Abnormal beak

[Things]

Hey,

A few years back we took in a cockatiel that was found on the street. We believe this bird has had some pretty serious injuries in his past, including a possible broken wing. About 2 years on and he's still going fine. He can't fly very well, enough to save himself, but he's eating, active and generally seems fine overall.

One issue, however, is his beak. The lower portion of the beak is actually separated, and sort of hangs out on the left side (Looking at the bird from the front). Because of this, he isn't really able to grind his upper beak.

When we first got him, we took him to a vet to have it trimmed, which cost about $20. From there on, we just used nail clippers and took a tiny bit off each week.

Now, however, his upper beak has grown very long, and I don't really feel safe using the nail clippers, as his beak is almost too thick for them anyway. On the other hand, I'm only a student and don't have a great source of income, so I don't know if I can afford to take him to a vet so regularly.

He is, from what I can tell, a very old bird, and I'm kind of surprised he's even managed to hold on this long after I got him, but I'm not sure what to do about his beak!

Is there any way the beak can sort of grown back into their jaw properly and rejoin? Or is it separated permanently? Is there a safe way I can sort of "trim" a tiny bit off his beak, now that it's a bit too thick for the nail clippers?

I think I'm going to have to take him to the vet for a proper beak trim this time, as it's quite long and I'd hate to hit a nerve or something, whereas before I was only taking little tiny bits off.

EDIT: Here's a pic of the detached beak I'm talking about:



Dan

[boomer girl]

When you take him to the vet for this trim you can ask the vet all your questions and hopefully he can give you advice on how to trim it or file it weekly so you dont need to take him in to have it done anymore.

I am happy you found him and rescued him and it least he is a happy bird living with you. I have no advice on his beak since I have no clue what would make it do that. Tiels can get super old, well over twenty, so you just may have your boy around for many more years to come even with his past injuries.

[Things]

Yes, he is still happy. He doesn't really like being handled, and is pretty scared of hands, but if you let him sit on your shoulder, he'd live there.

I try to give them various softer foods when I can, such as bread, millets, fruit etc, something a bit easier for him to eat other than seeds.

I have a 2nd bird also, which is much younger (One in my avatar), and they're good friends. They bicker a bit over food and such, but if you take them away from each other, they'll do their flock call!

It's great though, since if a bird ever escapes, they flock call each other and you can usually track down where they've landed. I had one bird take off out a door one day, we put the yellow bird out in his cage and let them call each other, tracked him down in a tree a few streets away, and he came back down to us!

Anyway, I have booked him in to see a vet on Monday, hopefully she'll be able to trim it down to the right length, and show me how I can look after it from then on.

[sunnyvmx]

You might try making "birdie mash". Put veggies, bread and hard boiled egg is a food processor and feed it as a crumbly mixture. Use veggies such as broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, chick peas, nuts, red bell pepper and not the wetter types. You can add pellets too. I feed Pepe his mash in the morning and then seeds and pellets in the afternoon. I can't seem to keep from making too much, but I use my Seal a Meal with storage bowls and it keeps a long time vacuumed sealed each day.