clip quail's wings?

[Dill]

Should you clip button quail's wings for their own safety? Mine are indoor quail so there isnt much of a chance that they'll get away but I'm afraid they'll fly into a wall and break their neck/beak/injure themselves somehow during out-of-cage time.

 

[Bettacreek]

Funny that you ask. I just clipped mine last night. My white buttons were flying out all of the time when I messed in the cage, and hubby finally told me that the next time one escapes, he refuses to help me catch it. So, I clipped a wing on each bird. I made each do a test flight to make sure that they wouldn't hurt themselves if they were dropped onto the floor or something, and after the test flight in a safe area, they were actually less inclined to attempt to fly. Usually when I pull the top off the cage, they all pop up and flutter around, but now they just run around instead. Much safer IMO, even if they are only indoor birds, they could fly into a wall and kill themselves, or many other things could happen indoors to a flighty bird.

 

[tamsflock]

Sounds like a good idea. How do you clip their wings?

 

[Dill]

Quote:
Your post on UB reminded me about it. When I first got mine I wondered whether they should have their wings clipped but I forgot about till now.

When you clipped yours, did your husband help or were you actually able to do it yourself? My dad probably will put it off for ages so I'd like to do it myself if its possible (I figure theyll wiggle a lot and someone will need to hold while the other clips)

 

[monarc23]

I have a poston how to clip quails wings...it's for coturnix but it will apply to buttons as well just on a smaller scale. I clipped buttons wings same way I clip my coturnixs wings and all by myself tho it's easier with someone else.....i'll try and find the post...

 

[spookyevilone]

I clip all of mine because otherwise they go *whirrrrrrr* and wind up somewhere I can't get at them.

Here's an article on clipping feathers:
http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww19eii.htm

-Spooky

 

[Bettacreek]

It's incredibly easy to clip them yourself. I'd imagine that the buttons would actually be easier than coturnix, simply because they fit right in one hand.

I'll show pics, but they were already done.

 

[Bettacreek]

I did them myself, hubby's half afraid of them because he thinks that he's going to "break" them, lol.
They were so easy in fact, that I wasn't picky about which wing I got or how I held them while doing it. I picked out two with different wings done just to show how I held them. I just slipped the scissors under the back wing feathers (whatever they're called) and snipped off the flight feathers. I'm no professional, and this was the first time I ever clipped wings, so they're not primped and pretty or anything, but it's functional (er, well, non-functional) and it doesn't have an effect on the way they look unless you actually pull the wing out. It probably took me a whopping five minutes to do all five, and that is including chasing one of the whites down, lmao. And, it's much easier now. I was trying to snap these shots and the other white got out. It was so easy to catch them, because they really don't run fast and they don't attempt to flutter away with the wings cut now.
They aren't the least bit impressed with the new "cut", but, well, I don't think much of anything that I do impresses these guys, except when I bringeth food, lol.

I've heard of some people clipping both wings, and others clipping only one. I did one because it's supposed to make them lopsided and less able to fly than a strong bird with both clipped.

P.S. is this Sawyer? I wondered if that was you, but wasn't sure.

 

[Dill]

Yep, I'm Sawyer.

thanks for the links and thanks for the pics Bettacreek.

i'm going to try and clip my 7 button's wing's, my 15 budgie's, 4 tiel's, and 2 lovebird's wings. that's what, 56 wings? o_o Out of all of those the button's will probably be easiest because for some reason clipping their wings looks less complicated than my other bird's, judging by pics.

 

[Bettacreek]

Lol. Yeah, my cockatiel never had his done. The budgies aren't clipped either.