Clipping the wings

[Mavish]

well i was just woundering, if the wings are clipped can they still go in the air a little bit and fall. Mine keeps trying to fly and sometimes it gets pretty farh then falls down.

is this because the feathers are almost all grown back or will it be the same if i get them cut right now?

Also. its a bad idea to clip the wings yourself right? Do most pet stores where u buy your budgie from clip their wing if u bring them in?

thanks

[Amy]

If you know how to do it properly then it is no problem doing it yourself.

Who clipped his wings? Did they do it properly?

[Mavish]

i think the store clipped them, im not sure if they did it properly though. Its a pretty popular store where i live, they're trustworthy.

[Amy]

Ok well perhaps he just needs to adjust to having clipped wings?

[Shiney_things]

Clipping wings prevents the bird from gaining height, and will sometimes cause them to fall. (AKA land poorley) So long as you know what your doing you can clip their wings yourself. They can still fly... Its just harder and they cant get height. Its like running with weights on. All of my birds are clipped.

[Budgiekin]

Some budgies need fewer flight feathers clipped, and perhaps yours is one of them. Budgies should be able to land fairly smoothly in spite of having clipped wings. If your budgie takes more than about a week to adapt to a wing clip, you may wish to consider clipping fewer of them next time.

If you clip them yourself, the one thing you really need to watch out for are blood feathers (new feathers with blood in the shaft). You don't want to clip those ones as they can bleed, so much so that some budgies have unfortunately died as a result. So if you do decide to clip them yourself, stay away from blood feathers, and it is also best not to clip any flight feathers that are right next to the blood feather (that feather protects the blood feather. . . )

[Bea]

Also, if you get them clipped again don't go to the pet shop, go to an avian vet. They often charge nothing or very little for a wing clip and they're going to know what they're doing. I've seen some truly shocking clips done by pet shops. Does your budgie have one wing or two clipped?

[Amy]

How shocking and in what way?

[Bea]

Too many feathers cut off, feather cut unevenly and all ragged (which irritate the bird), only one wing done, feathers cut too short, outside feathers left for 'appearance' (outside flight feathers are what give lift, inner ones give balance, so leaving them means the budgie can still fly anyway), etc.

[Amy]

Oh dear! They sound truly terrible!

[Bea]

It's because any pet shop staff member can do it, a lot of the time they just figuire it out as they go.

[Amy]

I think they should be properly trained and monitored.

[Mavish]

well ill think about taking him to the vet, i dont really know where to go to one near me and how much they charge.

[Budgiekin]

If you are looking for an avian vet, try this site to find one:

http://www.aav.org/vet-lookup/

Once you have found one, give them a call to find out how much they charge for wing clipping.

[Mavish]

thanks, there are 2 near me. ill give them a call :)

[Mistyoriline]

Great job....Hope you get that taken care of:)