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mrgoogls
11-10-2013, 03:16 PM
cooper really doesn't chew much wood, and when he does it is very soft wood like balsa and yukka. he very very rarely takes tiny chips out of pine. he prefers shredding toys and occasionally gnawing on leather. how can i keep his beak worn down? or how do i get him chewing something at least like pine wood?

plax
11-11-2013, 02:14 PM
cooper really doesn't chew much wood, and when he does it is very soft wood like balsa and yukka. he very very rarely takes tiny chips out of pine. he prefers shredding toys and occasionally gnawing on leather. how can i keep his beak worn down? or how do i get him chewing something at least like pine wood?It sounds like you'll have to experiment and find some type of a harder wood that he likes, or perhaps something made from wood that he likes the shape and/or texture of. Zaffer has a beak overgrowth problem as well, but thankfully he loves to grind his beak on stainless steel bolt threads to file it down. I'm not sure that Cooper would take to that.

mrgoogls
11-11-2013, 03:41 PM
i have tried all different types or hard wood so far(as in harder than balsa, still like pine so pretty soft) and he doesnt do more than test it out, take a chip out then lose interest. i have done everything from bigger blocks and cubes to tiny rectangles and stars, even clothespins. nothing has really caught his attention.

ShellyBorg
11-12-2013, 10:03 PM
Try to offer some metal toys, it worked with a couple of mine.

Blancaej
11-17-2013, 05:38 PM
I think the metal toys are a good option as well. At least try it and see how it goes. I hope to try that with my fids after reading posts about how well Zaf loves stainless steel. :)

Feathers First Aviary
11-17-2013, 05:57 PM
You could try giving him toys with the hard stone/concrete type pieces, I wish I could think of what they are actually made of, we have ones that are all different shapes and colors, they are really hard, brightly colored, and sort of sandy/sparkly looking. Also, some birds will scrape their beaks on the concrete perches to help file them. There are also beak conditioning blocks(I've never used them or even done much research on them so I would look them up first), as well as mineral blocks and cuttle bones. Even things like hard nuts can help add some wear to his beak, just watch how many you give him as most nuts are very high in fat. Having a well balanced diet also works wonders for keeping a beak well conditioned, many birds that have overgrown beaks are due to vitamin deficiencies.