I know. I give them the best I can. Im worried it will grow too much and start to interfere. Then I think maybe I should just do it before it gets too long and more work. But either way he will get stress bars and that freaks me out too. I love that little boy so much. He is the sweetest most gentle bird I have ever handled. He has never bitten me and doesnt have a mean bone in him. So I feel like Im torturing him.

I just got all of mine lava blocks and it seems to help.

Ekkies have soft beaks compared to other parrots so you need to provide him with soft woods (like balsa), birds kabobos (dried yucca), rolled up magazines, cardboard, stuff like that. Bottlebrush might be too hard for him.

As to his beak, leave him be until the trimming is really necessary and then have a professional do it. It takes forever with an emery board but a good tech can have a beak trimmed in a matter of seconds with a dremmel. And I doubt that the stress marks came from the trimming because if he already had pins when he had it done, those feathers had been formed already.

I read that pins in the sheath can suffer over heating and darken. But over the months after the stressbars kept coming and it got worse. He was so traumatized it was sad. He has balsa wood blocks in his toys but he wont chew it. He's so busy rubbing on things and regurgitating he seems to have no time for chewing. I make toys with tongue compressors, clothes pins (all untreated natural wood) and cardboard which he does like. The bird store I frequent does do dremel trimming so Im planning on that. I honestly believe the bird store see's more birds than vets do! ANd I trust these people. I just cant figure when the best timne to do that woukd be in order to avoid stresssbars. But you're right Bee, the filing is too long a process. However I thought the dremel noise might really freak him out. Maybe Im relating it to my own hatred of the Dentist! Can the Ekkie beak be trimmed with clippers at the tip? I clip the sides which get a very sharp point and it clips very easy.

Oh poor sweet Occy. Jazzy does not chew much either, but beak grinds a LOT and rubs her beak on her sandy perch and concrete perches a lot.

is his beak currently to long to chew? It might be uncomfortable for him to try to chew so he no longer bothers. If not, than what if you baked him some hard birdie cookies or bars, where he has to chew to eat the food? Like a seed treat stick but a healthy one. Of if he likes corn, give him part of the cob to chew apart. Eve doesnt chew much, vasa's are not chewers. But he tears through corn cobs, with half of the corn already removed, too much sugar. And he loves to chew through baskets. I get natural wicker baskets that have not been treated, I wash them let them dry and give them to Eve, they are irresistible. Also Do you know why his beak over grows? Diet? Genetics? or lack of chewing? I had a painted conure named crayon, with a congenital defect, where the beak would over grow at a very rapid pace. It would have to be trimmed once every 2 weeks or she could not eat. She was on a pellet diet, with fruits and veggies. I decided to scrap her diet and create my own. Through major diet changes I was able to cut down on her beak growth from trimming once every 2 weeks to once ever 4 months. So you might want to look at diet as well. Crayon had a good diet before, but was better off with a home made diet tailored to her beak needs.

Something Ive always noticed about him, even when he was still a baby (he was 8 months old when surrendered to me) he scoops his moist foods and pellets from the front using the tip of the beak. But if its something he has to cut off or really chew through, he uses the side of his beak since there is a sharp edge. And he did this even when the tip was still short to the quick. I dont believe he has anthing wrong with him. He's full of life and the beak is in no way malformed. Its just long like a fingernail would be.

Here is Mr Beakers as of 7/9/08

Attached Images

occybeak.jpg (716.4 KB, 3 views)

OOOOH! The classic Ekkie gaze....just melts my heart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey he does not look too bad. I bet you could clip that off...but I'm not sure.