Clipping flighted birds.

I'm thinking about clipping my flighted birds. I probably won't and I'll probably feel guilty for even thinking it later, but Pigpen and No Name like to sit at the ledge of the top window frame and chew on the wood. I'm not so much concerned about them chewing on the wood as I am about them ingesting the paint, of which I'd be willing to bet at least some very lower level is leadbased.

For those of you with flighted birds that are now clipped, how did they react to being clipped? I'd like them to still be able to fly and to do so fairly well, just not get enough lift to reach above maybe 8 or 9 feet high.

Is there any other way to distract them from chewing on the wood up there aside from waving them away? Pigpen is particularly strong willed and doesn't really get the point.. essentially, she's the prompt for this question.

Have you tried hanging some chew toys up there ?

henpecked wrote:

Have you tried hanging some chew toys up there ?

If I had a ladder, I definitely would try that. I don't really have any place to store a ladder so I've put off buying one, but I'd be more willing to do that than clip them.

I'll probably end up doing that or hanging those shelf brackets with untreated pine shelves up there for them to gnaw on.

I've never felt guilty about keeping my birds clipped. Kokomo came to me flighted, I had her clipped right away. I didn't notice any kind of angst or hard feelings. She can still pretty much get to where she wants to go. Juniper has always been clipped, or at least for most of her life. Sparrow has always been clipped- I don't even think he knows he is a bird honestly.

I know clipping is a hot topic but I keep my birds clipped because it is what is absolutely safest for them in my house. Sparrow and Juniper spend almost all day outside of their cages and Kokomo gets plenty of time out too. I know they are happy and healthy.

Julsiebean wrote:

I've never felt guilty about keeping my birds clipped. Kokomo came to me flighted, I had her clipped right away. I didn't notice any kind of angst or hard feelings. She can still pretty much get to where she wants to go. Juniper has always been clipped, or at least for most of her life. Sparrow has always been clipped- I don't even think he knows he is a bird honestly.

I know clipping is a hot topic but I keep my birds clipped because it is what is absolutely safest for them in my house. Sparrow and Juniper spend almost all day outside of their cages and Kokomo gets plenty of time out too. I know they are happy and healthy.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with clipping if it's what's safest in your personal household, but I honestly like that they can fly. Pigpen and No Name are much less skittish that way.

I don't think I'll clip them just because I like to see them do lap around the room, but they sure are getting on my nerves with that window ledge.

Both of my birds became extremely depressed and sedentary for about two weeks. Mind you Apple could still FLY almost perfectly fine. It was definitely an awful experience for them, and I noticed an immediate change in behavior.

GlassOnion wrote:

Both of my birds became extremely depressed and sedentary for about two weeks. Mind you Apple could still FLY almost perfectly fine. It was definitely an awful experience for them, and I noticed an immediate change in behavior.

I've noticed this also but it seems to be more from being "manhandled" then the actual clip.The real pet birds don't seem to notice because they are so used to being handled.PS didn't mean to imply your birds aren't real pets, i just meant the birds that get handled alot.

GlassOnion wrote:

Both of my birds became extremely depressed and sedentary for about two weeks. Mind you Apple could still FLY almost perfectly fine. It was definitely an awful experience for them, and I noticed an immediate change in behavior.

That's how I suspect Pigpen and No Name would be. They seem genuinely happy flying.

Scooter was flighted when we got him -- or at least he had all his feathers. Actually he has virtually all of them right now, but hasn't taken many flights. Never seems to bother him when we clip him. We do what Roz suggested on another thread -- never thought about it much -- but my husband insisted we immediately "make up" by handling him nomrally right after the clip, and he's never borne a grudge. Which he certainly has the ability to do!!!!

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Which he certainly has the ability to do!!!!

I noticed that Cheney Bird does that, too. He gets quite angry if I'm gone for more than a couple of hours, probably because it's so rare. He gets very huffy and prone to biting.

I had a problem with them chewing on my dvd stand. My copy of Avatar is completely chewed up. I decided to tear up an old cloth, and cover the stand with it. They lost interest in it immediately.

zazanomore wrote:

I had a problem with them chewing on my dvd stand. My copy of Avatar is completely chewed up. I decided to tear up an old cloth, and cover the stand with it. They lost interest in it immediately.

I guess this could be my excuse to finally hang curtains.

Kay, i don't know what to think. I've heard you mention babies and hangin curtains today.

henpecked wrote:

Kay, i don't know what to think. I've heard you mention babies and hangin curtains today.

I am NOT touching this one!

GlassOnion wrote:

Both of my birds became extremely depressed and sedentary for about two weeks. Mind you Apple could still FLY almost perfectly fine. It was definitely an awful experience for them, and I noticed an immediate change in behavior.

Any chance this could be transference of your attitude to the birds? I know you feel very strongly against clipping. Birds, a lot like children, do take cues of attitude from our behaviors.

Most of my babies fly before being clipped and going to their new homes. I don't do progressive clips. I clip the first 4-6 when I clip. Yes, most definitely they seem "confused" that they could fly a minute ago, but not anymore. I cuddle and "make up" immediately and I play with them for a good 10-15 minutes afterwards while they're figuring out they can't fly. I don't see any "off" behavior afterwards. They adjust pretty quickly. They still jump and flap to get where they want, but they don't keep flapping and flapping and flapping like in desperation. They do a lot more flapping jumps and climbing.

Maybe... But I do clearly remember Apple avoiding me for a long time. So perhaps it's a bit of both. Roz, do your customers mostly want their birds clipped, or is there a large percentage that wants the birds flighted?

Most of my customers haven't thought of it until i bring it up' but i'm mainly talking tiels here, a few want flighted but by far most want them clipped.No one has ever asked for a flighted zon.

GlassOnion wrote:

Maybe... But I do clearly remember Apple avoiding me for a long time. So perhaps it's a bit of both. Roz, do your customers mostly want their birds clipped, or is there a large percentage that wants the birds flighted?

All these years only one family wanted the bird flighted. They were not experienced with having birds, let alone a flighted bird. I sat with them and discussed at length the pros and cons and we developed a safety plan on how to keep the bird flighted. I had posted on the "other" forum about their experience. The family was good about the safety protocol for about a year and then they got lax and stopped following the safety procedures because the bird had never tried to fly out the door. Bird flew out one day, never to be seen again.

So, to this day, I am not again flightedness. NOT AT ALL. However, when there's a family that wants a flighted bird, I go through it with them - is EVERYONE going to follow safety procedures EVERY MINUTE of EVERY DAY. Can they control visitors to the house, can they control visiting children to the house, etc. Once we go through this discussion, most people opt to clip.

If someone came to me saying they want a flighted bird, want to flight train it, that's their goal, they've thought about it and that's what they want; absolutely, I'll keep the bird flighted. I've even offered to start clicker association and recall training before the bird's weaned. No one that I've sold a bird to even understands what all that is.

A part of me is saddened by how no one has done their research thoroughly and wanted a flighted bird. And especally by the fact that no one's thought about training...

I really don't miss being paranoid about open doors, ect. My house isn't very bird friendly, like open burners w/ the pilot lights always on and no divider between the kitchen and the living room (where the bird cage is) but we made it work with a flighted cockatiel and it wasn't a flight accident that killed her. honestly though my gcc is a very different bird from my cockatiel and I don't think rainbow would have nearly the amount of out of cage time that she does now if she was flighted. That said- I do want her and any other birds I may have flighted one day.
to clip or not to clip- hard choice but at least it only lasts till the next moult...

I forgot about the two flighted bourkes I sold about ten years ago to some lady. I don't remember how old they were when they died, but definitely under 2 years old. One was killed by the ceiling fan and the other got squished in the door - she didn't realize the bird was on top of the door when she closed it. I was a bit surprised about getting squished by the door. I thought flighted birds were able to evade being squished by doors and being stepped on.

I'm now very distressed. I really do vote for flight; HOWEVER, under some circumstances clipping is a better option.
When we move into an apartment in a year or so, I think I'll have to keep my budgie lightly clipped.

GlassOnion wrote:

I'm now very distressed. I really do vote for flight; HOWEVER, under some circumstances clipping is a better option.
When we move into an apartment in a year or so, I think I'll have to keep my budgie lightly clipped.

Why are you distressed?

Hearing those horror stories made me feel distressed.

GlassOnion wrote:

I'm now very distressed. I really do vote for flight; HOWEVER, under some circumstances clipping is a better option.
When we move into an apartment in a year or so, I think I'll have to keep my budgie lightly clipped.

If I may comment on the "lightly clipped" idea...
JJ is currently what I would consider to be "lightly clipped." The person I bought her from clipped her shortly after she fledged, but her feathers have grown considerably since that time. She's able to gain about 3-4 vertical feet now and travel a good 10-15 feet when she starts out on the floor, and far more if she starts out higher.

My main problem with this is that while she is ABLE to fly and knows where she wants to go, she's frequently not able to get there. She ends up on the floor more often than not, and I really don't think that's a safe place for anything smaller than a 'Zon. (Actually, the floor isn't a safe place for any bird, but the little ones are so hard to see sometimes.) She's ended up downstairs in the laundry room, it took her forever to climb back up while we were frantically looking for her. I'd heard her flying but couldn't tell where she had ended up. Situations like that have happened on several occasions. At those times, I've thought that I'd almost rather have her fully clipped than this "in between" business. If my goal weren't to have a flighted bird, I would certainly not continue with the clip that she currently has.

Anyway, it's just something to consider.