How to trim African Grey's wings?

Question

I have a African Grey and have let her wings grow out. I need to know the proper way to trim them so that she will not fly away.

Answer 1

Wing clipping can be dangerous. I have seen birds permanently damaged and even killed by improper clipping. BUT if you have good instructions it can be easy and safe. I put together a page with just that information. I used information I had learned over many years experience with birds along with approval from two avian veterinarians I trust.

Sadly veterinarians are never taught how to clip a birds wings, not even avian specialists. I have had vets tell me to please get the correct information out on the net so more birds are not hurt. If you follow the directions you will safely clip your birds wings and your bird will be able to safely fly to the floor.

Never just clip one wing, the bird will hurt them self because they will drop like a rock, and not have any control of their landing. The birds also freak out and get stressed because the one unclipped wing makes their bode try to flip on their back as they fall. You want the bird to safely fly to the floor and do it under control.

Answer 2

Cover her up with a thick towel, make sure to cover her head well. It's better to have someone help you with the whole process. Have another person hold her with the towel wrapped around her while you stretch out each wing, on at a time, and clip about an inch off the six or eight end feathers, or flight feathers. Make sure you cut both as even as possible so that she doesn't become uncoodinated while trying to fly and run into something. She'll still be able to get up into the air, but she wont be able to fly, she'll only be able to glide a few feet.

Answer 3

k i used to have a parrot and cockitail. You only trim one wing not both, i usually did the right one. Take the bird and cover it with a towle so it does not hurt you. Then strech out the wing and cut about an inch and a half off the bottom of the feathers from the point of the wing to the birds body. now he shouldn't fly and i belive that you have to do this ever two weeks

Answer 4

Clip the first 4 wings starting at the front and clipping towards the red tail. Remember not to low. There are several books on African grey parrot care that has this information if you want to learn to do it yourself. I would start out by taking him/her to a pet shop that specialize in wing clipping and watch them several times first just to be safe.

Answer 5

Wing-clipping will reason some distance more effective issues than it would want to ever clean up. somewhat, you should prepare you chicken some problem-free flight requests or 'instructions', so as that it flies to and from you and different places on a verbal request from you. try to be in a position to attempt this interior some days using advantages-depending preparation approaches. See any of my books in this for more effective information. attempt Breaking undesirable habit in Parrots, pub 2007. Wing-clipping could also reason damaged blood feathers even as your chicken moults. this can bring about profuse bleeding and is truly painful for the chicken. you should also understand about the *sequence* in which a chicken losses and replaces its major flight feathers in the course of the moult. perfect desires, Greg

Answer 6

One of the parrot only stores I always go to since chain stores such as petco and petsmart aren't known for their expertise in parrots. First off, ignore the answer that says clip only one wing. That is highly dangerous. If one wing is clipped and the other isn't, the bird [especially if it's one who is used to being able to fly] will become unbalanced. Some parrots I've seen in the avian vets office come in with broken bones because they could not glide down softly because only one wing was trimmed. If BOTH wings are clipped, the parrot most likely will NOT fly like it nomally would with both full wings, but will 'glide' and not fall like a rock. If you trim TOO MUCH, it will fall like a rock if they try to fly. Only 5 feathers on both wings need to be clipped. They're called the primary flight feathers. Do NOT cut the whole feather off!! Some feathers have what are called blood feathers, which still have blood flow in the feathers.

I'm just going to skip ahead to the directions given by the bird experts I always go to for my bird's wing clippings.


Wing Clipping

We suggest that you have a professional clip your bird's wings. Most birds will not be willing to allow you to extend their wings properly to allow you to clip, so the bird must be restrained by holding it firmly by the neck and body...a two person procedure at best. If you do clip your bird's wings, you may find that your sweet pet may not trust you as much afterward. This information is provided to help you determine when to clip your bird's wings. Remember, if you buy your bird from Bird Crazy, free wing and nail clipping is included for as long as you own the bird!

Wing trimming must be customized to the bird.
Here are some general guidelines for wing clipping: Many birds do fine with clipping the first 6 PRIMARY FLIGHT FEATHERS of just one wing, but some birds are more determined to fly than others, so you'll have to watch the bird to determine how best YOUR bird should be trimmed. (African greys for instance do better with both wings clipped.)
In general we suggest cutting more than 6 feathers....trim all 10-12 of the PRIMARY FLIGHTS.
NOTE: The PRIMARY FLIGHT FEATHERS angle up and away from the birds body, and the SECONDARY FLIGHT FEATHERS angle down and towards the body.

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Here is the link to the page I got it from, they have diagrams and pictures to help if you choose to do it yourself. http://birdcrazy.com/OLD/newsite/articles/wingclipping.html
Also I found a video on youtube.com and they show how to clip wings too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0Z4zom8xts

I would recommend going to an AVIAN vet's office if this is your first time clipping wings. That was they can show you the correctly and you can learn how to do it yourself. I'd rather have professionals do my birds feathers and nail clippings when they grow out too much. Also as a parrot owner to another, I recommend this message board for parrot owners. I always give other owners this site because it is AMAZING and the other members who have african greys can give you other advice too. I have an african grey, and my vet used those methods to clip her wings and whenever she tries to 'fly' she will just glide onto the floor and it happens outside and she has never gotten away :)

here's the message board
http://www.tailfeathersnetwork.com/community/index.php


One last piece of advice, if your bird is used to being able to fly it might think it can still fly after he or she is clipped. Make sure they're in a carpeted area just in case they get a little clumsy. Also if you clip the bird's wings yourself it might make them a little 'pissed off' at you for a little while, but just be patient and they'll be back to normal.

Answer 7

you should really go to petco or petsmart and try to find a book that will give you step by step directions and illustrations on how to wing clip. it wouldn't hurt to talk to a vet about it or even the bird specialist at the store...they might even demonstrate for you how to do it. whatever happens make sure you have styptic powder and a q-tip ready and waiting just incase you cut a blood feather. without this powder if you hit a blood feather you're bird could bleed to death. please be careful whatever you decide to do.

Answer 8

I would say if you don't know you should find someone that knows for the first time and watch the person do it. You dont want to do it wrong, an you dont want the bird to hate you for messing his wings up.

Answer 9

take it to a bird store and have them show you how to do it correctly. you can injure the bird real easy if it's done wrong and they can bleed to death easily if you cut a feather to deep

Answer 10

right about where the bone meets the shoulder blade.