Nostrils

when I brought Maxx home I could see them now that he is a few months older
they are grown over is this normal ? is it something that has to be trimmed so nothing can block the air flow what I mean by grown over is head fur or what ever the heck you call the stuff of their heads, hard to call it feathers. lol

hope that is not to silly of a question.
maybe I should google it.lol
just funning
peace

Looks normal to me, but let's see what the Eclectus folks say...

I may have answered my own question here is a pic of a 6yr old they
have for sale at the Aviary I shop at and I can't see his either.
what a handsome fella he is. but this pic does bring me to another question for the eclectus folks the jagged edges on the side of the upper beak normal? I noticed on Maxx where the sides of his beak are shadowed and looks to be wearing away but I also see a distinct outline where it looks like his will get a tit in it, (excuse that ladys) I also noticed in this pic that same distinct line on this bird all this normal?

davefv92c said:

when I brought Maxx home I could see them now that he is a few months older
they are grown over is this normal ? is it something that has to be trimmed so nothing can block the air flow what I mean by grown over is head fur or what ever the heck you call the stuff of their heads, hard to call it feathers. lol

hope that is not to silly of a question.
maybe I should google it.lol
just funning
peace

Click to expand...

There are two different hairs in this area. The first is a lot like Nostril Hair that we have and sever as much the same. The second grow just above and number of hairs tend to vary in volume. What you want to watch for is whether these hairs are collecting dust, etc... and resulting in a collection of 'stuff' in them. In some cases, the nostrils may need to be flushed by your AV during a normal visit.

Commonly, the Parrot cleans the hairs with a quick wipe on a perch.

Take a photo when you get a moment.

Ooops, see the photo, thanks,

this area gets checked everyday on all the birds looking for runny nostrils. I just figured it
was their air filtering system. never noticed anything out of place there so all is good.
thanks much sailboat for all you do here.

Both of my ekkies have their nostrils covered. When I first brought the first one home, my wife even asked why she didn't have a nose.

As for the beak, the picture you posted of the boy, it looks like his beak could be groomed. My female never has an issue, but my male tends to need his done a couple times a year by our avian vet. I've noticed a lot of male ekkies tend to have overgrown beaks, and I wonder if that is just due to something with way the male beak grows. Of course, that is just my opinion, but is something you could bring up to your vet to get their opinion on it.

Dave, I've seen ekkies with both exposed nares ( nostrils) and ones where they are covered like the pic you posted. When Salty was very young, he had very tiny , fine hair ( feathers) surrounding his nares , on the cere, but he LOVES having his cere rubbed hard during a scratching session so they have disappeared .

As far as beak overgroth, in the wild I am sure that natural chewing and foraging keeps beaks within a certain range of lengths. In captivity, we may not offer the parrot the same opportunities for those actions, so the beak may need to be trimmed. I know my last parrot, Max , who was not a chewer at all, needed to have his beak trimmed like 1X a year. Salty on the other hand, is a medium chewer, and I dont expect to have to trim his beak more then every couple of years. Do ekkie beaks grow at a faster pace then other species ? I've seen a few pics of ekkies with seriously overgrown beaks, but I can not recall seeing pics of other parrot species with the same condition.

wrench13 said:

Dave, I've seen ekkies with both exposed nares ( nostrils) and ones where they are covered like the pic you posted. When Salty was very young, he had very tiny , fine hair ( feathers) surrounding his nares , on the cere, but he LOVES having his cere rubbed hard during a scratching session so they have disappeared .

As far as beak overgroth, in the wild I am sure that natural chewing and foraging keeps beaks within a certain range of lengths. In captivity, we may not offer the parrot the same opportunities for those actions, so the beak may need to be trimmed. I know my last parrot, Max , who was not a chewer at all, needed to have his beak trimmed like 1X a year. Salty on the other hand, is a medium chewer, and I dont expect to have to trim his beak more then every couple of years. Do ekkie beaks grow at a faster pace then other species ? I've seen a few pics of ekkies with seriously overgrown beaks, but I can not recall seeing pics of other parrot species with the same condition.

Click to expand...

Al, there was a B&G Mac awhile ago in the Mac forum with a seriously over grown beak

Jim

The beak is fine, the burrs are from running the cage rails, or uneven chewing etc. I just groomed Wranglers two weeks ago to even it out a bit.

The covered nares are a normal part of the maturation process, actually. Just like the color change of the beak from black to candy corn. No worries there, Dave.

As for the little jagged tooth things on the beak, that is also normal.

One of the reasons so many ekkies have overgrown beaks (aside from dietary issues and such) is their preference for softer woods. Ekkies end to enjoy chewing on woods of soft to medium hardness, and will turn their noses at the harder wood toys that are so common in bird stores. If you want to encourage good beak grooming in an eclectus parrot, steer clear of the hard woods that a mac or even an amazon might enjoy.

Anansi said:

The covered nares are a normal part of the maturation process, actually. Just like the color change of the beak from black to candy corn. No worries there, Dave.

As for the little jagged tooth things on the beak, that is also normal.

One of the reasons so many ekkies have overgrown beaks (aside from dietary issues and such) is their preference for softer woods. Ekkies end to enjoy chewing on woods of soft to medium hardness, and will turn their noses at the harder wood toys that are so common in bird stores. If you want to encourage good beak grooming in an eclectus parrot, steer clear of the hard woods that a mac or even an amazon might enjoy.

Click to expand...

really funny thing he has yet to tear up any of the wood toys in his cage
he tends to lean towards them big toys that have all kinds of household stuff on them with ropes I have noticed he loves chewing up the ropes and any paper type toys. as for the dog thing I'm good with that I don't allow the dog and birds to be in close proximity without me being right there to get a hand in if needed that's why you wont see me doing vids when they are close it is just to much of a chance to take even with a 4 lb dog.