Mynah Bird Question.

[jak2002003]

Hi.
I have a pet Hill Mynah bird (now about 1 half years old) and was thinking if it is OK the clip his wings (same way as people often do with parrots and parakeets)?

Also interested to talk to anybody else who keeps this birds.

Mine lives in our garden in a large home made cage.

He seems very happy, but seems to want to be with me all the time. He gets super excited when I go to see him, and will perch on my arm and hand and likes to chew on my fingers inside the cage. He really seems to want to come out of the cage and be with me.

If I clipped his wings I could take him out into the garden and sit with him on my arm on the patio. I think he would get a lot of enjoyment out of that and more mental stimulation (and also learn a few more words).

I feel sorry for him when he is alone in the cage and I am in the house. If he spots me in the garden he will frantically call out and jump about to try to get to me.

I am only concerned that these birds are not suitable to have their wings clipped as they don't use their beaks to climb about like parrots. But he would still be able to jump high in his cage to the perches and his rooftop bedroom no problem.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Serin]

You should never clip any birds wings. It doesn't matter that some people do it to parrots. It's still disabling the bird's primary means of movement and results in tangible physical and emotional problems including obesity,heart disease, depression, aggression, and self-mutilation.

A single companion bird simply should not be outdoors. It needs to be in the home where the family is at all times and can be allowed daily flight there under secure conditions, or it needs another mate of its species and an outside flight enclosure big enough for real freedom of flight, not a little cage (something tall enough for a person to stand in and lay down in at minimum.)

A clipped bird can fly away in a gust of wind and is extremely easy pickings for a hawk or a falcon or other carnivore birds in your area. It is never safe to take a clipped bird outside without a leash and harness.

 

[Fishkeeper]

100% agree. If you want to take him outside, harness-train him. Mynahs are smart birds, it shouldn't be too hard.
Also, it sounds like he's lonely. You need to interact with him more. Either harness-train him, get a smaller cage you can put him in and set that smaller cage near where you'll be, or make sure to spend more time with him. Having an intelligent bird like a mynah is a big responsibility, and part of that responsibility is providing him with enough mental stimulation, including social interaction.

How big is the cage?

What does he have for enrichment? Toys?

 

[Helloworld]

I raise common Hill Mynahs. Do not cut wings.

My parents that stay in our house have a 3x3x8ft Aviary.

Things to remember:

It takes about 3 days to learn a word... including those you don’t want them to learn.

They can actually mimic different voices of people.

*** You must give distilled water because they do not digest iron whether you have city or country water. ***

They have a very, very short digestion system so they need extruded pellets because they also have a high metabolism... very high as in the same as a hummingbird. I use Mazuri and purchase 50lb bags through them directly because if you buy it anywhere else it has been repackaged. You WILL NOT find mynah bird food anywhere except a zoo supplier. Mazuri is great. When they eat, they have long lizzard tongues and they pick food up and eat like a lizzard.

They are feathered cats. Love cat toys but beware of string material and cotton. They do eat it and can cause a blockage. People are their toys. Mine rides on my head throughout the day.

Easily potty trained to use cage as bathroom and mine do.

My youngest are 7 months old and we count 25-30 words they continually repeat as learning new ones. HERE IS WHERE THEY BECAME MY FAVORITE... not only can they talk but they understand you and can answer correctly in the right context.

They ARE NOT high maintenance except in regards to food and water and although they can eat birds seed and things, like I said, digestion is soooo short they won’t be able to digest it fast enough to get nutrients.

If you need any help or have other questions let me know and welcome to owning one of the coolest and smartest birds EVER!

 

[ColtHandorf]

ot to come off harshly or snotty at all, and people are entitled to their own opinions, but I completely disagree with this statement:

Quote:

"You should never clip any birds wings."


It is not a matter of convenience but a matter of safety. I worked at a pet store as a manager for over four years. Yes, birds have wings for a reason and that purpose in most species is to fly...in the wild. Without the many dangers a house can present to a bird. In those four years I saw and heard many stories of birds injuring themselves, being lost, or even dying from having full-flight. Several times each year people came in with birds that had flown down to them in their yards or the grocery store parking lot. Quakers, Senegals, Cockatiels, Parakeets, you name it. Each month lost bird ads were posted in the store because someone lost their bird as it flew through an open door. Others came in look for replacement birds for the ones that the repairman let out the door or was startled and flew into a window or wall breaking their neck. The stories I've heard would take hours to type out.

Open fish tanks, hot stoves, open flames like candles and fireplaces, ceiling fans, mirrors, windows and doors, and many other dangers are presented to companion birds when they are brought into our homes. If you can not control a bird these dangers are very real and immediate.

The chances of finding a bird with full-flight once it's outside is very slim. The chances of catching it once found are slimmer still. And the idea that a bird raised in a home where food and water were provided for it protected from the dangers of the outside world in exchange for the dangers of the inside world is the slimmest yet.

So yes I absolutely advocate the clipping of a bird's wings when it is in their best interest. All it takes is something unexpected at the wrong moment for a bird to escape, injure, or even kill itself. Even at the pet store where I was constantly watching them accidents can happen. A child can come in with a balloon that startles the 6 month old Congo African Grey off the play gym and into the plate glass store front. Or the hand fed Cockatiel, inexperienced in flight to clip the tip of a wing as it turned resulting in it slamming into the floor dying immediately. Or maybe the Severe Macaw being delivered to the store that was still being hand fed three times a day that literally exploded out of the carrier/brooder when the breeder dropped it and was never seen again. No way did that bird survive a winter in East Texas. In all of those scenarios clipping the bird's wings could have saved their life.

Our companion birds are also not used to flight and learning as an adult can also bring about injury as they sprain muscles, strain themselves, crack breast bones when they are unable to land properly, or have their hearts literally give out in flight because they are not used to sustained flying.

The dangers of free flight are very real. I do know people that free fly their companion birds and that's fabulous. But I certainly never had to worry about my Jenday being snatched out of the sky in front of me by a Red-tailed Hawk or flying into my sliding glass door when someone knocked unexpectedly.

Please be aware of the repercussions that free-flight can have on you and your bird. And take the necessary precautions to ensure its safety if the bird is not clipped.

Having said all of that; however, I would not recommend clipping the wings of a softbill (not a hookbill). Hookbills are able to use their beaks to climb and explore their cages and playgyms. Softbills don't. They depend on their wings for movement. I would try a harness in the house a lot before trying it outside. And I would recommend spending a lot of time with it. It sounds like you do, but it is well bonded and enjoys your company. Another option for mental stimulation and engagement when you're not home or otherwise occupied might be to get a pair of finches that are housed separately but in the same room. Kind of like a fish tank, or TV for your existing bird.

 

[perchie.girl]

I too worked in a pet store. We only clipped birds once, we sold parakeets. After that they refused to fly at all. Never finches or Canaries. Parakeets are climbers and can be enriched by their environment.... But I am not an advocate... Especially with Mynas... They are flyers that's their nature.

This was before I ever heard of leash or harness training.... Good option.

So there is a wide range of opinion on the subject.

thankfully here on BYC Its Ok to agree to Disagree.

deb

 

[Serin]

The argument to cut a birds wings for safety are as ignorant as tying a dogs legs together instead of training it and/or providing a safe and secure yard to contain it. If you're not willing to ensure your bird will have a safe secure space to fly or is trained to recall outdoors you don't need to be keeping a bird as a pet. There are pets that are just as personable that don't have wings.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I am not pompous enough to assume that I can prevent injury from the thousand and one variables that can affect a companion bird in my care. You of course are entitled to your own opinion and your own way of keeping birds and I am entitled to mine. Thankfully birds didn't write the books, people did, and what may work for one breeder or hobbyist may not work for another.

I will say that birds can be trained to do many things. But accidents happen every day and I for one prefer to elminate that as best I am able. For instance, a friend of mine was handfeeding a clutch of Eastern Rosellas that were fully feathered and would have certainly fledged from a nest box had their parents been rearing them. She made the remark that they were so well-behaved and had never flown. Within seconds one of them launched off the counter and with startling speed flew into her living room from the kitchen, up towards the four ceiling fans and her vaulted ceiling, and before I could even react to try to stop it, she struck the ceiling fan, was thrown across the room into the mirror above the fireplace, where she bounced off the mantle and fell to the hearth with a completely shattered wing. She died in surgery the following day with an avian specialist trying to surgically correct the damage. Of course if the fans had been off that could have been prevented. But then she might have landed in one of the three large saltwater reef aquariums her husband keeps. Or the standard poodle with a high prey drive could have been let out by mistake and taken her had she landed safely on the couch. There's no way a baby still on one or two a day feedings could have been trained to not do what comes naturally to a bird. However a "soft" clip that removed her lift but not gliding capabilites could have prevented the incident from occurring at all.

*shrugs* Am I right? Maybe. Are you right? Possibly. And that's the fun of keeping birds. I do try very hard not to make never and always statements when it comes to bird keeping.

 

[Serin]

Ultimately, that story is sad, but it's sad for the bird, as it is such an unnecessary death that could so easily have been prevented. One of the primary house rules when you have indoor birds is that ceiling fans are shut off when any bird is out. Period. Always. It's one thing if a bird got out when they are on, I suppose, but taking flighted birds out with ceiling fans on is just.... I don't know a word. Inexcusable? About as responsible as taking your little puppies out and then unleashing them to run down the expressway, assuming they just won't go out in the street because "they're so well behaved." That is not a situation you could have prevented by training, but it is one that could - and should - have been prevented by common sense. Those poor baby parrots should never have been put into that environment. They should only have been let out in a safe space, behind a closed door.

I used to breed parrots, finches, canaries, doves and have raised more than 150 house birds free-flighted (every single one allowed out of the cage almost every day). I've never lost one to a fan, boiling water, a fish tank, or another pet because those are things that are always secured before ever letting out the bird!

Don't punish the bird for your inability to provide a safe environment.

Flight is such a beautiful thing. And people just take away that beautiful thing with scissors for their own convenience.

 

[perchie.girl]

this is a good discussion... Accidents happen... sigh.

deb