Last Updated on February 16, 2023 by Mitch Rezman

Stevie Van Zandt requested your answer

I have a rescue budgie, the top of his beak was almost totally gone, just barely hanging. We have NO vet in my area and nobody specializes in birds. I removed what was hanging and she seems ok, I made a “mush” for her to eat. Will the beak grow back?

Your bird’s beak may or may not grow back Stevie ~ replies MitchR.

If it does grow back it will probably not come in like it’s original beak

 

 

The only way to fix this is with a prosthetic beak which has been done using a 3-D printer but it’s a very expensive process.

 

It can’t eat – it can’t climb

 

You have two choices.

 

Hand feed the bird every 2 to 3 hours 24/7 for the rest of its life (or until a partial beak grows back)

 

Or put it down.

 

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I just bought a budgie who appears overweight,

 

The people really never paid much if any attention to him, just filled his water and kept him on a seed only diet, he is a PIG, should I get another cage and feed him less/better food for a while?

 

Firstly you cannot tell if a budgie is overweight visually.

 

They have about 5000 feathers getting in the way.

 

Without knowing the weights of the clutch you have no way of knowing what his or her weight should be.

 

We have 10 budgies (all rescues) ranging in weight from 24 g to 62 g.

 

We know this because we weigh them on a regular basis for health reasons.

 

They get Higgins Vita Seed in three Tweeky clean feeders that are refreshed daily

Higgins Vita Seed for budgies contains Higgins InTune pellets – problem solved.

 

Every other day we place two large dishes of mixed vegetables that have been thawed and lightly chopped.

 

It took us a couple of weeks to figure that out.

 

We first sprinkled millet on the vegetables and that helped but it wasn’t until we ran them through a chopper for about three seconds that they now consume all the vegetables in their dishes without the aid of millet.

 

The Windy City Parrot Breakfast Club
Bacon – Eggs – Toast – Jam – Biscuit
Gravy – Chicken – Waffles – Bagel – Cream cheese

 

Our African ringneck gets unchopped veggies and only eats the corn but loves his daily apple slice too.

 

He’ll ignore cucumber slices but the budgies will destroy half a dozen cucumber slices in a couple of hours

 

As for the good doctor’s (a veterinarian) comments regarding offering

 

“Zupreem with some greens and non-sugary veggies”

 

There are three problems with that statement

1) Zupreem adds sugar to its pellets for “palatability”

2) Fructose: found in fruits and honey is good for providing caloric energy

3) There are no random food dishes filled with pellets anywhere on the continent of Australia and yet budgies have been living there for something like 100 million years – without ever eating a pellet.

 

As for the suggestion to “use fresh or dried clean apple branches for perches or put in cage”.

Never use perches brought in from out of doors because of possible biohazards.

 

and this mind-blowing statement from a veterinarian, “Budgies aren’t seedeaters, nor are any of the curved beak, psittacine, birds.”

 

I offer

and quote from the video

 

“These small search parties look for the wild grass seeds that make up the budgies staple diet”.

 

It’s best to have a large enough cage for budgies to have flight.

 

A bird that can fly is a much happier and more confident bird than one that cannot.

 

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Catherine & MitchR,

 

After a 5 month long (initially miss treated by a nonqualified vet) near death infection, my parakeet looks to of survived.

 

He was a happy energetic, singing, trusting 2 yr old bird.

 

Now he is a very quiet, sedate and sad little guy who hisses and lunges at me. (I had given him medication for 3 months am and pm via beak.)

 

The only sound he occasionally makes now is a short chirp which sounds a bit like a “kiss” sound.

 

Question- can a bird lose their voice? No singing, trilling or chatter?

 

What a sad thing for all of us. We used to have a house with the sound of a happy bird, now if you didn’t see the cage it’s so quiet you’d never know we have him.

 

I guess he did die. The little bird he is now is a broken version of a parakeet.

 

Thanks,

Ann R.

 

My best advice Ann is to get another budgie then see if his demeanor improves.

best

mitchr

 

Hi Mitch and Catherine,