# A Bad Wing Clip



## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

Hi Everyone, I want to highlight how important it is to clip a birds wings properly and hopefully avoid the worry I went through, and the stress Tira went through, I will show some photo’s a few might find a little disturbing, but I want to get the importance across of what not to do, and some tips to avoid a serious accident should your bird be like mine was.

I bought my first Cockatiel, I thought I had done, checked all the right things, the pet shop was clean, they didn’t over crowd birds they only had 3 cockatiels and two budgies in another cage below, the birds were behind a glass cover to prevent people touching poking fingers at them, the price tag for the Tiels said the price and that they had been wormed and were hand reared, perfect, and they had this beautiful pear in the cage which I had to have, I asked how old they were, they told me 8 weeks, I asked if I could hold one they quite happily got the pearl out. This is when perhaps alarm bells should have started ringing! the bird was not keen to come out after a quite a few attempts to get the bird on her finger without success she then decided to grab her by the whole body, of course the bird bit but any way she handed me the bird, the bird sat on my hand and didn’t bite me at all. So I told myself the only reason the bird bit was because of the way the assistant had hold of her? Without warning the bird jumped off my hand it plummeted to the ground, the assistant said oh the bird is trying to get bag to its nest mates, ok plausible answer, I bent down put my hand out and the bird did walk on my hand, I was in love with her colour and the fact the bird hadn’t bitten me I thought yes I will have her, boxed the bird up came home put her in her cage.

The thing I didn’t take into consideration was her wing clip, most birds for sale here seem to have this one wing clip, see image,








If you look closely you will see it was so severe that even the coverlet feathers had been cut, also I believe in my birds case it helped the breeder sell them as hand reared, it is so much harder for the bird to get away without the use of wings!

Our relationship in the beginning was rough to say the least, I even phoned the shop at one point saying I didn’t think the bird was hand reared and I had been ripped off, and wanted to return her, they told me they didn’t do refunds and the bird was hand reared, but they didn’t have the final say and would leave a message for the store owner to contact me, but my bird was probably a female and that females just aren’t that into you, and to keep getting the bird out. Of course the pet shop owner never phoned, even to try and offer some advice.

I was so confused at this point what should I do to try and tame this bird I started trying to find out online, but I couldn’t find what to do if your bird was hand reared but not tame, I found hand reared birds should want to come out and be with you, and then there was taming for aviary breed birds, what should I do apart from what I was told by the pet shop? being really honest I wasn’t that keen on my bird any more, just thought it was a nasty bird, that would lunge and hiss at me even when cleaning the cage out.

So I had the bird out on my hand, of course Tira couldn’t really go anywhere because of her clipped wing so had to just put up with being on my hand then she got startled and jumped off, of course I knew she was going to hit the ground because of her clip, I tried to catch her in mid air falling but she just pushed off me again with her feet and then she hit the ground hard, I picked her up she was in a little shock and I sat down with her, she moved off my hand and was sat on my body, I thought she looks tired I will put her away, that was when I noticed the blood, I was horrified she had hit the ground so hard that she was bleeding on her chest, I didn’t know what to do, I called my husband and put her back in her cage, I said to my hubby maybe we should take her to the vets, (he has breed birds in the past) he said the bleeding has stopped but she didn’t look to great, he said to take to the vets now is more likely to make her die of stress and start the bleeding again, he said that wound will open again very easily if we try and catch her up and stress her out, he said she as split the skin on her breast bone. I felt awful this poor little bird that I had moaned about not being friendly was injured and to be honest I wasn’t sure she would even make it through the night because of stress, she did, here is a picture of the injury it was taken a few days later.








After that I went back to basics forget what they told me to do in the pet shop, I didn’t force her out I left her be, I started giving her tip bits from my hand when she did start coming out her cage again, and our relationship healed itself through trust and not force, although how she ever forgave me with the injury she had I don’t know, she must be so forgiving.

We have a good relationship now she is having a few problems with the new feathers on that wing coming through, we have had a few bleeds feathers growing in and then coming out just as quick, but I think they are now beginning to come through stronger, see image below.








And her chest is completely healed now you would never know see image below.








So if you have got a bird with a clip like mine, make sure you put a blanket down so if they do crash land, they don’t hurt themselves, if you clip wings do both so they can still glide down, and don’t force the relationship it will happen on its own with patience, I truly believe that most who breed for profit clip the wing like this so the bird appears more tame but the truth is they cant really get away, I don’t believe my Tira was hand feed with love, she may have been hand reared but she wasn’t really tame, the clip may have even cut blood feathers when it was done, I will never really know, but it isn’t her fault and any other birds that are for sale like this, so please if you have a bird like this give it time and patience and above all unconditional love, I hope this might help some new owners out there or even people looking to get a bird, and certainly things to be aware of, at the moment I know many say clipping a bird is a good thing but I am honestly considering leaving her wing be when it comes through, I know some claim the bird isn’t so friendly when un clipped, but then I wonder is the relationship forced, because if the bird wants to come to you, why should that change just because she has the use of her wings? I will have to wait and see, but at the moment I am thinking of leaving her wings be, once that wing grows in. 

Jenny


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## Kyles (Jul 22, 2009)

Rex is like this also. Both her wings are clipped. When she would try to fly she would just fall to the ground. Only one day she fell and split herself open under her vent. She was bleeding and shaking so I did take her to the vets and still to today she is alive. Her wings are slowly growing back but not fast enough. She gets so excited that she takes off and every now and then reopens it up (but not as bad as the first time). When possible I get the 3 birds and put them on the ground so they can all run around and that way I know Rex won't hurt herself by doing this. Both my other birds are uncliped and I don't think I will be clipping Rex's wings when they fully grow back. I have to say its not easy watchin them trying to do what should come naturaly only for them to end up hurting themselves. But good things come to those who wait....


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

I'm so glad that she's healing up well and stronger. Some people are just so brainless when it comes to clipping wings, and it's so sad for the Cockatiel.

We got Shiro from a pet store, had no idea whatsoever what was coming for us. When we brought him home we noticed one wing was literally butchered (clipped horribly) and the other wasn't - then that left his wing to bleed and bleed and bleed. I am surprised he's alive, the amount of blood he would lose every time his wing would bleed was unbelievable. 

Whoever butchered his wing has left Shiro disabled, he can't fly like ANY other Cockatiel can and should, and he never will sadly.

First day home:










Here's a few photos while his wing was bleeding and after it had bled:














































*there's blood on both wings, I don't know why, maybe his other wing was clipped _slightly _wrong as well, but it looked fine to me, and you can see he has flight feathers on the wing that wasn't clipped.


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## clawnz (May 28, 2009)

I hope Tira gets over her scare and injury. I still find it hard to understand how anybody can clip just one wing. All I have read says they know that this unbalances the bird. And this means crash. And we all know the dangers involved.
Any clipping is bad enough for the bird, but this type of clip is just stupid.

When a Fid flys to you because it wants and can, is a magic moment, and those with clipped Fids miss out on this.

Poor Shiro, that sure looks bad on a white Fid.


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## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

Hi Everyone, it so sad that some people clip with no regard for what they are doing to the bird or even care. 

Renae, oh my god that is so bad poor, poor shiro, and such a beautiful looking bird, at least he is getting the love he deserves now.

Tira seems to be doing ok, she lost another feather that was coming through just after I posted, but she is still doing ok, she can glide at least now safely to the ground and she actually managed to fly round the coffee table the other day, so she is certainly getting some control back now, so I think she will make a full recovery especially now when the feathers seem to be growing through in a group.

Jenny


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