Crooked Beak?

[jessyh]

Well, my pair of societies finally had their first crested baby. All the previous babies have been non-crested. I'm pretty excited about him/her, he's just so dang cute! Well, they fledged about 3 days ago and the crested baby's beak is crooked, it doesn't line up. In this situation, do I just leave it alone? It seems to look even more crooked than it did a few days ago, but I'm scared to trim his tiny beak so soon. Has anyone ever seen them grow out of this? When he's a little older, I may trim it to make it at least a little more straight. Will he be able to crack seeds just fine? Thanks for any input! I've never had a baby like this...

[Domenic]

Yes, my gouldian Judah has this to a lesser extent. His bottom beak is tilted to the right so when you look from the top it makes a small V at the end. It looks exactly like your little fledging there except a less of the bottom beak is showing. So far I have only trimmed it once but it quickly grew back that way. I decided to leave it since it wasn't interfering with his eating or drinking. He can crack seeds just fine. I think you should leave the fledgling but keep a close eye on him. If the beak becomes worse or gets in his way of eating then I would decide what step would be the best to take next. I think, worst case scenario, you'll have to trim it for him on a regular basis.

[L in Ontario]

I'm sorry, I just don't see any extra or excess beak to trim off. It looks like a normal beak but offset somewhat. Hopefully he will be able to eat/drink okay.

[Finch Fry]

I am confident he will be fine just as he/she is. The beak top and bottom have points of contact, which is where he/she can manipulate food and use their tongue. I wouldnt have any worries... and I wouldnt do any random trimming

[jessyh]

Ok, so it seems this little crooked beak man may have some issues throughout his little life.

Last night I decided it was time for them to have their own cage. Mom plucked all their necks and they stopped begging yesterday. And they've been eating fine on their own. So, I put them in their cage. I went in there about an hour ago and found my little man on the bottom of the cage. "No, no, no!" I thought. I can't lose another baby this week. I went to reach for him and saw he was still breathing. I picked him up.

I discovered that the lower part of his beak was through the skin on the back of his neck. But he was facing completely forward. Imagine him preening his back. His lower beak gets hooked on his skin. Then, he pulls his head straight forward. It was pulled very tight. I'm so glad it didn't pierce his skin, that would have been gross. I had to pull the skin forward and twist his neck a little to get it off his beak. I took quick pics, but you can't see much. I was in too much of a rush to fix my little baby and was scared of hurting him. Just thought I'd share. I hope he doesn't have problems like this forever, it was scary!

[L in Ontario]

Poor boy! I hope that doesn't happened again either. Glad you found him and helped out.

[jessyh]

I can't believe it. Sigh. I just went to check on him to make sure he's still ok before I go to bed. Yeah, I'm a night owl, I go to bed at 8am. Anyways, he was caught again. This time it pierced through his skin and he was bleeding. I don't know what to do. I can't trim his beak, there isn't enough excess. I can see the pink all the way pretty much to the tip. Any ideas? I can't go to bed now, I have to check on him all the time!

[jessyh]

Ok, the 3rd time definitely wasn't the charm. It's getting gory now. I took a nail file to his beak, even though there wasn't much to trim for him. Filed it down pretty good and now it's not so sharp. What a wonderful little patient he was, didn't wiggle once. I'd wiggle if someone did that to me. If this doesn't work, I don't know what to do. I know he's going to try to itch it now that it's bloody. Hopefully this time it won't catch in the hole so easily.

[Domenic]

This is really unfortunate. Perhaps you wouldn't have this problem if the mother didn't pluck the feathers off their necks. If it gets really bad maybe you should trim the beak really low so it matches the other one and cauterize it with a match because it will probably bleed.

[jessyh]

Well, the little guy isn't getting caught in his skin anymore. Rounding off his beak really helped. I guess I'll consider him a special needs bird, I'll probably have to catch him often to file his bottom beak, it was so long. Poor guy. I'll let you all know how he does, hopefully he won't have any more problems!

[Ursula]

That's scary!!

Just a stupid idea: They put these big sleeve collars on dogs after surgery or something so they can't lick themselves. I wonder if a bird could live with some sort of neck collar made of paper so he can't preen himself? He could still eat and drink I'm sure. At least until he's grown older and isn't likely to hurt himself so stupidly? Has anybody ever tried something like that?