It is very important to have our bird’s wings clipped at all time. That helps with avoiding possible accidents for the bird in the household, like flying into a window or a wall, in the ceiling fan or to fly away not knowing how to find her way back home…There is so much that can go wrong if your bird is fully flighted.
Minor wing coverts-Click to Enlarge
Clipping the wings regularly also helps tremendously with reducing the dominance in your parrot and makes training much easier. If done at an early age it doesn’t affect the bird in any way. They get used to it very quickly and soon enough they realize that flying is not a way to get around .
Dorsal major wing coverts - Click to Enlarge
I let my babies fledge properly before I perform the first trim. Every bird should have the experience of flying, especially young birds, it helps with their self confidence.
Now, I will show you how to properly clip the wings of your bird.
Flight feathers - Click to Enlarge
There are several methods to trim the wings, I will describe the one that I think works best on my birds.
Make sure that both wings are clipped evenly, when only one wing is done, the balance is poor and the chance of your bird getting injured is very high.
Blood feather - Click to Enlarge
Extend the wing and begin cutting from the wing tip and work inward. Cut the first six to eight primary flight feathers on both wings.Trim the feathers along the line crated by the bottom of the dorsal major wing coverts, which is the middle layer .
Clipping flight feathers - Click to Enlarge
It is very important never to cut a blood feather. Blood feather contains fairly large amount of blood supply. They are wrapped up in a shell like substance , which is called keratin. If a blood feather is accidentally cut, you need to pull it out as soon as possible, or take your bird to the vet immediately.
Fully clipped wing - Click to Enlarge
There is no such a thing as a time schedule for wing clipping. Each bird is different. A lot of people have lost their birds, just because of that, clip the wings once and not do it for another year or so. The best way is to check your bird once every three or four months.
If you do not feel comfortable clipping your birds wings yourself, your avian vet should be able to do it for you, or any local bird breed in your area.
