Hi,

 

My brothers new budgie has a severley undershot beak. What do I do?

 

Thanks,

 

Sam

Nothing. Its too late. This is due to a build up of food inside the babies beak when a week or so old and older. The build up of food creates heat and the beak grows wrong. Usually the bottom beak keeps growing out over the top beak and it will need trimming every fortnight or so for the rest of its life.

This is why baby budgies need checking twice daily in the nestbox to prevent issues like this and inside their beaks MUST be checked.

I have corrected severely undershot beaks in older birds by daily carefully trimming back the lower beak with a small pair of chiropody pliers, and filing the underside of the top beak and the outside of the bottom beak with an emery board. This reshaping achieved a degree of closure and the bird ended up with quite normal appearance and function, but it is an uncomfortable process for the bird (and the handler when they deservedly bite you), it takes daily reshaping for a couple of months to achieve it, it stresses the bird, is messy and the lower beak will bleed since it is cut back short, a dab of cornflour stops the bleeding (similarly if you cut a toenail accidentally too much), and they can only eat soft food during the process. It can't always be corrected depending on the case, and I would not recommend it unless you know what you are doing and don't mind budgie making you bleed a bit too.