How to Trim Parrot Feathers

Video Transcript

"In this clip we will show you how to trim Allister's wings. You do want to have your bird's wings trimmed so that they are not able to fly around the house and injure themselves and also so they can't fly out an open window or an open door that may be left open. You gently hold his wing and firmly pull it out. You only want to trim the longest feathers and I pick one individual feather at a time. You do need to look and make sure there is not a blood feather, that this area is clear. If there's a blood feather and a blood supply in there, you don't want to cut it and that will appear to be bluish purple. Those do not want to get, you don't want to cut those. So we will start by separating one feather out at a time and clip and that way the presentation of the wing on the opposite side will look nice cause you can see on the outside, it will keep all these little feathers intact so that's why we just do one at a time and don't trim straight across because you ruin the appearance of the outer feathers. And this is so they won't be flying around and hurt themselves, ceiling fans, open windows, open doors, things like that. This does not hurt the bird what so ever, it would be just like trimming nails. And he does not mind having his wing held out, he is used to this. And it is something you may want to do, just to hold the wing out and have them used to that before you even start trimming them just so they are used to having them handled. Trim about a third of the feathers, you don't want to trim past the bend in the wing, you want to make sure that if they were to fly off their perch or their cage that they have some support when they fly so they don't just crash to the ground. And that's how it will look when it is finished. You can always touch up if needed."