Overgrown Beak...reasons Why

[Shamrock19 0]

Hi everyone, it has been a long time since I have posted. I have a question about my pet parakeet Shamrock. Since October I have taken him to the vet twice to get his beak trimmed. Again his beak has grown and is long again, so for the third time I will be taking him to the vet. The vet thought it could be his food, but he has been eating that food for years without a problem. I recently switched him back to the original food he ate when I first adopted him. He now eats Kaytee Forti Diet, before he was eating Ecotrition along with some grocery store brand food when we ran out of Ecotrition just to hold us over until we made it to the petstore. I will admit I have been slacking on the fresh food aspect of things although he used to eat fresh food every day. I am now starting up again to see if it helps. He also has a cuttlebone in the cage, which he shares with two other parakeets.

 

He is about 5-6 years old and I have a feeling it might be something more. I read online that it could be he can't digest the right nutrients he needs or it could be a kidney problem. If anyone has any idea what might be causing his overgrown beak please help!

[Finnie 0]

I, too have a budgie with an overgrown beak. It was suggested she could have a liver problem. I looked up some information about that, and it seems that when a bird gets overweight, it gets fat deposits in it's liver, which causes the liver to lose proper function. One of the symptoms of fatty liver disease is overgrown beak. But you have been taking your budgie to the vet. Has he not had any suggestions? Is he an avian vet, or a regular small animal vet? It makes a difference. You should ask the vet about this.

 

Anyway, is your bird overweight? It could be a possiblility, if he hasn't been getting enough vegetables and greens to supplement his seed diet.

 

Somewhere in the FAQ section is an avian vet locator that you could use to find a different vet, if necessary. Good luck, I hope your bird gets better!

[Shamrock19 0]

It is a small animal vet, but she specializes in exotics. Shamrock is not overweight, in fact he is probably the smallest of the three budgies I have. The vet thought the all seed diet could be a reason and a change in diet was really all the advice she gave. I used to feed fresh food everyday and never had an issue, but I guess looking back when I stopped feeding fresh food everyday the overgrown beak issue did start.

 

If it is a liver issue is there anyway to correct the issue? Does changing the diet help along with exercise help? I will be taking him to the vet again, but I was just wondering if anyone knew any more information on this.

[splat 0]

Does he get plenty of sun light because I was told by a breeder here that if a bird doesn't get enough sun light natural vitamin D I think. If not you can buy a product from vetfarm called soluvet D.

I had a friend here that their birds beak was growing and they were trimming and they asked for advise and besides telling them to take him to the avian vet DR Black or ring him my advice was the give him plenty of sunlight, they didn't take him to the vet or ring but did give him much more time in the sunlight and his beak is now fine.

So it could be a problem with the liver and also not enough sunlight, ask your vet when you go.

As for cuttlefish they are really useless you would be better off haning an calcium bar with idione in the cage which is much harder to start with and with help excerise the beak plus the additive of calcium and idione will help your bird more than cuttlefish.

anyway good luck with

[Shamrock19 0]

Well I think he gets plenty of sunlight since his cage is by a window. In the morning it is sunny, but as the day goes on the trees provide some shaded relief. I will try a calcium block and see how that works. I used to have an iodine block, but it wore down and I never thought to replace it. Thanks for the advice!

[splat 0]

Yes but the sun rays or what ever you call it can not penatrate through glass or plastic etc.

But yes get a calcium block and ask your vet what she thinks

[Shamrock19 0]

I think I have a definite sign it might be liver disease. I just checked my bird and his vent area is very wet looking and his droppings are lighter than usual with hardly if any white portion. I think his beak issue is related to this. He is an older bird, I am not sure how old he was exactly when I adopted him, so could it be old age?

[maesie 0]

Sounds like he needs to see an avian vet. He doesn't sound well and is probably suffering.

[Shamrock19 0]

Yeah we are heading to the vet first thing in the morning. I will post about his status after. Thanks for the help!