws and cockatoos, because they find it harder to fly. The book did say that smaller birds are harder to clip because they are lighter and can fly with much less effort.

Yeah, definitely. The heavier the bird, the less you have to clip (usually). It also has a lot to do with how developed those muscles are. My 'tiels are more than twice the weight of the budgies and can fly with one flight too. So yeah, the little birds are hard to keep grounded (which is probably a good thing in most cases). Unless the secondaries are clipped and that's far too much.