Clipping feathers

Should you decide that clipping is necessary, take your bird to a qualified avian vet.  Have the vet show you the proper way to clip a bird’s wings.  This involves removing a certain amount of the flight feathers while leaving the smaller balancing feathers inside the wing closer to the body uncut.  If your grey is a baby (only months old) I would recommend that you hold off on his first clipping until he is fully capable of flight and has developed his confidence as a young bird.

Only a few feathers should be clipped from the wings of an African Grey since they are heavy birds. Clipping too many of the Grey's feathers can severely impair flight and may lead to injuries as they may have a tendency to crash to the ground. If very young birds are wing clipped they may never gain full coordination and agility in flight.There are strong arguments both for and against clipping your bird’s wings.  A clipped bird is perhaps more free to be out on a play stand among his people since he won’t be able to fly around and cause havoc.  If a clipped bird happens to get outside he is easily caught and returned to a safe environment.  Additionally, clipping a parrots wings often times settles them down in the case of an aggressive, poorly behaved bird.To sum this up, clipping your birds wings is a personal decision based on several factors.