My approximately 16 week old tiel seems to have a pronounced curve to her beak. In comparing her to pics of other tiels, she seems to have a longer top beak. It isn't interfering with her eating (although she only eats the smallest seeds in her mixed seeds) and it certainly doesn't keep her from chewing on all the things she should NOT have. She refuses to eat veggies, fruit, bean mix,and so forth, so I'm going to convert her to pellets. Since I'm expecting a bit of a battle over this, I'd like to be sure she is physically prepared if not mentally thrilled about it!

Thank you for your help. She is a wonderfully tame and funny little thing, but I'm still so afraid I will do something wrong! I've spoiled her -- now I have to listen to her squeal "come here" if I get out of sight, and she will not stay in her play area. I don't think she knows how to play by herself! Being on me is much more fun...Any tips on how to lay down the law to a rotten tiel?!

Thanks again.

Pamela J.

Pamela,

If you feel that her beak may be too long, you should take her to an avian vet for a trimming, if needed. A pellet diet is now considered the most nutritional diet but pellets are harder to crack than seeds so a beak in top condition is most important.

"Laying down the law" is one of those things you need to teach yourself, not the bird. We all want our birds to talk, to come to us when we want them, but when they do these things and it isn't convenient then or we're not in the mood, we expect them to read our minds. It must be extremely difficult, as a bird, to differentiate the good times from the bad.