Aussie Finch Forum

Hi Folks,

I noticed today that one of my gouldian cock birds has a damaged beak. I'm not sure how long it has been like this for. They have had a few night frights lately (cockroaches) so I'm guessing this is the likely cause. Are there any other possible causes that I should keep an eye out for? Fungal etc.?

Cheers
Ian

Hi Ian,

my guess would be that if he has hit his head hard enough to do damage like that to his beak he would have broken his neck....I would have thought its more along the lines of fungal or dietry deficiency.....but a nice looking bird all the same.

Cheers
Paul

Thanks Paul. That gives me something to think about.

I think the mark above the eye is related to the damaged beak.

Cheers Ian

Hi Ian,

You will notice that the defect runs the full length of the beak. This suggests some damage to the base of the beak and that the defect has grown along as the beak has grown. This specific area is like a "growth plate" area, where the side of the upper madible (beak) meets the top area of the upper mandible (beak).

I suspect this is quite an old lesion and may be trauma related. In the early stages it probably appeared as a small line at the base of the beak.

If it was a fungal or other localised infection you would most likely see other changes at the beak base and on the head- thickening, scaliness, perhaps a discharge. Without seeing the bird I can't say 100% that it's not infection but it seems very unlikely to me.

There is probably nothing you can do to fix the beak. The beak will probably always be like this but if I am correct it is unlikely to affect the bird in any way.

Let us know if anything changes and good luck with him.

Cheers
Myzo

Thanks Myzo.

My guess is that the beak was damaged at a very very early age.Possibly only a few days after hatching.
The bill is still soft then and could have been damaged by the adult feeding it or another nestling hanging on to it.
While it doesn't look great from close up the bird is good type and well worth breeding from it.