Flakey beak

[wardey]

Hi all, have noticed in the last day or two that Monty’s beak has gotten very flakey. They have cuttlebone in the cage, Matilda gave it a little nibble once or twice but asides from that neither of them have shown any interest whatsoever and she literally chews everything. Not sure what to do as don’t know how it will rectify itself without him grinding it down himself. Any advice?

[destinycall]

Are you able to post a picture of the beak?

[wardey]

His cere looks a bit flakey too in the photo, doesn’t so much in real life!

Poor bub, he seems fine though.

[Hezz]

Beaks do flake in the same way as our nails can so a small amount is nothing to be concerned about. Monty's does seem a bit more than normal though. It might be a dietary issue, another thing that might impact it is the humidity in your house. If you have central heating/air conditioning on all the time the air in your house will be very dry. It can help to put humidifiers around the room to keep the humidity up, or even shallow saucers of water around to evaporate as they will.

The biggest problem that you might have that I see is that the dryness will cause the tip of his beak to become crumbly, if it is allowed to get too much worse. You might want to think about getting an expert's advice (avian vet) to be sure that his diet isn't lacking something vital. What exactly is his diet?

[wardey]

Jul 13, 2020 10:10:13 GMT Hezz said:

Beaks do flake in the same way as our nails can so a small amount is nothing to be concerned about. Monty's does seem a bit more than normal though. It might be a dietary issue, another thing that might impact it is the humidity in your house. If you have central heating/air conditioning on all the time the air in your house will be very dry. It can help to put humidifiers around the room to keep the humidity up, or even shallow saucers of water around to evaporate as they will.

The biggest problem that you might have that I see is that the dryness will cause the tip of his beak to become crumbly, if it is allowed to get too much worse. You might want to think about getting an expert's advice (avian vet) to be sure that his diet isn't lacking something vital. What exactly is his diet?

Hi Hezz. I’m thinking the humidity might well have something to do with it as it’s only gotten bad the last 14 days or so and we have had a radiator in the room on a good bit drying clothes etc, plus it’s been quite cold. Will try the saucer of water trick. The diet thing would also make sense as he won’t eat anything except seed. We got him from a pet shop and he was over a year old and he didn’t know anything else. It was only since he went to the trainer he has started eating millet. He will eat a little bit of apple and try some spinach but only when he sees Matilda do it, she’s brilliant for eating veggies but it’s so hard to get him to eat anything except seed, he will only taste things but not routinely eat them. We got a new seed the other day by Vitakraft that has a lot more vitamins and minerals in it which is probably better than what he had before but we really need to keep at him to eat some more iron I think.

[wardey]

Really worried now at the thought of his Poor little beak crumbling 😞 we are going away on Wednesday so going to see what the change of environment does for it. Just purchased this, I know it’s no substitute for fresh food but it can’t hurt surely!

[Hezz]

That probably wouldn't hurt to give him for a week or so. Getting him eating his greens is a much better option, though, and it does sound as though you are making progress with that, but from what you have said, the dryness in the air may well be his problem.

You can get little radiator humidifiers - little ceramic pots to be filled with water that hang off the radiators and allow the water to evaporate with the heat of the radiator. Just remember to check the water on a regular basis: you might be surprised at how quickly it does evaporate. And don't panic about his beak getting crumbly. If this has only just started and you address the issue now, his beak will still be strong, I'm sure.

[wardey]

Thank you, that’s a relief. Couldn’t imagine that happening and him not being able to crack his seed. He’s already drank some water with the vitamin drops in it and I picked some dandelion leaves today So will try him with those tomorrow. I’ll have a look for the ceramic pots you mentioned, have a bowl of water next to their cage at the moment although realised the drying clothes must have added some humidity to the air. I thought the diet thing would have surely happened sooner as I assumed he’s only ever eaten seed but maybe they gave him vits as well in the pet shop. Think it’s a case of trial and error! Thank you for the advice 😊

[starrymist]

wardey, my bud has had a similar thing with his cere, I’ll tag you in a thread about it in case it’s useful.