To Clip or Not To Clip Revised

Hello there! It’s Melanie Canatella with Fluff and Feathers. I hope that all is going well with you and your animals. I want to talk today about a controversial topic. It’s going to be about wing clipping. I do have an older blog post that also outlines wing clipping. It may be worth checking out before reading this one.

I want to start out by saying I don’t care what you do with your bird’s wings. I never judge someone for what they do as long as it is ethical. If you want to clip your birds’ wings, or don’t, that is your choice to have! I respect everyone. I also have my opinions, and I have gathered a lot of information from credible sources that helped me gather my thoughts and opinions. I want to present them to you, and I will credit the sources in which I got information from so you can continue the dive and your education to make a choice that you feel comfortable with either way. I will also be including my own antidotal evidence that I have gathered throughout my time as a professional behaviorist, trainer, and bird mom! Get ready because this is a long one!

There are a lot of ethical concerns to consider before clipping a bird’s wings. Parrots were born to fly. It’s an unique adaptation that are only found in avian species. It is their biological right to naturally respond to noxious stimuli with flight (Driggers, 2020). With light bones, a unique breathing system comprised of air sacs to deliver oxygen easily and quickly to aid in not tiring the bird out in flight, they were designed to fly. It is apart of the bird’s ethogram, or different types of behaviors an animal naturally preforms (Driggers, 2020).

Flight has function for birds. Not only do they help with take off and landing, as well as to steer the bird when flying, they can also have functions in other areas of the bird’s life. They can assess risks better by choosing to stay or flee (Driggers, 2020). This gives clearer communication to us humans, as well as allows for the bird to use more natural behaviors instead of resulting in biting as a method of communication. Biting communication can be increased and become unnatural by breaking our skin and making us bleed due to lack of ability to escape and lack of choice. It is unnatural for a bird to bite and break skin of another bird in the wild despite it being so common in our care (Friedman, 2002). Having flight gives the bird the confidence to flee. Most importantly, wings are used for balance! When we trim our birds’ wings, we instantly affect their balance (Driggers, 2020). Short-term you may see physical trauma of increase of broken feathers including blood feathers due to the lack of protection of feathers clipped, broken or chipped mandibles, chewed feathers, and broken bones. Long-term is when you see the psychological damage through their lack of confidence, decreased physical abilities, inability to appropriately respond to fear, as well as socialization with us and other parrots due to how it impacts brain development (Driggers, 2020). In rehabilitation situations and sanctuaries with parrots, especially in an aviary setting, it not recommended to introduce a parrot to the flock until it has all the flights and is flying well (Schwarz, 2018). I have seen this in my own experiences too. Why? Because the flighted flock will pick on that bird including injure it or even kill it.

Without flight, medical concerns can arise because the body is designed to fly. One concerns can be atherosclerosis, or the hardening of arteries, because birds will store the excess fat they cannot burn off through flight in the veins and elsewhere (Schwarz, 2018).  It can cause cardiovascular disease. It can cause long-term nerve and bone pain leading to osteomyelitis and nerve impingement. One reason for this is because of an increase in long-term trauma to the tail vertebrae. Pododermatitis, or bumble foot, can appear due to being on their feet too much, improper perching practices, and the feet not being exercised enough (Driggers, 2020). It can also lead to obesity. It can lead to an early death due to the physical health concerns. Psychologically long term it leads to learned helplessness, feather mutilation one way from blunt feather rachis poking them, and OCD behaviors (Driggers, 2020). Lastly, wing clipping can cause abnormal molt cycles. Trimming wings can deform the torque germinal disc, which is where the feather attaches to the blood supply, that can cause abnormalities (Driggers, 2020).

For fledglings, or a phase that baby parrots go through where they are getting their plumage in and starting to want to learn to fly, wing clipping can be very detrimental to their overall health and behaviors throughout their life. It is not recommended to trim a fledgling, rather, teach them how to safely fly. Despite what is currently acceptable in aviculture to trim wings as a fledgling, professionals understand the downsides to it. It can affect brain development, which in return can result in undesirable behaviors in the future. It also decreases a bird’s confidence and balance instead of empowering them, which can cause a lot of behavioral concerns like increased aggression-type behaviors, increase fear-based behaviors, decrease in natural exploration, increased neophobic responses, etc. (Driggers, 2020).

The biggest myth behind wing clipping is that their bird will be safer when outside because it cannot fly away. This is a lie. I have seen, heard, and worked with recovering birds who have escaped and who were clipped. All that it does is decrease your bird’s confidence and ability to come back to you during rescue missions, as well as make them an easier target for predation. All that is needed is a sudden gust of wing, a loud noise, something visually startling, etc. and your bird is now flying off (Schwarz, 2018). Progressive veterinarians will always go over the risks of wing trimming, especially when you clip to give you a false safety that it will keep your bird safe, as well as go over ways to keep your feathered friend safe without trimming their wings (Driggers, 2020). Most concerns, like afraid the bird will fly into a window, fly into ceiling fans, fall into the toilet or while cooking, etc. can all be easily avoidable with a flighted parrot when the caretaker has the right management strategies not including wing clipping (Schwarz, 2018).

Now, to speak on my own personal findings. To start, as I have mentioned above, not being able to confidently escape an aversive situation it leads the bird to learn of new communication practices that work. Usually, this is through biting derived from learned aggression. The bird learn that aggression is a very effective form of communication for humans quickly. Though an undesirable situation for everyone, yes including the bird, it is effective for the bird because we usually back up, remove the item, etc. That is not to say don’t in order to not have learned aggression happen because that is not how it works, nor is it ethical. On the other hand, if the bird was flighted, they would simply fly off and remove themselves from the situation, which is also very clear communication to us of their discomfort.

I have found feather destructive behaviors in my own birds. Merlin, my blue and gold macaw who is about 38 years old, was clipped as a fledgling and throughout his life before coming to me. I have never trimmed his feathers, yet he does. He has an unhealthy relationship with his wings in general. He mutilates the feathers through barbering and other improper damaging grooming. He has never had flight feathers, and he likely never will leave them alone despite how many interventions I have tried behaviorally and with my veterinarian. He is not mutilating, so a cone is not yet warranted, he is just destroying his feathers. I have had fosters who have stopped their feather destructive behaviors through learning how to fly including cockatoo, conure, and macaw species in my experience. My Moluccan Cockatoo Alfie who is about 26 years old was also clipped. His primary feathers, specifically the first five on each wing, now molt abnormally, and he has a lot of blood feathers affecting these feathers due to wing clipping.

I have found that training clipped birds to be harder than flighted birds. Sure, flighted birds can have their own challenges depending on the individual and their behaviors. But, overall, I have found training clipped birds on behaviors like stepping up, territorial behaviors, decreasing hormonal behaviors, and foraging harder. Because they have a lack of confidence, balancing concerns, and inability to respond to fear appropriately, it leads to these behaviors being more difficult to train. Not impossible of course, but more time consuming and possibly dangerous if there is a mistake in training. For foraging and stepping up, birds are less active with atrophied muscles. It is physically exhausting to forage and foraging plans are often dragged out longer to help build up muscles and gain confidence in movements. This can be a big factor for birds who won’t forage. For stepping up, our hand is unstable no matter how hard we make it stable. Since the balance and muscles are affected, as well as a decreased in confidence to not fall like a brick to escape, this can lead to an increase in bites, reluctancy to step up, and longer training duration to work on decreasing these fears. This type of behavior you see heavily in birds that have little to no feathers either due to disease or feather destructive behaviors. I have worked with a lot of cockatoos with little to no feathers on stepping up, as well as aided a sizable number of clients struggling with the same issues.

Relying solely on a human taxi can also create unnatural behaviors and relationships with people. There is an increased emphasis on the human-parrot bond that can lead to over-bonding and needy behaviors. Parrots will want to be with you 24/7 and often scream and have anxiety when you leave and don’t take them. Parrots will get anxiety when they want to go somewhere but can’t, often seen when a parrot “arrows” or crouches down and points with its head where it wants to go while fluttering its wings. If the bird was flighted, it can follow you around as desired, move itself at will, and have less stress in our care.

My last addition from my experience is that wing clipping doesn’t resolve behavioral concerns. I hear a lot of people trimming their birds due to aggression-type behaviors like biting and launching. I have seen aversive, coercive methods being used like earthquaking (shaking your hand when the bird bites), throwing clipped birds off your hand to the floor forcing them in an uncomfortable situation where they need to step up, pushing into the birds’ legs to step up, etc. to decrease these behaviors. With launching, people say when they trim their birds’ wings, they no longer launch at them. But what they find is when the bird’s feathers grow back, they are back at launching. None of these methods address the behavioral root, just the “symptoms” resulting in the behavior constantly coming back and the bird getting a label like being “difficult” or “aggressive” leading to changes in handling like keeping a bird in their cage more or rehoming them. There are training plans and methods available to keep everyone safe while keeping your bird’s flight. One of my flock members named Crazy Bird, an old disabled wild caught blue front amazon, is proof that you can train a bird who launches, is territorial, and highly aggressive while keeping their flight feathers. CB has put a long list of people in the hospital, even almost killing two people. He is now stepping up onto my arm with no bites and hasn’t launched in years, even with strangers or fast movements. I love him so much, but he is also a great advocate for behavioral change and growth. All of my flock are!

As I am sure you can see, I believe in not clipping birds’ wings. On the other hand, I do understand there are individual circumstances in which clipping a bird’s wings are needed. These are decisions made by a behavioralist or a veterinarian for your bird’s quality of life and safety. This is usually made if there is a disability or after all management strategies have failed. If not for disability or medical, poor flight skills usually result in having clipped wings as a fledgling or there wasn’t an emphasis on learning to properly fly as a fledgling. I have suggested for clients to talk to their avian veterinarian to clip the birds’ wings despite my personal beliefs because it was the best thing for the individual.

I want to end this by giving education for those pro wing clip. This method I found through Dr. Todd Driggers, and I really like the concept of it compared to traditional wing clips. Attached below are photos from Driggers showcasing this type of clip. This helps the bird be able to glide and maneuver easily, as well as doesn’t allow for sharp rachis to injure or bother a bird. If you are pro clip, the next time you get your bird’s wings clipped, talk to your avian veterinarian about this method, even bringing these photos, to see if this would be a good clip for your bird.

Image from Dr. Todd Driggers

Image from Dr. Todd Driggers

I’ve talked long enough on this topic for one day. If you have any questions, always seek professional guidance, like mine for behavioral needs. If you are having moral quarrels over trimming your birds’ wings and want to create an environment or training plan to aid in the bird keeping their flight feathers, feel free to reach out to me! I would love to be able to help you understand the root cause of your bird’s behaviors and resolve them once and for all instead of just treating the symptoms!

Driggers, Todd (2020). Flight mechanics & ethical concerns. Lafaber Vet. Retrieved from https://lafeber.com/vet/flight-mechanics-ethical-concerns/

Friedman, Susan G. (2002). Alternatives to parrot breaking- reducing aggression and fear through learning. Presented at the StopPPD Conference 2002

Schwarz, Dot. (2018). The importance of flight. Retrieved from https://www.northernparrots.com/blog/the-importance-of-flight/