Overgrown beak on Muscovy duck

[AquaDuck]

I noticed one of my ducks has an overgrown beak. She's not old, in fact, she just started growing her caruncles. Born mid-summer this year. It's not in hindrance to her at the moment, but we have many months of snow and inside time ahead, where she won't be able to use her beak for digging etc. I'm afraid it's gonna grow more and eventually cause her difficulties eating and grooming.

My question is: should I attempt to trim it? I've cut overgrown chicken beaks but this looks like a whole different operation with many things potentially going wrong. Anyone trimmed duck beaks?

Additional question: is this a genetic thing? The fact that she's so young makes me wonder. If it is I'm not gonna breed her. I have too many ducks for their winter house and have had to make some hard decisions when it comes to culling. If she's not breeding material. Well... But she is pretty and also the best friend to one I'm gonna keep.

Options are: trim and keep or not trim, keep and cull if/when it gets bad.

 

[Isaac 0]

Waterfowl actually have what's called a "bill tip organ", on the tip of their bill, which basically consists of a bunch of receptors that allow them "feel" when they're probing around in dirt, grass, etc, for food. So I may be hesitant to trim the bill yet due to pain. If it gets long enough to the point where it looks like she is having a hard time eating/drinking, then, I think a may get an extra hand to hold her down and gently try to grind the bill tip with a rotary drill.

It doesn't look too bad, and hopefully, once she gets outside she'll wear it back down again. Out of all breeds, Muscovies tend to have longer bill tips, IME.

 

[Isaac 0]

@Miss Lydia , have you seen this in your scovies?

 

[AquaDuck]

Waterfowl actually have what's called a "bill tip organ", on the tip of their bill, which basically consists of a bunch of receptors that allow them "feel" when they're probing around in dirt, grass, etc, for food. So I may be hesitant to trim the bill yet due to pain. If it gets long enough to the point where it looks like she is having a hard time eating/drinking, then, I think a may get an extra hand to hold her down and gently try to grind the bill tip with a rotary drill.

It doesn't look too bad, and hopefully, once she gets outside she'll wear it back down again. Out of all breeds, Muscovies tend to have longer bill tips, IME.

Thanks! I figured there were both pain receptors and blood vessels in there. I definitely don't want to do anything to harm her.

I looked at some older pictures of her, and it seems the beak has grown like this only in the last 2 weeks. Before that it looked fairly normal. Odd.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Never seen one quite like that one but if you want to keep her maybe just keep watch on it and like @Isaac 0 mentioned use the Dremel instead of clipping but only if it hinders eating. I used a dogs nail Dremel on an Opington hen who got over grown beak and it worked perfectly. Pretty face on you little one.