# Ridge in cockatiel beak



## chewbear123 (Nov 18, 2012)

Hello everyone. My cockatiel has this weird ridge in her beak and I'm kind of worried about her. It doesn't seem to be causing any pain, and her beak is still nice and hard. I just was hoping someone could please tell me if this is normal or if there is anything I can do for my baby if it isn't normal. She is slightly older than a year.
This is her.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

beaks peel in layers. its normal  when she shed a few layers off her beak, it left the ridge. it will smoothen out in time. when they molt the beak peels more often


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## cknauf (Aug 27, 2012)

Is there an indent in her beak? I can kind of see one, but it might be an illusion from the dark streak in her beak. If you mean the white ridge near the tip, that's pretty normal. It could be indicative of a vitamin deficiency (A, I believe, but I'd need to check my books), or it could just be a thing that happens as the beak grows. My books had mixed opinions on the subject.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

cknauf said:


> Is there an indent in her beak? I can kind of see one, but it might be an illusion from the dark streak in her beak. If you mean the white ridge near the tip, that's pretty normal. It could be indicative of a vitamin deficiency (A, I believe, but I'd need to check my books), or it could just be a thing that happens as the beak grows. My books had mixed opinions on the subject.


technically both are right  vitamin A deficiencies can cause it, but seeing as it is only one slight bit of flaking, i would hazard a guess at it being more likely due to growing of the beak  but yes excellent points


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## cknauf (Aug 27, 2012)

DallyTsuka said:


> technically both are right  vitamin A deficiencies can cause it, but seeing as it is only one slight bit of flaking, i would hazard a guess at it being more likely due to growing of the beak  but yes excellent points


That was my understanding, but the one book wasn't clear and only the one book mentioned it.

The outer layer of birds' beaks are made of keratin, just like human fingernails. People's fingernails can be more brittle and flake because of dietary deficiencies, but can also flake from use. Essentially the same sort of happens in beaks, yes?


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

well beaks do grow like human nails do too. so the old layers die off and fall off. the beak is more likely to peel from growth when the birds molt, or so i have heard, but i have seen this more with my flock. when they molt, they got really flaky beaks


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## chewbear123 (Nov 18, 2012)

Thanks guys! I THINK she is molting, because she has a bunch of small feathers in the bottom of her cage, her flight feathers are growing back from when we had them clipped, and she has been slightly more cranky than normal. As far as a deficiency goes, I have no idea. When I got her, I was told that the kind of pellet I buy completely supplies her with all the nutrients that she needs. She seems to be acting fine, but I don't feed her anything else because she doesn't seem to like anything else. I have tried to give her broccoli and seeds, but she just wasn't interested and she loves the pellets.I feed her zupreem medium-sized bird pellets. p.s. I don't think there is any indent in her beak.


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## chewbear123 (Nov 18, 2012)

Oh and she has quite a few pin feathers around her neck area.


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

sounds like molting 

i would add seeds into the diet. a diet too high in pellets actually is bad for cockatiels because its TOO much nutrients, and some nutrients like protein can cause kidney disease later on in life.

you will want to only offer smaller amounts of pellets, maybe 20-30% tops as part of the diet. you want seeds, veggies, and pellets as the diet, not just ONE thing  tiels naturally eat seed in the wild, so i would increase the seed amount and lower the pellet amount and add in some veggies to supplement the diet


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## chewbear123 (Nov 18, 2012)

Ok so I have seeds and veggies readily available and I've tried to get her to eat it, but she hasn't seemed to be interested. Are there some tricks I can use to try to introduce new foods to her?


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

with veggies you can cut them in different ways, cook them, leave them raw (keep in mind some veggies MUST be cooked for safety reasons), hang them on toys, in the cage bars, place them in different kinds of bowls, on a plate, placed in different places... see what your bird seems most interested in. 

as to seeds, try offering them mixed in the pellets. see how that goes. if not, try adding them into foraging toys or only offer them out of the cage and see how she reacts.


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