Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello. I've had a blue and gold macaw for about a year now. He was a rescued animal. When I got him, the left part of his lower beak was grown really long like a tooth of sorts. it was scraping against his upper beak, and making his mouth always be jutting to the side. I took him to a vet to have this corrected.

that "tooth" however keeps trying to grow back. It seems to grow faster than the rest of his beak, needing to be trimmed every two weeks.

Is there any way I can get his beak to grow more normal? He has a varied and healthy diet, plenty of things to chew on (and he chews all the time), and is in general a happy bird.

In the picture, its hard to see where the tooth grows, but you can kinda tell

We have an eclectus who has this exact same problem. There is no real "cure" for it. Just try to make sure there are plenty of both hard and soft woods to chew (as it sounds like you already are). Some birds will injure or damage their beaks at an early age and it will cause a part of the beak to grow in an odd way. I am guessing at his/her old home that maybe there weren't enough toys offered or at sme point the beak was allowed to fully overgrow, then it does seem that it is much harder to keep the beak even as it should be. Sometimes the birds are completely healthy other than the odd growing beak. Have you had your bird thoroughly checked by your vet? The only reason I ask this is that sometimes a liver problem will cause the beak to grow more rapidly (but usually this is the entire beak not just one section). If this keeps happening you might ask your vet to show you how to use a hand grinder to lightly grind down that edge of the beak. If your macaw is healthy otherwise this would help keep his beak trimmed and then you would only have to visit the vet for his checkups or in case of illness.

Sorry I couldn't be more assistance.

I take him to the vet for trimmings. I don't have any avian vets in my area though, and i haven't had a chance to take him to one yet. It has always been just that one part. And despite his constant chewing, that "tooth" always grows.

he was badly abused and neglected by his previous owner. When I got him, he was starved, cold, half dead, and in general a mess.

Also, i've never been able to get him to use a cuttle bone.

Our macaws won't use cuttle bone either, in fact it is mainly our smaller birds that will use it. Our macaws do like mineral blocks though. We don't give them to them extremely often as they seem to chew them to dust almost immediately

With the macaw being in that bad of shape when you got him I would really suggest trying to get him into an avian vet. I know it can be hard to find one and expensive but it can really be worth it as well, if for nothing else then the piece of mind knowing he is healthy (or being able to treat any illness and having him live a long and healthy life.)

If you need help finding an avian vet let me know your general area and I would be happy to try and help you locate one.

He looks like you are taking good care of him and I commend you on getting him out of a bad situation. Good luck with his beak overgrowth and let me know if you need help finding a vet in your area. We have two avian vets we have been using and have to travel over an hour for both of them (they are the ones I like best LOL) we do have one nearer to us who is an exotics vet and works with a lot of birds but he doesn't seem to have the same knowledge and ability with the birds as the others. I know it can be hard to find one in your area and one that you like.

Now that I have rambled on about that Will he rub his beak on perches or hard surfaces? I have in our macaws cages concrete perches (along with branches, rope perches, swings etc). The concrete perches are not in the main area where they perch but in more of a secondary spot and I have noticed most of them like to clean and rub their beaks along these perches. That "might" help to naturally grind down that area on his beak. If you don't already have one you might try it just to see if it helps at all.