FINCHforum

Hi all,

My new canary has a bit of a point at the tip of his upper beak. I'm worried about it becoming overgrown with time. Does anyone have any suggestions for keeping his beak trimmed the "natural" way? I've tried giving him cuttlebone to help with his beak, but he doesn't seem interested (I'm also worried about him not getting some calcium).

Thanks for any advice!

Edit: this is sort of off-topic, but I thought I'd add that my canary loves chewing on grass. I buy him a little planter full of live grass from Petco and he spends nearly all day on that thing, foraging, pulling out grass shoots, chewing, putting grass in his water dish, etc. It's a really good way to keep your canary entertained!

You could get a piece of lava rock with a screw in it that fastens to the cage. I got several at Petco. Place it near the grass container and perch so he can wipe his beak on it. I try to get wide ones that will work as a small perch so the birds can trim their nails. They seem to like to perch on them. You could also add some sandstone or rough rock on the floor near a food cup. The beak should not overgrow in a healthy bird.

CaliKiwi

Get him a mineral block in addition to the cuttle bone. I don't know if you need to do this with canaries - I don't remember doing it when I was a kid - but for my finches, I knock the corners off and rough it up a bit. Otherwise it is too hard for their beaks. If they can get a start on it, they will use it.

I wouldn't suggest a lava stone for canaries. In the first place they collect both poop AND seed in all those pits. And in the second place they are really for the much harder beaks of parrots. I don't think a hook on the tip of the beak will be much helped by a stone they can really only swipe their beak across.

CaliKiwi

In the past, I had a female Canary, whose uper beak kept growing into a long point, which stuck out way beyond the bottom , making it difficult to eat.

What I would do whenever I noticed it getting overlong, was catch her, and trim it down with nail clippers, then do her nails at the same time.

She became quite used to this periodic pedicure and beak-icure.

Some birds do tend to have this problem.

Regarding the growing grass thingie, most birds enjoy that.
You could also offer him a foraging box, which most birds love.

It's just an oblong tupperware with some hay, wild seed heads, spray millet crumbles, bits of bird herb salad, some small branches, some grit, rocks, seed, cooked, crushed egg shells (calcium), alfalfa, etc.

All of my guys can play in these boxes for hours.