FINCHforum

I spent some time today looking closely at all of my finches and noticed one of my male goulds seams to have an over grown beak. The outer tip on both the upper and under part of the beak is a bit long and looks a bit off... hard to explain, but its deffinetley a bit over grown. How do I adress this problem? Its a new one for me I dont want to harm the little fellow Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening again?

They have natural branches, seeds, cuttlebone, egg food, eggshell and what not...

Can I some how use like a nail clipper to trim the tip? Or is this something for the vet?

My female GS had an overgrown beak (top) I was told on this forum you can use nail clippers to trim it.
So I used baby ones, and trimmed the tip. It was very easy to do!

PrettyBird wrote:My female GS had an overgrown beak (top) I was told on this forum you can use nail clippers to trim it.
So I used baby ones, and trimmed the tip. It was very easy to do!

Thats great! Ill try to figure out how to do it, a bit scared thou

If it's just a millimeter or two - don't worry about it. If it's more - then regular nail clippers will work. Typically when I have to do my finches - they will bite at the clippers and trim the beak themselves without even know it. If you have to do it for them - don't take off more than enough to just even the two mandible (upper and lower beak) tips.

You can add pedi-perches to your cages (install them right beside the drinkers) so the finches will wipe their beak on those and help keep the beaks and claws trim.

Thanks alot Liz!
I have never had to do this before, And I have had birds for several years... is it common? Its not mutch but it sort of looks like it is forceing him to keep his beak a bit crocked, Im sorry, I dont know the word in english So I think its better to do it than not.

Thats agreat advise on the pearch by the water, ill go and fix one this weekend

keep your fingers crossed that I can do it

If you would like to post a pic of the bird's beak - we can suggest whether it is necessary to trim his beak now or if it is not needed.

Allready done!
I went right in to the bird room and took him out. My hubby helped me and I just took the very most outer part of the beak of, looks mutch better. It was a kind of narrow litle nedle like ending on both upper and under part, that forced him to kind of keep his upper part and under part of the beak a tiny bit crossed. Haha, its hard to explain in english, do you understand what I mean? hope this helps him, Ill keep an close eye on him.

Good for you. I'm sure he'll feel much better.

I have some that I have to trim all the time, and others that I don't.
Some the top, some the bottom, some both.
I have no idea why that is.

ac12 wrote:I have some that I have to trim all the time, and others that I don't.
Some the top, some the bottom, some both.
I have no idea why that is.

Yes thats strange. I guess its like with humans and their teeth, some have fine teeth, some dont.

Overgrown beaks can be caused by a hereditary virus - if the birds in your aviary all have common parents it would be best to remove those birds from your breeding stock.

I have two zebras with this issue and their beaks need trimming every six weeks on average - and since they're both nearly six years old that's becoming more and more nerve-wracking every time I have to do it

I had a cordon bleu male who had this issue, and once when I hadn't noticed how long it had gotten he actually poked himself and got stuck when he tried to tuck his head under his wing - poor little guy! I learned after that to keep a closer eye on him. (He was fine once I unstuck him and trimmed him up. )