Overgrown beak?

[SpotsandSally]

Does Kiwis beak look overgrown, or oddly shaped? And if it is overgrown - suggestions on what to do ?

 

[Captsteve]

It does look like it could use a trim. At this point I would suggest a visit to the vet to get it shaped. It's a simple process and just takes a minute to do if you know what you are doing.

In the future provide some beak grinding toys like cuttlebone and or cement perches and he should maintain it.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Yup, that is a oddly shaped overgrown beak. Do you have a avian vet? they could file the beak down for you without injuring the tissue(quick) in the beak. When beaks become overgrown the risk of beak injuries increase. Does he not chew on wood or toys?

Whenever a beak is overgrown I always recommend a vet checkup, as a beak that isn't growing right can sometimes mean health issues.

Normal ringneck beak

 

[SpotsandSally]

Yep, exactly what I was thinking.


Toys are new to him. He likes yucca wood, but we don't have any currently. He has a very hay-like toy that he's starting to enjoy, but instead of playing with the chunks of wood on it (its made out of nesting-like material and such, with some hard wood threaded on), he chews them off by chewing the bits of 'hay' attached to it. Hard to explain- ill get a pic in a sec.
I think he has a soft beak, since he doesn't like biting or playing with hard things. Heck, if a food is too hard to open its not worth it, in his opinion.
Right now he's playing with a torn paper towel.

Ill be heading to the vet next week or so, but in the mean time ill try to keep it worn.
I'm thinking some yucca wood, and some nuts will do him good. BUT, he's a brat and won't even eat CORN. Loves grapes, Apples are ok, everything else sucks. Unless its junk food, of course.

 

[MomtoPercy]

Percy also wouldn't chew wood when he came to me and I had to teach him that wood things ARE good to chew LOL! He's getting more interested but we are not at "real big wood" items yet. . Based on advice here, I started him on popsicle sticks and wooden clothes pegs (metal parts removed). What also encouraged Percy to become more of a "chewer" are wine corks. He LOVES shredding them! I include one in just about every shredder toy I make him. I got a huge bag full from a friend who saved her corks over a period of a year (I asked her too because I wanted to use them in crafts). I cut the top third of the cork (that was in contact with the wine) off, wash them in a apple cider solution and sun dry them after which I pop them in the oven for about 10 minutes to make sure they are dry. Try it - your baby may just like it and then can move on from there.
Good luck with the vet.

 

[MomtoPercy]

Another thing - Percy loooves corn but only eats the little heart of the corn. He is very wasteful . So, in order to be more money concious, I cut the kernels off the cob but not so close to the cob that I cut off the heart. The kernels go in the freezer for the humans to eat and the now trimmed cob stays in the fridge so that I can cut discs off it for Percy every day. Without the actual kernel there, I find that he cleans the cob completely and leaves only the very centre of the cob core behind. I think this is also helping him to learn to chew because the cob is harder than the heart. Perhaps you could try that to encourge your baby to chew more?
I am determined not to have Percy's beak trimmed because of some issues I have around how the local vet does this.

 

[MomtoPercy]

Oops! I just remembered another tip! LOL!
Percy also likes chewing plastic bottle caps like the type on soda bottles. Shreds them in short order. Perhaps make up a foot toy with some? Supercise to make sure your bird doesn't ingest the plastic, especially when it is new to him.

Ok, I going to stop taking over your thread now!

 

[Birdy916]

for a reference, here is a Moustache with an overgrown beak...
He is going in for a trim and a blood test.
I believe the part about an overgrown beak being a symptom of another underlying issue because this bird is known to have high amylase levels in his blood, which means if he is fed a higher-fat/sugar diet will lead to bouts of pancreatitus.

He is a very smart bird, talks up a storm, but he doesnt have much personality and he is just a bit snatchy when taking his favorite treats...

Benji is a foster, and he is actually leaving tonite, i enjoyed having him here! Look at his beautiful blue eyes

 

[SpotsandSally]

Well for those who don't know here's a bit of a back story to Kiwi:

We got her from petco. Scared little thing, tried to take my finger off the first day! Don't blame her, shouldn't have tried to get her to step up.
She's made leaps and bounds becoming a freindly bird who steals your food (but will cherry pick the things she should have - like corn - for things she shouldn't have - like a twice baked potato that has sour cream and salt in it, or gold fish).
However it quickly became apparent that she was sick. Off to the vet. $300 later, she's on a 6 week regime to get rid of chlamydia (I think that's right). Well, another $200 later, we learned our pigeons tested positive. Now the pigeons, chickens and doves are being treated.
$190 everyone's on medicine, and in 6 weeks hopefully that'll end the money spending.
About a week ago we picked up some pellets, and as of yesterday she's been happily eating those - budgie sized, of course
So Kiwi is sick. That might explain why it's odd shaped or over grown. Or perhaps she just needs to chew some more.
I'm going to pick up some more yucca wood, and see what else she'll play with

Ill see how she does on popiscle sticks, but so far the only thing she seems to enjoy is easily shreddable paper. I've been lining her food dish with it so she has to tear it to get food.

 

[cassiepengo]

umm... what did the vet say?? ive found this thing, dusnt really say much, but thought you should check it out
http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rc...bej9Kxg3Hec0ou5Tw&sig2=Izbvh7jxDvysy6i1b4sOPQ
and this
http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rc...cAPEEW7Mm-mnKHneA&sig2=tc13QklgsAGOCQN_a334dg