Does the beak look healthy?

[Melandkids]

Can you please tell me if Athena's beak looks healthy or if I should take her in to the Vets. I can not trim her beak myself.

 

[Melandkids]

 

[JamesC]

Seems you have a bit of trouble uploading the picture. Can you describe what you are seeing?

My blue crowns get a bit of flaky beak from time to time. Especially on the lower beak in the front. It looks like it is chipping off about an eighth of an inch from the edge. The upper sometimes gets patches that will flake off and have a softer material underneath. Never figured out what caused it. But underneath it is solid, healthy looking beak.

Ahh, you got it after I had posted that. That kind of looks like what I see in my two blue crowns occasionally. Both mine have a very similar lower beak. The upper has that flake with what appears to be that softer material I described above. Make sure your bird has things that are rough that she can rub her beak on and keep it conditioned. That will help knock off the loose material. Just look at what is underneath and if it is healthy looking, just monitor it and it should disappear after a week or two.

Keep up with the healthy foods. It might be a diet thing. I noticed that my birds don't have it quite as often now that I've been able to improve their diet.

Nice looking Blue Crown, btw.

 

[Melandkids]

James, I finally got it up there. Sorry about that. Will you look at it and tell me what you think? And should it be trimmed down

 

[JamesC]

It looks like it is a decent length. Maybe slightly long. Having wood toys and other things to chew on will keep the length manageable. Tootsie does not chew on much wood any longer so her beak tends to be longer, thinner and sharp compared to Rosco's. Rosco chews on anything he can get his beak on and he has a more rounded and thicker tip.

The vet I used in Florida told me that Blue Crowns tend to have longer, more pointed beaks compared to other conures. The longer point is a good tool for them to dig the meats out of the nuts they eat in their natural diet.

 

[JamesC]

I should say that you should not need to have the beak trimmed. Enough good things to chew on and rub on and Athena will take care of it herself.

 

[ruffledfeathers]

I don't think the beak looks excessively long. It's a little flakey and i'm not sure what causes that. Georgie used to get that way and she was perfectly healthy. Gilbert's beak tends to be longer and more pointy but since he doesn't nip or bite, i didn't ask the vet to do anything with it when doing his nails. (When Georgie was young, she was very nippy and took a while to get that under control.....in that period of time, i had the vet sometimes just take the sharp point off so it wouldn't immediately puncture from a nip.)

 

[Melandkids]

James, Thank you. Her beak is so different from the sun's beak. I will get some different things to see if I can get her to chew. She really never chews on any of the toys or other things I give her. She waits for the sun to start chewing up stuff and takes it away. I will make an appt with the vet just so that it doen't get out of hand. Last question. Sorry I am just curious. Is your BC have a little "two year old" attitude? Athena is so horrible sometimes. I swear I can tell when she is going to be bad. She will watch me and have this look on her and they way she does her neck and feathers and I know it is coming. I have a old clock on the wall and she will fly to it and start rocking it back and forth. I will tell her "no' in a stern voice and distract her... And then look at me as to say "hahahaha" ... then she will be fun and loving and then like clock work at least twice a day she will do something. She loves to push the dvd's off the tv stand. and fly back to the cage real fast... I keep telling her I have the Zoo on speed dial but she never listens... The sun's personality is nothing like her. Thanks for the answer on the beak. I worry about them

 

[Melandkids]

Thanks Ruffledfeathers..... By the way.. You were right. Athena has been back to her normal self once I got the new cage. Sun is still timid and I still have only limited times of holding. I am not pushing it. I just open top of cage and let Zeus out. When I hold Athena sometimes Zeus will fly over and land on my shoulder. but so far no stepping up. Really Really bad mistake of trying to take shower with them. They like showers but not with me. Athena didn't mind but scared Zeus.

 

[ruffledfeathers]

ha, oh my goodness, my sun conure was a total brat sometimes like that and i could also tell "she woke up on the wrong side of the cage" so to speak. it was a period of her life, maybe 2-3 years old, where she was really a raging brat, pushing the limits of everything and rebellious.
Gilbert is only 9 months old, so he is still 100% sweet, all of the time.

 

[JamesC]

Tootsie is an old bird so she is very mellow most of the time. Rosco is the brat of the flock. I call him "The Instigator" cause he will pull Tootsie's feathers or nip at her foot to get her squawking. He also wants to stir things up with the Senegal by coming close but staying just out of reach. He will fly to my laptop monitor (where he is this very moment) and watch me. He does not like hands and does not seek contact with me but he will come over as if to say "What ya doing?!!" He has loads of personality. Gets brave and tries to raid the Senegal's cage when he is not there. A food thief he is. Chow bird. Tries to get any food that he can. I chase him off cause I don't want him to get fat. He is a bit high in the weight range so I am pretty strict on what food I will give him. Since I won't give him treats he turns to thievery.

Brat.