Some flaking and shelving of the beak is normal however excessive flaking, shelving or overgrowth may be a sign of internal disease. Captive raised birds are closed banded. Due to potential legislature requiring banding of all pet birds, I do not recommend band removal at this time. A small glass encased chip encoded with a number unique to your bird is inserted in the breast muscle. These are of particular use in the identification and proof of ownership in cases of lost, found or stolen birds.
Most parrots are sexually monomorphic i.e. both sexes are identical in appearance.
Visual sexing is possible in the few dimorphic species of parrots. Most of the above characteristic differences are not apparent in immature birds. Eye color in cockatoos is unreliable and varies with maturity and species. Determination by palpation of the distance between pelvic bones is unreliable especially in immature and reproductively inactive birds. Surgical or Laproscopic Sexing - Subject to error in young birds.