A common practice used in pet shops and by breeders for parrots that often leaves the birds traumatised, mutilated, depressed and with long term psychological issues.

The unethical thinking behind this is that the bird will be easier to train and won’t fly away. The harsh reality is that In doing this they destroy the spirit of the bird taking away its natural ability as a flight animal. 

Contrary to popular belief, a clipped bird can still fly – only they cannot do it well. They are much more likely to crash and hurt themselves, and should they get out and fly away, they will be a much easier snack for a predator due to being handicapped (Hess & Axelson, 2021).

We run a registered rescue Feather Tail Parrot Rescue and we see it regular a parrot handed in to us because it has deep emotional and psychological issues rooting from its wings been mutilated in the pet shop or by a breeder before sold as a hand tamed parrot. These birds will not trust or bond with a human. The pain and suffering it goes through and the anger they have towards humans is immense.

Wings that are clipped often grow back deformed and leave the birds with deep scaring as well as heartbreaking mutilating behaviours.’

Feather plucking and barbering are self-mutilating behaviours that are usually caused by stress, dietary deficiencies, or disease. When a bird loses their ability to fly, this is a major change in their entire life (Jenkins, 2001).

Wing clipping and the physical effects it has also greatly affects the parrot’s mental health. Lack of flight, which equals lack of exercise, leads to pent up energy that the bird cannot let out through flying. This means they have to express their energy in different ways, which are often undesirable behaviours such as excessive screaming, biting, feather barbering or even feather plucking (united parrot kingdom 2023)

The only time this medical procedure should be considered and carried out is by a specialist Avian Vet for medical purposes when all other interventions have failed.

Hayley Battison, Victoria Banner Feather Tail Parrot Rescue