Last Updated on February 16, 2023 by Mitch Rezman

Gloria W. is concerned about her budgie’s feather growth.

First – I enjoy your Sunday messages very much. Thank you.

Now a question. From all i have tried to research I think my budgie is growing primary feathers as I purchased him one wing trimmed.

He tries so hard to fly and much as I watch him for safety reasons sometimes he falls.

That’s his picture above

When he falls, the feather breaks off. Is there anything I can do to help his feathers on the one wing to grow? Thanks.

Dear Gloria

Thank you, we appreciate your kind words about the Sunday Birdie Brunch.

We are sorry that the seller trimmed your bird’s wing like that. That is an old-fashioned and dangerous method of controlling flight.

The practice of cutting one wing only causes the bird to be unable to fly straight and is very dangerous.

I recommend that you trim the other wing to match. When the bird’s wing feathers start to molt, they will fall out evenly on both sides and grow at the same rate.

It will ground the budgie, but the wing feathers molt out soon enough and in the interim, you can bond with your little bird as he rides around on your shoulder.

R.I.P. Dr. Fosters and Smith Pet Bird Supplies

Hello Catherine

Thank you so much for your advice. I will.

Follow up 9/27/2002

hello my name is Gloria little I sent a picture in a call back with my bird having badly clipped wings and I believe Mitch answered me on that to clip or maybe it was Catherine and I’m not sure which one of you answered me.

Anyway and it was to have the other Wing clipped also well I want you to know I had gotten the bird from Petco back in May of this year which is about 4 months ago now and I know that it takes three or four months for wings to go out so I didn’t think much of it.

I left a wing grow out but the wing never throughout and so yesterday I took my bird to the vet and come to find out that the primaries better is badly damaged where it may not come back in a mode and a secondary feathers are very damaged and may or may not come through.

When it moves now that’s an I got the bird from Petco I purchased a bird already One Wing badly clipped as it is and I just if you could just let people know to please watch when they give birds that the wings are clipped properly or not.

I called Petco corporate office I’m not sure if the girl I spoke with Ashley speaks English or not people need to know that the supplier or Petco needs to know the suppliers that they are having their birds from our clipping the wing wrong and they are only clipping 1 right-wing it is wrong and it is damaging

I don’t know if my bird will ever fly because of the Damage Done To The Wing follicles so please make mention of this to people or if there’s any way that you have any way at all contact Petco corporate and let them know what they are doing to the birds from the supplier that they are Bye Under Birdsboro what thank you so much and I really enjoyed your site I appreciate it

Dear Gloria

Hi Gloria,

It’s unfortunate that this happened.

Petco has agreed not to sell large birds which appease animal rights groups but the sad reality is the money is in small birds like your conure and cockatiels.

It’s unlikely you’ll get satisfaction from Petco, generally speaking, big box pet shops are not conducive to bringing up pets, especially pet birds.

Let’s “turn off the noise” and focus on the bird.

Start with landing lessons – toss the budgie onto the top of the cage from about a foot away.

Make sure he/she lands on top, not the front so their chest does not get hurt.

Repeat this daily gradually increasing the space between you and the bird cage.

In many cases, a bird will ignore its “disability” because it doesn’t know better.

Let us know how this works out

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Catherine Tobsing

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