[mishkaroni]

Last night, when I came home from work, I noticed my Lutino tiels beak looked a little off. It was darker in color on the top but his bottom was its normal pink/tan coloring. Today, the color is lighter and I took pics but they're on my phone because my camera's zoom is currently screwed up and it shuts down when turned on. :/ I google info on beak bruising, and I'm thinking maybe he hurt it while I was at work when he was in the cage. He's eating and drinking fine. Grooming himself normal. When I held him and inspected, he had no issues *well more than being held* when I touched him on his beak, so he doesn't seem to be in pain. No change in his behavior at all, but I'm slightly concerned and if I see a change, or the color seems more off, I'm taking him to the avian hospital on Friday, payday and my day off. It'll be closed tomorrow by the time I'm off. :/

Sorry the pics aren't clear, and his beak doesn't look too bad in it here....

I did do a search and looked through other posts, but most of what I saw were just spots of bruising. Not a whole discoloration of the beak...and those pics also showed darker coloring than what he is currently showing or what it was last night. It almost looked like he drank some light blue kool aid...

 

[enigma731]

I'm not really seeing anything that looks abnormal, although the pics aren't the clearest. Is it possible he got something on his beak? Does he have any toys or foods in the cage that might bleed color if they got wet? Sometimes stains on the beak can be remarkably resilient. I once had a bird get sweet potato stains that lasted through three showers! It does seem unusual for a bruise to lighten up that quickly. I would say just keep monitoring, as you've suggested, but if there's no behavioral change or worsening of the discoloration, it's probably fine.

 

[mishkaroni]

Yah, the stupid camera phone wasn't picking it up that well. It was worse last night and has lightened so it's not too clear in the pics. He also couldn't stand sitting still and being held so those were the best I took out of like 32 pics! There is nothing in the cages that bleed that he could've gotten that color on. Nor had he been given anything but seeds the day it happened. I'm not too worried today as I was yesterday, but now that the color is fading, and clearly not showing to well in these two pics, I'm guessing it's no big deal really. It's just obvious to me because it's not the same color as his bottom part. But he just wouldn't hold still. Poor guy. I didn't want to keep holding him as he isn't used to it. I feel bad having to hold him!

 

[mishkaroni]

You know, I just took another look and tried a picture, and the color has faded even more with the last 20 minutes so it's only tinged slightly grey. I should've taken a picture last night when it was very clear. Guess this ended up being a useless post!

 

[meaggiedear]

being cautious isn't useless.

 

[enigma731]

It really sounds like he somehow got something on it if it's fading that quickly. I can't think of any biological process that would follow that pattern. Does your seed mix have any added dyes or vitamins?

 

[mishkaroni]

Nope. Just the normal seeds and some sunflower seeds in the mix. The only coloring on the seeds are these reddish and orangish ones. I bought the same seed mix as always, but this one had all this new stuff in it. Maybe they mislabeled it. Too bad my 25lb seed bags aren't clear so I can keep them on the same stuff as always. It was weird last night it was darkened almost as much as one of my grey tiels, tonight it's not the normal lutino coloring but I'm guess by tomorrow it will be. These darn tiels still puzzle me daily after 8 years of owning them. Maybe it came from a poster that my birds have just destroyed. Only thing I can think of is if it became wet somehow, but I don't know how plausible that would be as this happened in his cage and the chewed up poster can only be reached outside the cage. I seem to recollect somewhere in the deep recesses of my memories, I had a parakeet or two with something similar and it just went away. I'm thinking maybe he tapped his beak across the bars or something.