You do not need a general anesthesia if the pinioning is done between 1-3 weeks of age. A local topical anesthesia can be sufficient. At this age, the blood vessels, nerve endings, bones, etc., have not fully formed. Consider the head of a newborn human. The baby has cartilage instead of bone where bone is normally found. The same for cygnets. Pinioning at 1-3 weeks of age is a simple snip and a couple of stitches. If done by an experience avian veterinarian, the procedure and any possible trauma is tremendously minimized. The use of a general anesthesia at this age, because the lungs are not fully formed, can increase the propensity of ill effects and even death of a cygnet this young. There would need to be major trauma before you would even consider general anesthesia at this young of an age.

However, if you wait and the blood vessels, nerve endings and bone have formed, the surgery is extremely hard on the swans and general anesthesia is required. Even at an older age, you risk the possibility of death under general anesthesia. We hope this clarifies this protocol for you. The Regal Swan