How to clip a duck's wings?

do you want to clip the feathers or pinion her?
Pinioning is permanent!
It is best done on day old duckling by simply taking finger nail clippers or scissors and snipping off the late joint/tip of just ONE wing, if you do both it will balance them out and they can fly again.
There is no bleeding or anything as the tip is mainly just fuzz at 1 day old.

Now the same can not be said for adult birds. It can be done, but I wouldn't suggest it to some one who is new to it.
It can be a mess if you do it wrong.

If you dont find an owner, try to trim the feathers off of just one side this will last to her next molt, but now you will have to watch for predators, or lock her up at night, be aware of that too!
Good Luck,
Aubrey

 

dill...you should try to find the owners....just cause she got away from someone dosent mean they dont love her...maybe she sneaked off...like dill did that time, and got attacked by the dog....IMO..i'd try to find the owners....good luck!, Wendy

 

I agree about finding an owner if there is one. I am still grieving and I mean grieving after having a parrot escape, 6 years later. If you love a pet, you love them and miss them forever.

Actually though, if you think there is a reason why the duck might fly off, I don't really see a problem clipping the wings as wings grow out, provided the clipping is only of the feathers and not the bone tip as is the practice of some people who don't want their poultry to ever fly.

About the "inhumaneness" though or the failure of the previous owner to clip, you can get busy, the wing is grown out more than you thought, etc...

And I don't know your predator situation where you live, but we plan to get muscovies with other poultry, and we probably WON'T clip our free range birds, locked up only at night, because of our large number of predators, i.e., coyotes, bobcats, hawks. We will use lg dogs too, but we feel the bird needs some means of quick reaction as well.

Connie

 

I just got some Muscovys and am wondering about clipping. I think I'll have to if I'm not going to keep them in a completely covered run. We are in suburbs and so far the predators have not found our place (we already have chickens.) Anyway, once the muscovys settle in and get used to us and their new surroundings, I want to let them out into the paddocks I have set up for the chickens (not completely free range but giving them lots of area to forage and scratch.) The muscovys previous home has essentially a dog kennel with a kiddie pool in one end and no forage other than a bowl of pellets. The birds didn't quite know what to do with themselves in the new space with perches and mulch and greens and only a small pool of water.

Anyway, I've read stories of people with muscovys were one hen would fly around the neighborhood on daily tours but only landing back at home each time. I don't think I dare let the girls fly though because feral muscovys are not very welcome around Florida.

 

Quote:A lot of people don't clip wings because they want their duck to be able fly away if they are in danger. A lot of times when a duck flies away because it was in danger, it will go back to it's home... sometimes the next day, sometimes weeks later, unless of course someone grabs it and clips its wings.

You should try to find out if she has a home. I rescued a goose last year from a kill shelter. It was such a friendly guy that I knew it must have been loved by someone. I put an ad on craigslist looking for his human. I didn't say what kind of goose it was or where he had initially been found. That ad found the gooses owner, and she was so happy that I put the ad up. It turns out that the goose I rescued had a lonely depressed brother who really needed his sibling back. It was extremely tough to hand Trumpet (that's what I had named him) over to the woman. I didn't feel that the woman could take care of either him or his brother in a manner that was up to my standards. But Trumpet wasn't my goose, and she did love him and did provide adequate care so I gave him back to her. That was a very sad day for me, but a very happy one for her and hopefully Trumpet too. She sent pictures of Trumpet reunited with his brother.

 

Keeping in mind that the duck may belong to someone else is important, but for now, if you want it to keep from flying away clipping the wing is a good start. I just clipped my 2 scovies wings last night. I waited until they were snuggly tucked into the coop and my DBF and I went in there, picked them up, spread out one wing and clipped away. Don't cut too close. If you go on youtube there are several demonstrations (under wing clipping).

Normally my girls will not let me touch them, but they don't really seem to care once they are ready for bed. Watch their nails...

Make sure that the duck has someplace same from predators.

 

http://www.exoticpetvet.net/avian/clip.html

link for wing clipping.