I never really realized this much, but this is something to consider when clipping your birds wings. I have always kept Pip clipped. I used to take him to be clipped at the pet store where his previous owner got him, but quickly found that when other's clip your bird, they often clip TOO much! or too severely.......it's SO worth the time and effort to learn how to do it yourself, this way, you know that you're bird's being clipped properly and will still have some flight. With Pip in the past, I've kept him clipped, but he still always had alot of flight ability left afterwards. That's how I like it.........the clip is just to make flying a little harder and more work so he won't do it as often or stray too far. Most times he still was able to gain height too after I clipped him. It often looked as if I didn't even clip him at all! Here's the thing! This time I hadn't clipped Pip in some time. He has been very well behaved and good about going in for me and so I didn't clip him. I let this go a long time, and even after he started acting up, taking off to parts of the house where we don't want him to go, and just plain being bitey and bold! SOooo, last night I clipped him. Here's where I found out something we should keep in mind that we overlook. When a bird's flight feathers grow back, it makes flying easier. I'd imagine that flying for a lovie with fully grown flights is pretty effortless since they are such light little birds. What happens is this......flying gets easier and their wings don't get the workout that they do when they are clipped, so I clipped Pip..........same as always, not alot and he should have a decent amount of flight.........nope! apparently, going too long in between clipping, flying gets easier, and their wing muscles don't get the workout they used to, so you can still clip the same amount, same way, and now poor Pip lands on the floor sometimes and can't get back up to the playgym! It has to be a matter of him not working those wing muscles as much from having close to full flight because I clippped him the same amount as always. SOOO, the moral of this story........if you keep them clipped, it's better to clip regularly or if you wait too long, clip less because those wing muscles had it too easy for too long! It amazed me that my clip was a little more than I wanted for Pip and that it's because I've gone so long without clipping him. He can still fly and all........but I didn't want to limit him this much and didn't realize that not clipping for a while will weaken those muscles so that the same clip that I always do, makes it much harder for him. Next time I'll know........it's just that I've never gone this long before without clipping and you don't realize or keep this in mind, so I thought I'd share this here for those of you who clip.