(upbeat rock music)
- [Dave] Parrots are the third most popular pet
in the world
but the number one most re-homed.
Help us put an end to this.
Listen to the Parrot Training Podcast
brought to your by Bird Tricks.
- Hey everybody, welcome to another session
of the Parrot Training Podcast.
I'm Dave Womach
- I'm Jamie Womach.
- And, we are from Bird Tricks
where today, we're going to be talking about
all the reasons why you should clip
your bird's wing feathers.
- Reason one number.
- And that's it.
(upbeat rock music)
- Thanks for watching.
(Dave and Jamie laugh)
- No, so we'll jump in a little bit.
I think that--
- We're gonna get some epic hate right now for that.
- Yup, if you hated that leave it in the comments.
No, so, basically,
there is, I think a few reasons
why you may want to clip your bird's wing feathers.
However, you hear us say a lot that free flight
is for every bird,
it's not for every person.
So, that right there should let you consider
if you are really the right person to own a pet bird.
I've likened it before to,
you don't want your kid to run across the street,
getting hit by a car,
so, cut their achilles tendons and lock 'em in the room,
so that they can't escape.
You're trying to just helicopter parent
your bird by clipping its wings,
when really what you should be doing
is just training the dang thing.
That's how I feel about that. (laughs)
- I don't even...
(Dave and Jamie laughs)
Okay, so I think that you're onto something
with the fact of why people want to clip
their bird's wings.
There's a lot of reasons why people want to
and it's mostly becomes, because it becomes an inconvenience
to have a flighted bird.
It's annoying.
- And, the clipping of the wings is a short cut.
Now, let me say this.
If you get a bird,
a perfect scenario is a parakeet or budgie.
You get a budgie from the pet shop,
it's not really a bad thing
to have that bird's wings clipped
when your first get it.
Why?
Because it can't escape
which means you're going to have a better chance
of getting to train that bird properly
so that by the time, its wings do grow out,
you're not chasing it around the house.
You've already put in the training.
I think that will be one of those scenarios
where I don't know that I would say,
yeah, go do that
but I think that's--
- It's a typical scenario of when we went to pet shop,
they're all clipped.
So, it's making the best out of a scenario
that you're forced into,
where when you get a bird from a pet shop,
they're all clipped.
I mean literally the label was, Clipped Parakeet.
It wasn't an option to have it fully flighted.
So, I think in that case,
you need to just look at what you can do.
You can make little obstacle courses,
you can make little things with ropes
where the bird is able to get around
but it's not, obviously it can't fly
so, you're doing it in a safe way
and you're implementing all your training upfront
so that when it is flighted,
it's not trying to escape you.
However, the thing that I don't like about
people intentionally clipping
a fearful or even aggressive bird
to be able to tame and train it
is that you likely are pushing past
the boundaries of the bird
and you're not using positive techniques.
So, usually when people are looking at doing that
to get a certain outcome,
it's because you're not patient enough as a person
to work through what it takes
to earn the trust and figure out a way
to manipulate that animal
to making the decision that you want.
So, a lot of bird training is trying to figure out,
okay, how can I get the bird to want to do
the behavior then you want it to do?
You need really re-program your mind,
of how can I make it want to do those things?
Versus, how can I force it or just keep it there?
- It's making me think of the movie where,
"I want you to want to do the dishes." (laughs)
- Yeah, that's legit.
Okay, you should want to want to do the dishes.
- Nobody wants to do the dishes.
- You want to do the dishes
because it makes me feel better
and helps me out.
Anyways, (laughs)--
- So--
- I wonder how many people know
what the heck we're talking about on that.
- Probably half.
- Yeah, I think the only the other time that,
okay, so the one that we had a consultation
that we actually agreed
that a light wing clip was necessary was?
Do you remember?
The blind baby love bird.
- Oh!
- Do you remember that consultation?
- Vaguely.
- So, this love bird chick, I believe was hatched blind.
- Yeah, it's coming back.
- And, we had gone through this consultation
of setting up this handicap enclosure
so that this bird couldn't fall.
One of the really interesting things
since that consultation,
we actually had one in Australia
with a blind cockatiel
and what we found from the putting cameras up
and watching this bird
was that it actually walked backwards.
- It used its tail as a walking stick.
- Yes, it used its tail to feel
so then, it would then, turn around
when it would feel a wall,
it would then turn around and climb up that wall.
It was really really amazing--
- It was really cool.
- The things they could discover with this.
Now, with the love bird since it would be naturally fledging
and trying to fly,
luckily enough, this love bird didn't want to.
It really wanted to be close to its human all the time
but we were fearful
that if something scared it to the point
of just take off flight, at full speed,
it could break its neck or get hurt
because it's literally blind.
So, I remember that being that the only time
that you and I looked at each other
and we're like, are we going to recommend
that she does a light clip?
We don't want it to plummet and fall like a rock
but we didn't want it to be able to catch full speed
and agility and--
- So, that's, we came out pretty hard
at the beginning of this video
but the reality with this--
- We? (laughs)
- Yeah, we but the reality with clipping your bird's wings
is that they're designed to use those.
I mean they're meant to fly.
Their respiratory system works at full capacity
when they're in flight.
There's just so many health benefits for them
to be able to do that,
that it just makes sense.
But the biggest thing about it
is that if your bird is clipped,
and this is really key for certain species as well,
if they fall and they're clipped,
they'll break their keel bone,
they can just sustain some serious injuries.
- It's bad.
- One of my favorite stories, it's funny
is with Ruby, not the macaw, Ruby the, is it Rudy?
- The African Grey?
- Or Ruby, yeah, the African Grey.
- Ruby.
- Ruby, yeah, so with Ruby,
this is an African Grey that Sean owns
and the bird wouldn't let go off with one foot,
so it would start to step up
but it would always hold on with the other foot.
And, then he'd actually trained it
to step up with the other foot
thinking that would work
and it didn't let go of the other foot.
So, I asked him,
I said, well, did your bird used to be clipped?
I said, did she did ever fall?
And he's like, yeah.
So, what happened is, his bird developed
a fear of its human
and standing on its hand
because it was off balance,
because they're designed to be balanced
with their wings fully grown out
especially the more compact birds
like senegals and greys.
It does affect them all
but in this particular situation,
with an African Grey, she fell
and she got hurt enough
that she was petrified of stepping up onto a hand.
And, what a terrible relationship that
that starts out for you and your bird.
If it's clipped and it fell once,
now I may not want to come to you.
You may not understand.
Hey, we're trying other techniques,
it doesn't want to come to me,
well, it's 'cause it was afraid of falling
and it fell and got injured.
So, that's really where the wing clipping comes from,
is really just a safety standpoint.
- And, I feel wing clipping, overall is used
in not the best ways.
It's used as a short cut.
Oh my bird flies and attacks people.
So, I'm just gonna clip his wings so now, he can't.
Or, oh my bird hates that person,
so I'm just going to clip his wings
so that it takes more time for him to get over there
and that person has time to get away.
It's a cover-up
and a lot of the times when we see clipped birds
that are going outside
or clipped birds that are in the home,
we're not seeing the real root of the issue
because people, the bird knows when you take it outside
or in a scary area
and it's clipped, it can't fly away.
So, fight or flight, if the flight part goes away,
and they usually have to be aggressive
to show any response.
And, that's why I really don't like to work
with clipped birds
because I want to be working with the bird
in its entirety.
I don't want to be working with a cover-up
of the root of the real issue there
and if you don't address the fact
that the bird maybe doesn't like somebody in your home,
or is doing these flighted attacks,
if you don't get to the root of that problem,
clipping the wings might work instantly as a short cut
but in the long term, and the root of that problem
of that bird not liking that particular person,
that's not fixed.
You didn't do anything about that.
And, that's really where the focus should be
is how can you prevent that,
how can you discourage it,
how can make it so the bird doesn't want to do that,
how can you make it more reinforcing
to do something else.
- It also gives you a false sense of security
that you can take your bird outside,
because, oh he doesn't fly, he's clipped.
Well, if you watched our video with Claudia in Hawaii,
she actually came to use to free fly
because her bird was clipped and it flew. (laughs)
- To the beach.
- Yeah, I mean what a dangerous thing
and so, I get the fear of,
well, I don't want my bird to fly off
and that's why we had the things on Patreon,
we teach you how to flight train your bird
so that if your bird got out,
you know how to recover it
and your bird has the confidence and the skills
to be able to come back to your home
'cause when a bird gets outside on accident,
it's not generally trying to get away,
it is fearful that if it flies off,
because it doesn't know how to come back
or keeps getting more and more scared
because people took the short cut.
They clipped the wings
and they never did the actual training.
So, if you're watching this videos still,
you're one of the types of people
that is willing to put in the time
to learn and to apply that type of stuff
and so, that's what it really what it takes.
It's just putting that time to train 'em properly.
- And, also I had a consultation just a few days ago
and it was about a cockatiel
and they had said,
we have this beautiful garden in our backyard,
we love taking our cockatiel out there
as a way to spend time.
And, my immediate thought was,
is the garden netted and is this bird clipped?
You're like what's going on?
How are they feeling okay about this?
'cause I knew they weren't a free flight student of ours
and soon it came out that,
they had clipped the bird
and that's why they were taking it outside
because they felt like it wasn't going to fly away
and then, it flew away.
They're like, so we got another cockatiel,
we don't know whether or not we should clip it.
And, I said, okay, the first cockatiel you got,
you didn't train and you clipped the wings
and it flew away.
You're scared not to clip the wings
because you believe it'll fly away?
Yet you're going to get the same outcome
whether it's clipped or unclipped and not trained.
And so, I was like, it's really not a question
of clipping or not clipping.
It's whether or not you're willing to put in the time
for the training or not training.
And, that's where it really came into ball.
I was like, if you really want to hang out
with your bird outside,
net your garden.
Net it and that way your bird can be outside with you.
- When your bird won't stand a chance
if it doesn't get out and it's clipped.
Do you ever share the story about the dove?
- No, that's a mortifying embarrassing story.
Why would I share that?
You're going to share it?
- Oh yeah, it's a great story.
So, okay, even with a flighted bird, (laughs)
we were getting ready for one of our tours
and so, I went to the trailer
and I was getting everything ready
with the larger birds
and I had just bought a small travel carrier
to move the birds in and out
of the outdoor aviary to get them into the--
- Trailer.
- Into the feeders or the trailer or whatever.
So, I was like, oh Jamie, use the little one
and she felt guilty putting the birds
into the little itty bitty travel carrier,
but the thing was, I didn't want the birds to get loose.
So, about two minutes goes by
and she comes back to the trailer
with her head between her legs,
and she just like--
- Head between her legs? (laughs)
Tail between the legs is the--
- Well, you were pretty hunched over. (laughs)
- Oh my God!
I'm so embarrassed.
- And, she's like I lost one of the doves.
And so, I was like, okay, where did it go?
And, she's like, I don't know, I just lost it.
- Up.
- And, these are fully flighted doves.
- Yeah, it went up and away, I think that's what I said.
- But they're also out of shape.
So, when I knew that,
and so, I went to the backyard
and I saw it and so I was like, great, let's go get it.
And so, it took flight across the street
and so, I had Jamie stay where she was
and I sprinted around the block
to get over to where the dove was
and she could still see it.
And, right as I was about to get it,
- I screamed at him because a hawk started to swoop him
and Dave had no idea.
Dave didn't even see the hawk.
- Well, so I heard her yelling about the hawk,
and so, I was just sprinting after the dove
and it was trying to take flight
but it was, it's very out of shape.
And, this is fully flighted.
So, it was between me and the hawk,
and I ended up getting the dove,
everything's fine, we still have him.
- It was amazing.
I watched everything from standing on the fence.
(Dave laughs)
Freaking out.
- But if it's that close,
okay, this was over the course of probably two minutes
that we would have lost the dove to a hawk
(snaps fingers) just like that.
And, that's a fully flighted bird.
Imagine what disadvantage your bird's going to have
if and when it gets out on accident,
if it's clipped.
It's just going to get eaten by a hawk.
And sadly, we have clients, we have friends,
we have strangers tell us these stories all the time
of their clipped birds getting out
or even just not, they have it on their shoulder
or on a perch. - Or in a tree.
A lot of people set them in trees
just so that they hang out.
- And, they get nailed by a hawk
and I can say in our immediate group,
I don't know anybody that's had free flighted birds
actually get eaten by a hawk.
There's been engagements but where there's chases
but the bird's trained and they fly well.
- Well, we've heard about it
from stories from people of other,
just of other people in general,
just of people losing birds to hawks
but I thought that dove was a goner.
Dave's an amazing dove catcher.
(Dave laughs)
- So, it is your responsibility to train your bird
which obviously, if like I said,
you're still watching this,
you're the kind of person that's going to put
in that type of time and effort
and that's what we really need.
Our mission is always been to save birds
one person at a time
and by taking the short cut and clipping your birds,
you're not doing your bird any favors,
you're not doing yourself any favors
It's worth putting a little bit of time.
It's so rewarding to have free flighted birds
because they are with your by choice
and not my force.
I think that's the big difference.
- I totally forgot what we were talking about
when we got onto the dove tangent. (laughs)
Thanks for bringing me back.
I was just, shame. (Dave laughs)
Shame. (laughs)
Felt awful.
Don't judge me guys. - So,
if you guys have similar stories,
leave it in the comments.
If you know of somebody who lost their bird to a hawk
because if it was clipped
or if you have a similar story--
- Don't share those stories, it's awful.
- I think it's important for people to see
that it's not just us trying to over hype something
and that these are real scenarios
where people lose their birds.
And, to me, it's more than just a pretty thing in a cage,
it's part of our family so.
- I'm trying to think of something they could share
that's happy but I can't come up with anything this fast.
I can't handle the pressure. (laughs)
(Dave laughs)
That's all I got, good job Dave.
- So, if you need anybody to babysit your doves--
- It's not me. (laughs)
- It's our neighbor.
He's really good. (laughs)
- I will always use the small carrier.
(Dave laughs)
- All right guys, thanks for listening or watching
and if you haven't already, like this video,
subscribe and leave some comments.
- Nice comments.
- Or not.
- Encouraging comments.
(Dave laughs)
(upbeat rock music)