3 week old chick

Question
Hi,
Ive been breeding show budgerigars for about a year now, but...ive never seen anything like this. This morning when I went out to my birdroom, I began doing my normal routine of checking the nestboxes. I noticed one of the nestboxes had a 3 week old chick missing the bottom portion of its beak. I found out the mom was the culprit because she had a little blood on her feathers. Its been about 9 hours now since that happened and the blood dried up and the chick  seems ok, what should I do? If fostered it to another nest would they be able to feed it? would the beak grow back? Or is there a way I could painlessly put it down?

Thanks,
Brian

Answer
Hello Brian,

I am sorry to hear about your chick. I have heard of cases like this. I heard of a cockatoo that this happened to and it got a new beak molded to fit its mouth. I am not saying to go and do this, but more than likely there is nothing you can do for such a tiny little beak. The beak will not grow back. Are the new parents able to feed it? It would be amazing if they could. As you probably know, the parents have to be "beak-to-beak" with the babies to regurgitate their food to feed them. You could probably find a vet to put it down for you, if that's the route you will take. Maybe i am imagining it to be alot worse than it actually is, but it sounds bad. If the chick looks like it is in pain and is starving from not being fed, then the humane thing to do would be to put it down.

Hope I was able to help!

Calyopea