Posted by kennylt on Sun, 07/16/2006 - 10:18 :: Budgerigars
hi everyone.
well i have these 2 budgies for about a year now. and they are both quite healthy to my eye but there are some things that i find are not normal.
the first one (male) has a beak that looks owergrown on one side. i took him to a vet onnce but i was told that triming it wont do any good as it will get back to what it was like in no time, and since the budgie does eat normal he didnt do anything. i tried triming it a little bit once but it didnt help i only scared the budgie i was afreid to trim too much tho i trimed allmos to what looked normal
the second one (female) sometimes gets her "nose" white. her "nose" looks dry and sometimes (i think) some of the top layer of the skin peals off. is this serious?
i give them vitamins from time to time so i dont think there should be a deficiency in that (too bad they dont eat any fruits or vegies whitch is weard to me ...)
they both are quite young about two to three years old perhaps they will grow out of this and is it worth to worry about any of this?
Posted by karen on Mon, 07/17/2006 - 17:31.
You female's cere is probably normal. Females' ceres do change, and in breeding condition the ceres are normally brownish and 'crusty' looking. Mites can also cause a crusty looking cere, but if it were mites, you would also see little holes in the cere and your other budgie would also be affected.
Budgies' beaks grow continuously but are normally kept worn down by chewing and eating. Overgrown beaks can be a sign of liver problems or iodine deficiency (causing faster growth), or a lack of normal wear. Since your bird's beak is only overgrowing on one side I would guess he has a minor beak abnormality and his upper and lower beaks don't quite meet on that side so the side isn't being worn down normally. He will probably need to have it trimmed throughout his life whenever it grows enough to make him uncomfortable or make eating difficult.
You should not try trimming it yourself, at least not until you've had someone with experience trimming beaks show you a few times. The part of the beak that grows is just keratin (like fingernails) but underneath there is bone. If you trim too close to the bone, it can make his beak sensitive and he'll have trouble eating for awhile. (And obviously if you cut the bone it can cause a lot of pain and damage).

Karen
Chico (conure) and Pippin (budgie)
WI
Posted by kennylt on Tue, 08/01/2006 - 06:33.
thanks, that was very helpfull :)