tame

Question
I recently asked about clipping a senegals wings but i forgot to ask one more question about this... will (and if so ) how will clipping help the taming process for me and my parrot... He is young and bright, its mainly for safety too. Please reply! ! ! Abby And Moose (<<Parrot=D)

Answer
The reason why clipping a bird's wings helps with the taming process is mainly for two reasons; 1) it makes it hard for your bird to get away. Most birds with full flight that are frightened will just constantly fly away from you whenever you try to approach them.... so it can make it difficult to teach them to step up onto your hand. Plus, if you need to catch them to put them back in their cage, it can be hard to do this- causing you to have to chase your bird around for awhile trying to catch him. This stresses both him and you out- "catching" a bird with clipped wings is as quick and painless as you can possibly make it.

However, people can tame a bird with full flight. I tamed one of my budgies this way. I just left her in her cage during the first couple of weeks of taming "sessions." I would just talk to her and try to hand-feed her treats. She started to enjoy the interaction and eventually she came to me... but I was never able to really teach her basic manners (like stepping up to come out of her cage). She always came out of her cage on her own. And that leads me to my second reason for trimming a bird's wings for taming.... reducing the bird's tendency to be aggressive, manipulative and/or dominate.

Many birds (if they think they can get away with it) will try to manipulate their owners to get what they want. Birds with full flight know that they have a greater sense of control in the relationship. They can just fly away if they don't like what you are doing. Some birds have been known to even "dive bomb" and attack people when upset. They can come and go from their cage as they please and this can encourage them to become territorial over their space. These are of course generalizations, and some birds would never display this behavior... and others will continue to display this kind of behavior even if their wings are trimmed. So it really all depends on the individual bird.

I hope this helps.

-Maggie