Hi-Our Home Owners Association in Wichita Kansas has a lovely pair of mute swans. They have been with us for many years and have had many clutches of cygnets, but none survived until last year. We were lucky enough to have 3 grow up with us, but we learned too late that they needed to be pinioned right away. So one flew off, another was sadly hit by a car and the other has happily moved into one of our other lakes next to his parents. But now the the mating pair are sitting on a clutch of 8 eggs and we want to try to keep these babes around and adopt a couple out, so we want to have their wings pinioned right away. I even contacted the curator of birds at our local zoo to ask for his recommendation. He recommended that we to so 3-4 after hatching and gave me 3 names of vets to check with that might do the procedure. But so far, none of those vets or the other 5 I have contacted will pinion. Do you have any sources that might help find someone. We are getting close to the time I expect the eggs to hatch and I wanted to have everything lined up well in advance, but I'm starting to wonder if this is and unusual practice or what. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Carol