Beak accident????

[mcmalott]

Simon is a 7 month Vos eclectus that I have owned since January 2013! Shortly after he came home, I noticed a place midway on his beak that is a little rough and looks like he might have crash landed in his cage (he hangs upside down a lot and occasionally falls) Lately I think the place has gotten bigger - I am not sure if it looks bigger because his beak is growing? Any input and or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[sodakat]

Beaks grow towards the surface which means this will eventually be worn and rubbed off as he grooms his beak. That looks pretty deep and it probably hurt when it happened, especially if the live part if the beak was damaged. If you are close to a vet I would take him. If not, you could email the picture to a vet and see if they think you should make the drive to their office.

After LaFitte divorced Rose she became mean to him and bit his beak really bad in about the same area. He was very subdued for a few days then returned to normal. It did take quite a while to heal. It was not as deep as your bird's injury though.

 

[mcmalott]

I am taking him to the vet tomorrow.....the injury has been there for a couple of months - at first I thought it was part of the dark of his beaks since he is still a baby - I never saw him actually fall and this happen so I had no idea it was an injury....recently it seems to be more pronounced and that is when I started to worry....he has been to the vet since it has been there but I was not worried about it but now I am worried....

 

[Peeker]

I wonder what he could have hurt it on?

 

[mcmalott]

I have absolutely no idea - he is constantly swinging upside down on his boing and I have seen him fall a couple of times but he always just climbs right back up and is upside down again in 15 seconds! I suppose he could have hurt it on the bars of his cage when he has fallen....I am really grasping at ideas on how he could have hurt it - he is not in contact with our Amazon - same room but far apart and wings are clipped on both..........

 

[Chikoo]

Beaks grow towards the surface which means this will eventually be worn and rubbed off as he grooms his beak. That looks pretty deep and it probably hurt when it happened, especially if the live part if the beak was damaged. If you are close to a vet I would take him. If not, you could email the picture to a vet and see if they think you should make the drive to their office.

After LaFitte divorced Rose she became mean to him and bit his beak really bad in about the same area. He was very subdued for a few days then returned to normal. It did take quite a while to heal. It was not as deep as your bird's injury though.

Birds can have divorces??

 

[Llamalark]

Has he ever flown into a window? Mine has a spot in that same location and same shape, but only the top-most layer of keratin is gone. So, it's a lot shallower than yours and not discolored. Anyway, I thought mine got it from flying into the window, which he's done 3 or 4 times (Super scary! Luckily I think we've figured out how to stop that). I have no idea though. I'd be curious as to what your vet says!

 

[mcmalott]

His wings are clipped so he can not fly like that - he can gently glide to the floor which he has done but it is carpet.......we go to the vet this coming Wed - I will update after that...thanks for the help

 

[sodakat]

Birds can have divorces??

Yes, and this was a messy divorce because there was another female involved (Bella).

Rose is my heart bird I would say, although I am close with many of my Eclectus. When she was 7 months we brought home LaFitte who was 3 months younger. They lived in side by side cages for the first 2 years then moved into a large cage together. Their relationship progressed to mating and in their 4th year they had chicks, 2 of which I kept (Lucy and Sailor).

Then I rehomed Bella, a rather sad luck case who was 12 at the time. She had lived alone her first 9 years then went to a home with a young male Eclectus who did not care for her (and vice versa). After another rehoming episode I agreed to take her in hopes that living with other Eclectus in my bird room with lots of out of cage time and things to do to keep her busy might help with her plucking.

LaFitte decided right away that he wanted to make friends with her. At the time I had no idea what was to come. He ate with her and often sat near her. She was not sure what to think and tried to make him go away but he was having none of it. He has no fear of female Eclectus, having been well trained by Rose.

Within about 6 months he was ignoring Rose and she realized it. Now if she gets the chance she will bite him. I think she would kill him possibly, to be honest because she really went after him twice. I keep them apart now of course.

It took him about 18 months to teach Bella how to be a bird. I was shocked when I saw them mating the first time truthfully. The really funny thing is that Bella is one of those birds who talks before and during mating. She would crouch down and say, "who's a pretty girl?" and "step up, step up". A real crack up.

Because Eclectus are polyandrous I am not surprised to see a male feed more than one female and even mate with more than one. The complete separation did surprise me though. I'm hoping that at some point Rose and LaFitte will re-pair but I have my doubts. I now have to be watchful of not just the females when they are out together, but also with him and Rose so he doesn't get hurt again.

 

[Peeker]

Wow Sodakat, that's really interesting! It's a whole little soap opera story. Have Bella and Lafitte ever produced chicks?

Ok thinking about Simon again..I've heard a couple times where birds injured their beaks on quicklinks. In those cases, they came a bit unscrewed and the bird caught their beak in the space. *just thinking out loud, but that's a thing I worry about so double check if you use those!

 

[Karigan]

I watched a documentary on Australian parrots that showed Eclectus birds being poligamous. Multiple males would visit a female, though she would only mate with one or two of them. They would bring her food and preen her... real nice. Ironically, most of her chicks were DNA tested to be from the same male. The male in question however was seen visiting several female nests.

Australia: Land of Parrots (2008) - IMDb

 

[Crackseed]

Clearly what we can take away from this is Ekkies are total playas *nods*

 

[sodakat]

I watched a documentary on Australian parrots that showed Eclectus birds being poligamous. Multiple males would visit a female, though she would only mate with one or two of them. They would bring her food and preen her... real nice. Ironically, most of her chicks were DNA tested to be from the same male. The male in question however was seen visiting several female nests.

Australia: Land of Parrots (2008) - IMDb

The only thing I question in the narrative here is the "preening" because Eclectus don't really preen each other. Their head and neck feathers are different than most parrots and don't need the feather sheath removed
which means they can take care of all their feathers themselves. Maybe the narrator meant something a bit different.

I've heard of Eclectus who live with other species who will sometimes preen the other species' head and neck if that other bird presents it to the Eclectus, and assuming they are friends!

 

[mcmalott]

ahah.....the baby metal toy attachers have to be the cause of my baby's beak injury - he knows how to unscrew them and I have found several of them open!!!!!!!!

 

[Karigan]

Maybe it was just affection then. Either way it's an amazing documentary~

 

[Peeker]

ahah.....the baby metal toy attachers have to be the cause of my baby's beak injury - he knows how to unscrew them and I have found several of them open!!!!!!!!

I would suspect that to be the culprit then. One of my birds also fiddles with them and has gotton them unscrewed. I watch them all the time. I don't know if there's a better choice for hanging toys, but maybe that's something to look into.

 

[Karigan]

You could try the old fashioned rock climbing hooks, or do what I do. I use loose binder rings, it works great and they're nice and thin, coming in five sizes.