[cknauf]

Denali had gone two weeks without hurting himself, until this morning when he somehow managed to knock out all of the primary flights in his left wing. My mom woke up the birds at 9:30 and said he was fine (he was covered in blood on one side, so I think she'd have noticed) and I went down to see them at about 10:45 and he was a mess. All bleeding is stopped and I've cleaned him up. He's in his molt and had grown in 6 of his clipped flights on both wings; he managed to knock out all 6 on one wing and none on the other. I know clipping a single wing is dangerous, but is it dangerous for his wings to be this lopsided? Or will the flights grow in fast enough? I do want him flighted at least for a little while because his clumsiness has decreased dramatically as I've been working with him on flying, so I'd hate to clip him again and have to wait til his next molt. But I also don't want him to hurt himself further.

I've been looking at their cage setup too and trying to figure out how he hurt himself. The only thing I can think of is he fell and knocked himself on a perch, or somehow trapped his wing between the bars. I just don't know what to do with this clumsy boy.

 

[meaggiedear]

Poor guy. If it were me, I wouldn't want him to strain on one wing so I'd clip. But maybe someone has a different solution.

 

[Rizq]

Did he completely knock them out or break them off? My Pollo keeps knocking hers out (and just did again last week, silly girl) and they take about a month or so to grow back in, faster than waiting for a molt. If I clipped her to match, then I would have to clip the new feathers when they grew in so she wouldn't be lopsided yet again. If they are broken off, you might as well clip the other wing to match since you will probably be waiting for another molt anyway.

She was severely clipped when we got her and I don't think she had been allowed to fledge well, but finally had them all grown back in after knocking them out a few times right after she was just starting to fly, and had been flying pretty well for about a month. Then one morning, was wing was bare again. Darned night frights.

 

[enigma731]

I think this is somewhat of a different situation than a one-sided clip, because all the feathers on his wing got knocked out at once. That means they'll all grow back pretty quickly, whereas with a clip, the feathers don't come back in until the bird's next molt, which could be months. My Sunny recently lost all his flights on one wing during a night fright, and I just left it the way it was. He grew them all back within about 3 weeks, and didn't have any major issues in the interim. Now, if you notice that Denali is struggling, you could clip to match, but if you ultimately want him to be fully flighted again, then just leaving it will get him back to that much faster.

 

[tielfan]

You might want to limit his flight opportunities until the new wing feathers have come in. The problem with a one-wing clip is that it doesn't prevent the bird from flying but it destroys their ability to steer. So you can expect a lot of crash landings if he flies in his current condition.

This doesn't mean that you can't let him fly at all, just that you need to take some safety precautions. Birds can't build up too much speed in a small room, so he'll be safer in a small room than in a big room. Since he won't have much control over his landing spot, eliminate anything that would be hazardous for him to land on.

 

[bjknight93]

I personally wouldn't clip. Those that got knocked out will grow back between 6 and 8 weeks, and then other flights will be permanently gone until the next molt. Best to just try to restrict the flying until his new flights regrow.

 

[cknauf]

Thank you all! I guess I won't clip then. He's already going to be grounded for a bit to give him a chance to heal up, but I'll make sure to watch him if he does take off.