Wings clipped, now clumst in flight

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Wings clipped, now clumst in flight

by Alex
(London. England)

Both my budgies wings were clipped on Saturday.

My 12 week budgie seems fine with flight, but the 10 week one is very clumsy and flies in to the walls and cupboards.

Also, when landed or on my finger, he / she holds their wing out slightly for a couple of minutes each time after flying in to a wall or cupboard. It also lands quite hard.

Also, ever since the clipping, both birds will not come near me and try to bite me when I put my hands anywhere near them.

My Mum said that they will be fine, but it got me a little worried.

It does this every time it is out.

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Wings clipped, now clumst in flight

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Dec 06, 2011

Wings clipped, now clumst in flight
by: Linda

You are right to be concerned. There is a right way and a wrong way to clip bird's wings. The right way is to clip ONLY the 4-6 long Primary flight feathers which are found at the ends of each wing. This kind of clip allows birds to glide to the floor instead of fall like a rock. The wrong way to clip is how your birds are being clipped. This is to clip too far up into the wing. This causes chronic pain in the wings, the birds have no control whatsoever about how they land and onto what they hit.

In future, if you will take your birds to an Avian Vet to have their wings clipped and make sure they understand how NOT to clip, your birds will be okay. As Tracie says, the one bird may have broken a bone from the horrible landings its having to make.

Your birds are in pain, and they are striking out at you. They are in pain because of the incorrect wing clippings they are getting, and they are in constant pain from this.

Though they will be okay in time, be sure and give instructions about wing clippig next time because your birds are in pain all the time and will be until they molt and new wing feathers come in. Also, if you suspect a broken bone, the bird has to be taken to an Avian Vet only so they can take care of this.

Do not take your birds to pet shops or dog groomers for wing and nail trims as these people are not reliable when it comes to working with birds. A pet store that sells birds should know better than to clip wings up too high, but you are the one that needs to know which way is right and make sure it is done that way. Never allow anyone to "take the birds away" to have wing and nail trims. Make sure you request that only the 4-6 long primary flight feathers be trimmed to keep this from happening over and over again. Your birds are suffering, so don't let this happen again for any reason. Birds need to go to avian vet's for any kind of treatment or procedures, and this is what you have to do in future.

Linda

Dec 06, 2011

Vet Visit
by: Alex

I have visited the vet and she has taken a loom at the wings, and said that they look fine and werte cut symmetrically. She asid that it is to be expected that the bird have a few crash landings when the wings are newly clippped, and said that the wings have been cut shorter than the other bird.

She said the wing problem may have been a sof tissue injury and that I should restrict the amount that I allow the bird to fly around, as one crash landing could end up giving the bird a beak injury.

The vet said that both birds are healthy.

Dec 05, 2011

Budgie with possible wing injury
by: Tracie

It sounds like one of the budgies may have been injured during the clipping. Birds have hollow bones and they are easily injured when they squirm during wing clippings.

If your bird does not improve in the next couple of days, I suggest you Find an Avian Vet to examine your bird to make sure it's wing has not been injured.

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