tip of beak broken off

[bandresen]

The very tip of Oscars beak is broken off I noticed yesterday. What would be good to have for him to sharpen the tip back up? What is essential for good beak health? He is 7 yrs.old

[Callie]

If you give Oscar a cuttle bone, a mineral block or even a very small concrete perch, those will allow him to sharpen the tip of his beak again. Birds constantly "hone" and clean their beaks by rubbing them against hard objects. He will eventually reshape it but you are also going to notice that the tip may start to grow from the inside underneath where the tip broke. It's always better to leave things like this alone and let Nature take over, as once you begin trimming a beak, you normally have to do it all the time.

A break to the tip is not serious, as long as there was no bleeding involved. There's a vein that runs down the center of the beak and if the beak is clipped or breaks too far up, you will see blood at the very tip.

[bandresen]

thanks, I would never trim his beak unless he had some genetic deformity and I do have a cuttle bone in his cage. I appreciate the reply as I hadn't ever noticed this before. Now I won't worry about it. It didn't involve a vein, I'm happy to say!

[Flugmeister]

thanks, I would never trim his beak unless he had some genetic deformity and I do have a cuttle bone in his cage. I appreciate the reply as I hadn't ever noticed this before. Now I won't worry about it. It didn't involve a vein, I'm happy to say!

Give him a variety of sharpening devices as was suggested earlier. I recommend the 8-in-1 Ultra Care 8 Beak Conditioner, but each bird is different, of course.