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Old 04-02-2008, 04:10 AM
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jenseits jenseits is offline
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IF you decide (and that has to be a decision only you can make) to clip her wings after she's used to flying, which she should be if she's fully fledged, I think it would be best to cut only one or two flights one each side at a time, gradually working up to 5 flight feathers each side..

I think (and I'm no expert) that it would be really traumatic to be able to fly one day, and the next day you're crashing into the floor... without any idea as to what's happening. A clipped bird doesn't have a lot of options as to where they land, and most birds find the floor a little scary. And if she's clipped all at once she won't have any idea how hard she needs to flap in order to break her fall, resulting in possible injury.

I'd want to introduce the concept of "hey, no more flying" gradually. That way it gets harder and harder and eventually it's just easier/better to be picked up and carried around.

I've never tried this in practice so I'm only guessing it would be better that way, but it makes intuitive sense doesn't it?

FWIW, my sun conure used to be clipped, now has 3 flights on each side, and is flying pretty well. I've decided not to reclip for now because he doesn't seem to be courting trouble. Basically he flies between his cage and his playstand, and when he's startled (then he just flies in a circle and lands where he was before). If he starts flying places he's not supposed to I'll reconsider. All I'm saying is that a bird who can fly isn't necessarily going to get into trouble. Just make sure they are ALWAYS supervised (and never off-harness if you go outside)
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