Originally Posted by
belenny
.............That wings will grow back, but ¿will be your parrot fitness enough then?
Lack of exercise is only one of the problems about clipping wings, in Spain it´s recomended to do exercise with him everyday while he´s clipped, specially for the wings but also for the beak and the keel (breakaches are really common in clipped parrots).
It´s difficult for me to explain how that exercises are in English, but I´d like to know if in the case of lovebirds you take care of this, too.
In this way, when the parrot recover his wings he could use them without problems.
............Of course, mine are bred in captivity too, but I wanted to say that they didn´t choose to come and I think we should respect them as possible. If you want a pet to run on the floor you have a lot of different options and you can get them respecting them (dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, ...). To convert a bird in which he´s not by whim is unethical in my opinion... I only understand clipping when it was necessary for his security because of something unexpected.
...........Birds fly, if you don´t like it don´t buy a bird...
If a lovie escapes clipped his dead is unavoidable... I know some cases about cats or big birds who killed parrots because of that.
Lovies who escaped with their wings could go back home sooner or later (I could show a lot of links with the stories if you like it).
Some of them simply came the call of their owner (that´s because I train my lovebirds...), some others flew up a house with another lovebirds and then were returned for the person who lived in that home, some others went to a pedestrian shoulder and were returned too, ... Flying is their only defense.
"My tendency is to clip some primary flight feathers when a new/untame love is brought home to help with the taming process".
This is what I said, owner´s comfort... I can´t respect that.
I had a pair of wild lovebirds when I was 10 and I could tame them without clipping... Only with time and patience. If a 10 year old girl could do that, why can´t others do the same? Because it´s easier with an animal who can´t escape when he´s afraid... I am saying that we should see from their point of view because when they´re afraid and we try to cuddle them advantage that may not leave we´re not respecting them. They will be more terrified then, although they realize that we´re not an enemy later...