These are just my opinions, and they contradict so many people that
its almost not even worth talking about. But...everyone's entitled
to their own opinion...so here's mine.
Alex is currently clipped. Not because this is how I want him to be, or believe he should be, but because when he was scared and flew out my back door, my heart flew out with him. I've never ran SO fast, barefooted, across a field and gravel...in my life. Almost broke my foot. THANK GOD I found him, and 5 minutes after I got him home I clipped his beautiful blue feathers. My heart sank as I clipped them. However having Alex safe, is far more important than my guilt at clipping them. He's not fully clipped. He can still glide quite well and does from time to time, he has the first 2 primaries, for looks, and then 6 flights are clipped. When he's sitting still he looks like his wings are fully intact. Then when he tries to fly, he gets about 50-100 feet, before stopping. I know this because he flew off AGAIN! DO NOT BELIEVE that clipping your birds wings means they cannot fly. He went 100 feet to the end of the building, went around the corner, and flew another 75 feet before coming to a stop. Even if your bird never tried to fly, you never know when something will startle them and there they go, and there's nothing you can do but watch and try to follow. Its terrifying, for you and your bird. An indoor bird who seldom goes outside is very overwhelmed when they first fly, and usually panic and frighten easily. PLEASE, PLEASE, unless your bird a) wears a harness b) is trained in recall THOROUGHLY or c) never, ever has any access whatsoever to any outside openings, including windows that might not have screens, then PLEASE clip your bird's wings. For your sake and theirs. Believe me, I feel terrible for having Alex clipped, and when I build his aviary, I'll let him be fully flighted again. But until then, clipped it is. I know several people disagree with me on this, but if you've ever seen your bird flying off on a windy day, you'll probably understand my viewpoint.
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