Wing clipping for birds

[Mel1708]

Hi there,

I am looking for someone to clip my birds wings in the Auckland area.

I don't want to take them to the local pet store as they did not do a good job on my friends bird and I'm not brave enough to do it myself. Is there anyone experienced on here that I could pay to do it? Potentially it would be a cockateil, a budgie and my friends Indian ringneck.

Thanks,

Mel

PS. I wasn't sure where to put this but seeing as its not fish related I put it in the off-topic.

[Barrie]

Wing clipping can be dangerous and not good for the birds.

A better way is to pluck the flights so that they can grow back naturally.

Clipping can let disease in through the open quill and I have had pigeons that have had problems that way. You also need to be carefull about not cutting the part that has blood in it (in the quill). Often people will relly on clipping but a lot of birds can still fly with half wings. Also bear in mind that flying is a form of defence so make sure that they are safe after wards... your pet can is the biggest danger

[Ira]

Just pulling them out would be about like pulling your fingernails out. Would you prefer to have yours ripped out rather than just clipping your fingernails?

Unless you're cutting blood feathers(Which are newly grown ones) fully grown feathers do not have any blood in them. There is no way for infection to get into the bird from a properly trimmed feather. Google something like, "Clipping parrot" and that should bring up a heap of instructions on exactly which feathers to clip.

Little birds like cockatiels and budgies you could probably do it with a pair of fingernail clippers. Otherwise a small set of scissors should work.

[Barrie]

Birds will often drop flights when they are damaged just like your skin repleces its self all the time and yes, just like your finger nails growing all the time.

Its not cruel and provided you pull them with one movement and in the direction that they are growing, there will be a lot less problems than cutting the flights... this from well over 40 years of experiance with no problems

[livingart]

Hi Mel

sorry your not in this area or i would do them for you

wing clipping should only involve the primary flight feathers and if done properly, ie: along the line of secondary feathers will not involve any blood feathers

a proper clipping will stop your pet bird from flying into windows or out the door and still allow it to land safely

plucking flights and wing clipping can be dangerous if not done by an experienced person

cutting a flight feather means it will not grow back until the next moult

a plucked feather is usually replaced in a few weeks

P.S. i do about 40 birds sometimes twice a year

[Barrie]

Agree totally about experiance

Having upwards of 120 racing pigeons and heaps of other hook beaks I also have needed to pluck the flights.

Regrowth though is normally 6 to 8 weeks if they are not in there normal moult season

[Ira]

So instead of a painless little snip twice a year you're suggesting yanking them out 6+ times/year?

[livingart]

plucking when done properly is a seemingly painless experience

it takes me about 1 to 2.5 mins to handle and clip a pet parrot

which involves clipping about 1/3rd of each wing

[repto]

got to ask the question barrie,how do you train a racing pigeon when it has its flight feathers yanked out?We used to let ours fly home,do yours have to walk?

[livingart]

We used to let ours fly home,do yours have to walk?

when i was racing pigeons my arms got tired

i used to pluck to replace broken flights on my best racers

[repto]

those would be the ones I used to shoot at as they passed over?

[Barrie]

yes

Broken flights and fret marks also after a hard wet weather flight, sometimes the flights would be bent upwards so plucking would allow correct natural flights to reform.

On squeakers that were a bit older and too strong on the wing, plucking was a great way to let them slowly get used to flight as their homeing ability are not strong when young.

When racing widowhood, plucking females was to stop them leaving the widowhood boxes and flying around the skys

Hope this helps understanding the feathers Ira. We do tend to think that some of the things we do are painful to the birds but the last thing a person that races pigenos wants is to put a bird off and there fore make them a little slower to come home.

Its a similar arguement with useing hooks to catch fish. Those that go fishing often will have experianced fish that have been caught and released then being caught again more than once on the same day (or close to it) The hook marks are very fresh yet it hasnt stopped the fish from taking another bait within minutes an in the same area.

[Ira]

Hope this helps understanding the feathers Ira. We do tend to think that some of the things we do are painful to the birds but the last thing a person that races pigenos wants is to put a bird off and there fore make them a little slower to come home.

I think my parrots would disagree with you about whether it hurts or not having their feathers torn out compared to completely painless little snips.

[wasp]

I will do it if you want to come to the North Shore. Better fess up though my only experience at this is with chickens but pretty sure other birds will be similar.

With chickens you only clip one wing so the bird will be unbalanced when it tries to fly. Clip both wings and it's surprising how they can still fly.

Best btw, to clip the fully matured feathers rather than still growing ones, that way no blood, and also the bird feels nothing. Our chickens actually liked having it done, they were very friendly and felt like the object of some fuss while it was happening.

[Barrie]

Ira

I really cant be bothered with this argument and wonder why when I have experiance I even bother to offer it. Emotive writings like torn out tell me what your thinking and hope that one day you will be open to different ideas.

I wont bother with this thread again

I give up