baby cockatoo with under bite

[sassymonte]

A friend of mine has a 4 week old with a under bite meaning his upper beak sits inside the lower beak. I am thinking about getting the baby because i have the time to devote to massaging his beak multiple times a day fo as long as possible.

Any one have experience with this? I cant get an answer from a vet on what it would cost to fix if he ended up needing the surgery. But i am aware worst case it can costs a couple thousand dollers to fix but being so young i am hoping we can massage it out or just have to do the acrylic appliance added to his beak. So i am awsare of what i would be getting into i just want to hear what other people have gone through when dealing with it.

any imput/expierence would be great.

 

[greycloud]

Welcome to the forum! You are very kind to want to help this baby. I have bred birds for over 15 yrs. I really think that at 4 weeks you may be able to make some change to the upper mandible with massage. It will not be a total fix though. The other option as the baby grows is to have an appliance made that sits in the lower beak and helps guide the upper mandible. Either way this may entail a life long grooming of the beak. I have seen may parrots, esp. cockatoos, with this same malformation live absolutely fine. Please let us know how it goes and if you can post a pic it would help.

 

[sassymonte]

Its called mandibular prognathism. I am adding pictures of the baby, so people can see what it is.

I have done beak grooming myself on many parrots so that's not an issue for me.

From what i have read there are three option, the massaging, adding the appliance and then there is the major surgery that requires having pins drilled into the birds head. I think because it been taken care of from such a young age the major surgery wont be needed.

I would love to read more on it but there isn't much information online. Any one know of any sites with info and pictures? I want to see what the appliance is like.

The baby isn't with me so i cant take it to vets all of which want to see the baby to give me an estimate on what it would cost, they don't get that i don't want to get the baby with out having an idea of the potential costs.

Does any one know of any vets that would be willing to talk to me about it with only seeing the pictures?

 

[friedsoup]

I was told the piece looks like a large necklace bead glued onto the upper beak that doesn't allow it to go inside so the beak is trained to go to the outside. I've never seen it but sounds like a good fix.

 

[lene1949]

I don't know anything about it, but I'm wishing you the best of luck with this baby...

I've seen your posts and answers on mytoos... They're so rude... When I first got Cory, my corella, I posted on there for advise and was immediately attacked, due to my heading: rehomed a corella or something like that... lol..

 

[TortoiseLady17]

Welcome, our U2 has a slight under bite. His upper beak does not always sit inside his lower but about 50% of the time it does. This does not seem to interfere with anything he does.