Ce chapitre en français

Many people think that it's good to clip a bird's wings because they can take their pets with them into their gardens in summer. Well, one can also take unclipped birds into the garden if they are in an aviary that's easy to transport (on castors for example). Budgies enjoy being in the fresh air in summer and such an aviary surely is the perfect place to be for them.

Also supporters of wing clipping say that birds who cannot fly will not damage furniture, wallpapers and other things in the house because they can't reach them. It is true that budgies love to gnaw on wood and other things and they tend to destroy paper, books and wallpapers. But instead of clipping their wings one should offer them natural twigs, wood and for example cork oak they can gnaw on. Gnawing is part of their natural behaviour so you should better not suppress it.

Clipped birds are easier to handle for children, some folks say. My opinion is: Budgies are no toys and clipped birds are even more helpless than "normal" ones. It is irresponsible to let small children play with budgies, neither with clipped ones, nor with unclipped birds.

Up to they are about six years old, children are still learing to control the strength of their grip. When they grip a tame bird what is easier if he is unable to fly, they can hurt the animal badly or even kill it by accident. Apart from the fact that this is a tragedy for the poor bird, it would be the ultimate horror for the child to live with the blame afterwards. Believe me, most children blame themselves after killing a beloved pet by accident!

I know that because exactly this happened to my cousin when she was about five years old. The girl cried for hours after she killed her very curious budgie by accident when she griped him for getting him out of trouble. The bird's beak stuck into the chain of a cuckoo clock. My cousin wanted to help her budgie out of this situation, gripped him with one hand and pulled on the chain with the other hand. The bird's beak was torn and the poor budgie bled to death in her hands. That's what can happen to a bird if a child doesn't know how to control its muscular strength and budgies whose wings are clipped are more in danger than unclipped birds.

And finally there is the argument that birds whose wings were clipped become tame and bond to their owner very easy. This is true because they have no other chance. A flightless bird is addicted to the owner and therefore the circumstances force the budgie to hook up with a person to get help. I don't think that addiction is a good base for a true friendship and I prefer my birds to become tame by their own decision.