Quaker Parrot Beak Growing

Question
Our 3 year old parrot is having an odd problem. Have taken her to the vet and he says it's nothing to be concerned about. All of a sudden her beak is starting to grow, just like a human fingernail. The vet cut her beak and filed it, charged us $100 and said she was fine. Since I can't really afford $100/month to get her beak cut, we've been doing the cutting ourselves now with fingernail clippers. If we don't, her beak will keep on growing and then she has a difficult time eating. It just seems so strange that after having her for over 3 years, her beak has just now decided to grow. She has cuttle bones and a variety of toys she could use to file her beak, but she just doesn't use them. Any idea what is happening? Is is normal for a quaker's beaks to grow like this? I always thought birds filed their beaks themselves. We've had canaries and cockatiles for years and have never seen this before. Could she just have gotten tired of taking care of herself, or are we perhaps giving her and improper diet? Your insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.";  

Answer
Valerie, hi!  Your poor parrot!
Are you feeding her a seed diet?  Sometimes, when a parrot is given a seed diet, it causes too much fat in their liver, which will cause amazingly fast beak growth.  The best thing to do, in this situation, is to change her diet to pellets and fruits and veggies, and the occasional scrambled egg (cooled first of course!)
If you do not feed her a seed diet, the only thing that would really be causing this is that she isn't using her cuttle bones/beak filing toys, and will need you to continue to clip and file her beak for her.
I wish I could be of more help.  It is odd that she wouldn't use her cuttle bone after all this time, so I would focus on her diet more, as that could be all the reason.
I really hope this helps and please feel free to ask any more questions you may have!
Hilary