PLEASE HELP! (Advice!) New Green Cheek lost piece of beak!

[SarahP12]

I need advice!!

We purchased a green cheek conure 2 weeks ago from a breeder. The first week we took it easy and let her get acclimated to our surroundings. Last week I started trying to bond with her. At this time, I noticed a crack in her beak under her feathers on the side. It was very difficult to see because it was covered up by feathers. She had been eating fine but she grinds her beak awful, so I was checking her out when I discovered it. The crack looked like an "old wound" and has "sealed up" but was still there.

Tonight while I went to bring her into the kitchen to share an apple with me, I was shocked and dismayed to see that a piece of her beak has fallen off. She is constantly scratching her beak on her cage, on the furniture, on us...all the time.

I am seriously stressed out and have no experience with this type of thing. She is eating fine and I have tried to call the breeder already. She doesn't seem to be in any pain at this point.

My questions are what does this mean, what are the consequences of this, can this "grow back", and what should I be watching for?

I am linking to a photo of her that was just taken. Someone tell me what I should do so I know what questions to ask and what to say to the breeder when she finally calls me back.

We're seriously upset.

[Michael]

Wow, that looks pretty bad. Should grow back on its own. May need vet intervention to trim new growth into proper shape. I'd go to vet just in case anyway to make sure new growth doesn't break off as it comes out. I know that there have been cases where parrots lost entire beaks to eventually regrow them if it's any consolation. But that's a pretty big piece missing so be careful.

[SarahP12]

She still seems to be doing fine. She's eating and drinking. I've been keeping a close eye on her the last few hours. I'm going to call the vet tomorrow and see what he says. We are all so worried about her (

[cornettocockatiel]

Go to the vet as soon as possible!
I hope your parrot gets better!

[SarahP12]

So we went to the vet today. It was my first visit to this vet because our regular vet (for our dogs) does not see birds.

I wasn't very sure of the vet, he wasn't all that friendly to be honest. So now, I have some questions about what he said.

He kind of blew it off and said simply to keep an eye on her and make sure she's eating. He gave us all of about 3 minutes for his 95 dollar office visit fee.

He took one look at her, said she should be fine but to keep a close watch and bring her back if I sense anything different.

However, he did tell me that as it starts growing back out, he can use acrylic, like on fingernails to make a "fake" part of her beak.

Has anyone heard of this? He told me it would be basically the same as having fake fingernails put on, but on her beak?

[Michael]

He took one look at her, said she should be fine but to keep a close watch and bring her back if I sense anything different.

You didn't have to pay $95 for me to tell you that lol

The fact that she's eating and behaving normally means she's probably not in pain. So it's kind of like a nasty broken nail but doesn't hurt. You just want to make sure it grows back in properly. I'd stay away from the acrylic stuff unless she has trouble eating. You may end up having problems on the other side as beak use gets biased there. Trimming it back into proper shape may be necessary but I wouldn't trust that vet for any of it. I suggest finding a good avian vet.