how to clip wings on african gray parrot?

Answer 1

Hi
I would suggest going to a good Avian veterinarian and letting them do it at least once, and ask them to show you the appropriate way to do it for the future. Do not try it on your own without help or prior instructions because you may clip a blood feather and cause an infection or blood loss. Any good vet will be happy to help you learn.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I just asked my parrot if he knew the answer but he didn't! But I do!

First of all, if you have never done it before, you should take your African Gray to a groomer to pay to have them do it, and ask if you can possibly watch, if not, (sometimes they prefer you not be in the room), then ask them the proper procedure. Parrots sometimes will scream and are squittish when they are forced to have this done.
Generally, the first 5 to 7 feathers (known as the primary feathers), are the ones that are clipped. I have the first 7 feathers clipped on my parrot. This is to prevent flight, meaning they can still fly, but they will head to the ground, rather than up to the sky. It is so VERY IMPORTANT that you keep those feathers clipped! No matter how domesticated and happy your parrot is, you must remember that they are still considered a wild bird, and ever so curious!

The feathers are clipped only to a certain degree. That would be hard to explain, without someone actually showing you. There are websites you can go to, that will show you.
I clip my own parrots' wings, because he trusts me, and I know exactly which feathers and how far to clip them.

As far as where to take your parrot for the clipping, (grooming), sometimes the "Petco" stores offer it for a nominal fee of anywhere from $6.00 to to $12.00. If you go to a vet, they will be expensive, because they will also charge you for the office visit.
If you have a good exotic bird store in your city and state, check them out. They will usually only charge about $12.00 and that's to do the wings, file the beak, and cut the toenails, (which also needs to be done about once a month.

Be very careful when you take your bird in for these services, to place your bird in a cage, and let the groomer handle the parrot. Without the feathers cut, they can just fly away! I have seen it happen!

There are also some private groomers that will make house calls, if you are afraid to take your parrot out. They will be more expensive, but you probably can watch the procedure. Once you know how to do it, you should be able to clip the wings yourself.
If you do it often, you only have to clip a couple at at time, and it's less stressful for the bird that way.

Good luck and enjoy your African Grey. Parrots are wonderful, loyal pets.

Answer 3

You should take the bird to a vet or a store that has trained people to show you how to do it properly. Greys have a very heavy body and will drop straight to the floor if they get spooked and jump and their clip is too short. You want to leave the clipped feathers long enough so if they spook and jump, that they will glide to the floor and not plummet and potentially hurt themself. If you towel the bird and have one person hold him, the other person opens the wing from the shoulder. On the inside of the wing there is a row of secondary feathers. On a bird that is not a grey, you would cut 5-7 of the primary feathers just beneath the line of secondary feathers. On a grey you only want to cut about half as high so they can get that glide if they fall. Be sure not to cut a blood feather. If one of the feathers you intend to cut is a blood feather, skip it, do not cut it. If you accidently cut a blood feather, you must stop the bleeding right away. You can try to pack the bleeding tip with some flour (do not use chemical clotting powder on a feather as it will burn). If you cannot stop the bleeding, the feather must be pulled as the bird can actually bleed to death if the bleeding is not stopped. If you are unsure how to check for blood feathers before clipping, DO NOT attempt to clip your birds wings, take him to a professional.

Answer 4

^^ Totally agree with the above post. ^^

This is how we do it:

Gently hold the bird in a towel using proper restraint, basically keeping your pointer and thumb on either side of his face, just under the "cheek" bones. With grays you need to be careful because their cheeks can actually bruise from too much pressure.

Stretch one wing out at a time, and inspect the shaft of the longest feathers (the flight feathers). If the shaft is clear/white, you are safe to cut that feather. You want to avoid feathers which have dark, blue/purple colored shafts because this indicates blood flow. If you cut one of these, the bird will continue to bleed for quite sometime, and there is a risk of injury. Inspect the first five feathers, and if they are all ok to cut, cut them right at the shaft base (we use kitten nail clippers). If there are blood feathers, you can trim the "fluffy" portion of the feather above the shaft, but do NOT cut the shaft. Also it is good practice to keep the feathers on each side of a blood feather the same length, to protect the blood feather if the bird is to fall.

We usually only cut 5 feathers on an African Grey, because they are prone to being clumsy and injuring themselves by falling to the ground. We cut the outer feathers rather than the inner feathers to allow birds to be able to glide some if they try to fly, to help prevent injury. Also we don't recommend just taking scissors and cutting straight across feathers without inspecting the shafts, as you can accidentally injure the bird.

Answer 5

In my opinion, the best way to clip the wing of any parot, it too first give them a shower. Because then their all went and their wings way too much too make them fly. After the shower, you hold one of his wing and win sissors cut nicely to make sure the wings are even. But remember do not cut too much because you might cut intoo the bone. If for some reason you parrot start to bleed but flour on the bleeding sopt will help some the bleeding. In my opinon you should got too some website vedios and see how the trim the wings so that you can learn it.

Answer 6

I am a veterinary technician in my last semester of school. Take your bird to an avian veterinarian and let them show you how to do it before you attempt it yourself. There are some feathers in the wings that you need to watch out for called "bloodfeathers" that if you even nick them can cause some serious bleeding that is very hard to stop. Once the vet has shown you, you can do it yourself at home.

Answer 7

it is best that you dont do it oyurself because there are blood feathers annd if you cut them they will bleed pretty bad so take her to your local avian vet

Answer 8

grab a towel and gentally grasp him through it. do not hold him to tight then pullout his wing and clipp the feathers.

Answer 9

I agree with the first post

Answer 10

ok here is the proper way to do it ....... ready just pull them out....