A wing clip is like trimming your own nails or getting a haircut. It involves trimming 3 to 6 long flight feathers at the tips of your bird's wings. I hear almost daily about birds that have flown away through an open door or window, or off of an owner's shoulder. Feathers are composed of a shaft with several long thin structures called barbs.

A hard or uncontrollable fall can result in a progressive loss of trust between bird and owner which usually leads to biting or refusal to respond to the “step-up” command. Birds have only a few tablespoons of blood circulating throughout their entire body so any bleeding must be stopped quickly. For healthy birds, nails are trimmed as needed, when they become sharp and uncomfortable for the owners. After wing clipping, your bird should still be able to fly a few feet, for his own protection as well as to ensure he can still get adequate exercise. Grooming Routine grooming consists of nail and wing trimming. Wing clipping should be considered carefully.

There are many different types of clipping which vary in their severity, but essentially there are two methods: either a one-wing clip, to deliberately unbalance the bird should it attempt to fly, or a symmetrical clip to both wings, which is meant to allow safe downward flight, but prevents lift. Clip a cockatiel’s wing feathers one by one, after you’ve decided how many to clip and whether to clip them to the level of the coverts or to leave them longer. The incidences of loss of stabilization after the wing trim making the birds more vulnerable to falling are far too many. Don’t clip blood feathers, because doing so will cause your bird to bleed. Instead, full-length feathers will grow in the next time Tweet molts after his wings have been clipped. This trim prevents her from gaining altitude but still allows your bird the ability to descend to the floor in a controlled, gentle manner, should she need to.

The flight feathers should be trimmed far enough so that the cut portion is protected by the major coverts of the wing, to keep the cut edges of the feathers from irritating the bird. The feathers remain in place until they fall out during the birds' molt cycle. Wing clipping is a very important part of pet bird care, as it prevents many types of accidents and the escape of a bird by flying away. Grooming activity in birds is referred to as preening. Anytime that a bird is bleeding is cause for concern and the bleeding must be stopped fast. Learn strategies to stop bird bleeding safely and quickly in this blog article from BirdSupplies.com . A bleeding bird is cause for alarm. These barbs are held together by smaller barbules.
So the length of time it takes a parakeet's wings to grow back after clipping them isn't related to the clipping itself. Feathers are important for insulation and waterproofing (in addition to flight for those birds that can fly).

Molting Process . Before trimming a wing feather, examine it to see whether it’s a blood feather.