A friend of mine has pet parrots. Recently, one of the parrots attacked another of the parrots. The attacked parrot now no longer has the bottom half of its beak, only the top half (the half with the pointy thing).
Can a parrot live without the bottom half of its beak?
Eating may be difficult. He may have to be hand fed. I recall seeing an animal show in which a parrot (or perhaps a toucan) lost its beak to a disease and a prosthetic beak was made. The bird quickly adapted to it.
Yes-
My cockatiel lost much of his lower beak in an accident. The left half was torn from his face and never grew back. The vet tried to fix it surgically but it didn’t take. At first I had to feed him soft foods and bird kibble ground up in a blender, but eventually he was able to eat hard foods and crack seeds again.
Beaks are much like horns or fingernails- if the tip of them breaks off they usually grow back, but if they’re damaged at the base (torn off) they may be gone for good,.
My bird has a small piece of his lower beak, and for the first few years it grew at an odd angle from his face and had to be trimmed periodically (by the vet), but for the last few years my bird has kept it trim through regular chewing.
Whatever you do, make sure your friend gets your bird to a good vet.
Wow, I’ve never seen one with the bottom beak broken off. They do make prosthetic beaks for birds, and eventually, beaks do regenerate.
A bird’s gizzard is where much of the break-up of hard food takes place. This muscular organ uses grit to grind up stuff like seeds, etc.
Parrots use their beaks to crack hard seed coats and to manipulate food. One without a lower beak might have some trouble feeding, but if you hand-feed it foods that are not too tough it should do OK.