How to Trim Wing Feathers on an African Grey Parrot

African Grey parrots are excellent escape artists. Trimming the wing feathers on an African Grey parrot can help to prevent the bird from flying away should it escape from your home and help prevent accidents if the bird gets loose in the house.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Scissors
• Thick towel
• Needle-nose pliers
• Styptic powder

Trimming the Wings

1. Take the bird into a quiet room. Regardless of how tame the bird is, trimming its feathers is likely to be a stressful experience. Performing the trimming in a quiet room can help to reduce some of this stress.

2. Wrap the bird into a thick towel. An assistant should be holding the bird in the towel, and should cradle the bird firmly with one hand and keep the towel wrapped snugly around the bird's body. She should also hold the back of the bird's head to prevent the bird from being able to bite.

3. Position the bird on its back on your assistant's lap. Move the towel on one side of the body so that you can easily access its wing. Gently extend the wing out from the bird's body.

4. Locate the primary flight feathers, which are the longest feathers on the inner part of the wing.

5. Trim between five and seven of these long primary flight feathers. Examine the feathers closely before trimming to ensure that they are mature feathers and not newly formed blood feathers.

6. Wrap the towel back around the bird's wing, and move to the other side to repeat the process with the other wing.

Blood Feather

7. Using the needle-nose pliers, firmly grab the blood feather as close as you possibly can to the bird's skin.

8. Firmly hold the opposite side of the wing. This will work best if your assistant holds the wing while you remove the blood feather.

9. Remove the blood feather in one smooth, steady motion.

10. Apply a styptic powder to the feather follicle, applying firm pressure to the area for 1 to 2 minutes.

Tips & Warnings

• Take your bird to an avian professional or veterinarian for the first few wing trimmings so that you can have them show you how to properly identify flight feathers and trim the wings. Have all tools ready before you begin trimming, including those tools you will need if you mistakenly cut a blood feather. Trim your African Grey parrot's wings during a time of the day when it is more calm. If the bird becomes too stressed after trimming one wing, allow the bird to rest before attempting to trim the next wing.
• Do not attempt to trim an African Grey parrots wings without having proper instruction from an avian professional or veterinarian. Do not trim feathers if you cannot differentiate between a mature feather and a blood feather. If a clipped blood feather does not stop bleeding after applying styptic powder, call a veterinarian immediately. Make sure both wings are trimmed evenly to prevent the bird from being off-balance when gliding.

References

• African Grey Parrots; Annette Wolter, Rita and Robert Kimber; 1987
• African Grey Parrots; Everything About History, Care, Nutrition, Handling and Behavior; Maggie Wright; 2001
• A New Owner's Guide to African Grey Parrots; Nikki Moustaki; 2004