How To Clip Her Wings - She's Afraid of Hands

[Kirby Derby]

My Kirby is quite afraid of hands. I have never had a bird before, and not reallly sure how to get her and hold her. Then clip the wings. Thankfully there are two of us, but I'm not sure even that will be enough. She is fearless and will bite if angry.

[bookworm0550]

You can take her to a bird groomer or the vet and one of the techs can do it and show you. I feel like wing clipping is a two person job, but that's just cuz i'm no expert at it

[Bella]

I used to hold mine in a tea towel. If their eyes are covered they are much easier to handle.

[BarbieH]

Toweling is a good strategy. But yes, have someone else demonstrate it to you the first time, if you're not comfortable taking it upon yourself without that experience.

[Pips mom]

yes, you need to have someone show you the first time.....we actually have had someone show us quite a few times before we ever tried doing it ourselves. You have to be careful because sometimes new feathers growing in can be blood feathers and if you cut them, your bird can bleed! I know the time we clipped Pip, he had a flight feather that still had a covering wrapped around it towards the bottom of the feather.....I knew this was a new feather and would not clip that one, so you have to look at them carefully. This is what scared me off from doing it for some time.....I always took them and had the vet do it or someone more experienced.
They also will show you the correct way to towel and hold your bird, which you really need to learn because if you ever have to give meds, you need to be able to restrain him to make sure the meds are given properly. Having two people is the way to go, one to hold, one to clip.
Also...... to make sure the bird is not clipped to severely, I'd have about 6 flight feathers clipped....I think that's how many we had clipped on Pip for a perfect clip where he still had some flight.

[lemonypickett]

Here is Eddie as the guinea pig.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ussptLdJB_0&feature=related

Now I do it myself and just clip one or two at a time when they come in. That way I have a gauge as to the length.

[LovelySydney]

When I did Oslos and Gus's we used a towel. We did it very quickly so they werent terrified of the towel or went into stressed out mode. It did the trick, we didnt have to touch them with our hands and the wings looked wonderful!! Luckily for me both my birds sat still through the process!!