Ce chapitre en français

Why a campaign against wing clipping? What's so bad about making a pet bird unable to fly for just a little while or even forever? Do pet birds really need to fly even though they find their food and water in their cages and don't have to flee from predators? On this page, you find an introduction to this in most cases emotionally discussed topic.

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Evolution (or God) gave birds wings to enable them to conquer the air as their natural habitat. Most bird species of the world are capable of flight, there are only few flightless birds such as the Kiwi from New Zealand or the Ostrich from Africa.

Flightless birds lost their capability of flight because of two major reasons: They grew tall and became too heavy for still being able to fly (Ostich, Rhea or Emu) or they live on remote islands / in isolated places without natural predators which approach on the ground (Kiwi, Penguin).

Budgies and all other parrots except for the Kakapo - another remote island inhabitant - do not belong to those two groups of birds which means that they are able to fly in their natural surroundings.

Those people who love to have some "nature" in their homes and get themselves birds should always remember the fact that their pets are creatures of the air. Clipping a budgie's wings turns the poor bird into a disabled bird! By clipping a bird's wings, one takes away its natural means of moving from one place to another.

Most people like clipped birds in their homes because they are easier to handle. Since clipped budgies depend on their owner's help very much, they become tame more quickly than unclipped birds. And they are not able to fly around and for example land on a picture frame tha's hanging on the wall and chew off the wallpaper.

To be honest: Some budgies destroy a lot of things like books, glossy magazines, plants, furniture and so on. This isn't fun if for example your expensive mathematics books are destroyed by your playing birds when you are a poor student like I was a few years ago. I often wished my birds wouldn't be able to land on the shelves and shred my literature...

But I never spent one single thought on clipping their wings to stop them from doing this! There were always other things I could do to save my books from being destroyed by those ever willing to gnaw beaks.

And, by the way, all my birds became tame and very good friends of mine even though I didn't clip their wings. I think it is a more honest friendship if a bird who is able to fly away in general stays perched on your finger or shoulder by his own free will. It took a bit longer to make my birds become used to my company, but it was worth all the efforts!

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