Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am having a problem. I let my parakeets wings grow in and they have a fun time zooming around my room and making up and playing their own little games. This pleased me LOL. Now, however, i am having a problem. It seems that the longer they have wings, the less tame they are becoming. The biggest problem with this is getting them to go back into their cages when i need to go to work, especially if they don't want to.(They used to "step up", now they just fly off). Should i clip their wings and re-tame them by handling them alot again or should i just buy a net? If i get a net, how is the best way to re-tame them without clipping their wings? Thank you.

I love to see birds flying around as well and hate to clip their wings unless I have to. That being said I do usually clip wings (except on a few species that are more prone to feather plucking) until a bird is very tame and can be trusted to come when called and step up when needed. Many birds especially the smaller ones seem to become more tame when their wings are clipped. If your birds had their wings clipped in the past and were tame I would suggest doing this again.

We do use a net on some smaller birds usually finches which I don't really find a "friendly, trainable" type of bird. I try not to use nets on birds that can be trained and tamed unless absolutely necessary. It seems to cause a lot of stress to them to be swooped down upon by a large item, possibly making them feel like a predator is after them like in the wild. A net can be used if needed but I would suggest only as a last resort. If the holes in the net are too lage they can get their heads, wings or legs stuck if the holes are too small their nails can become entangled either way creating even more stress. If you are going to be using a net I don't have any suggestions on using them for taming it really seems to defeat the purpose.

If you do not want to clip and don't want to use a net I would suggest first, only take the birds out of their cage when you know you will have plenty of time with them. Do not take them out before work when you could be in a hurry, instead take them out of an evening, either after supper or before bed. Let them play for a while then try offering a favorite treat to entice to step up. Make sure you save the treat only for when putting them back in their cage or handling them so they see they get something good for "going home" or perching on your hand. At first do not make them go directly into their cage when they do step up or they may see it as something to avoid. Instead get them to step up, give a tiny bit of treat and then let them fly off again. Do this several times before putting back in their cages and give them a bit more of a treat when you do. Smaller pieces broken off a millet spray is usually a good treat. Or if they have another favorite treat, try that instead.

It seems that wing clipping is the way to go. I do want tame birds even tho for the most part i leave them to their own devices. This may seem like a goofy concern, but, now after about 2 months of flying around wherever and whenever they wanted, if i clip their wings will they get depressed or frustrated? If not, i'll make an appt. with my dog groomer and go get their wings cut and work with them till they grow back in and then determine if they are friendly enuf to allow to fly again. Would it be reasonable to cut their wings when they start to show too much "non domesticity" and then cut them and re-tame them? Or would this be too stressful on the birds? thank you.

I actually think that would be a great idea. You may find that after several times of clipping that your bird is tame and stays tame even after the wings have grown back in and either way they can enjoy flying around for a bit before getting them clipped again. Make sure your groomer does know how to trim bird wings and ask that just the first several flight feathers ber trimmed off, not all the flight feathers. This way your bird can still glide to the ground if startled and won't be crash landing because they are used to flying around. With larger birds they sometimes only trim the first 3-5 feathers, on smaller birds they may need to trim more but this way they can't actually fly but are less likely to get hurt.

Good luck and let us know how soon they calm after getting clipped. It shouldn't take as long as it did in the first place and I haven't really noticed them acting depressed they just start climbing a lot more again which seems to keep tem just as entertained.

My dog groomer owns a pet store that hand rasies all types of birds and does nail, beak and wing clipping so i'm not worried at all about taking my birds there. I'm going to ask that she only take about 5 feathers off and see if that works because i know when i bought them they had severe clippings and fell straight down to the ground. if i need to take off more then i will but as u said, since they are used to flying less might be better. I'll let u know how it goes and thank you for responding.