JR the Eastern Screech-Owl has lost virtually all of his head feathers at once, as often happens for his species. It allows you to see all the new feathers growing in, and you can look into his ear holes and see the dark thing inside, which is the side of his eyeball.
He is very itchy right now, so as a human imprint he wants us to scratch his head a lot (he would normally do this with his mate). His bill was also in serious need of trimming, so we just snipped the tip off and bit by bit, during the head rubs, we were able to file the sides of the tip (the photos were before the filing was finished.)
Beak trimming is called “coping.”
Beaks are made of keratin like our hair and nails. Captive birds will typically/hopefully have much better diets than wild birds, so this increases Keratin production since they’re so full of nutrients.
The process looks a lot like trimming cat or dog nails. It just gets a reshaping to make sure everything can stay working properly.
GHO with overgrown beak
Short Video
Right to the trimming
Text for those who’d rather read.
Great info once again! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!