Scissor beak questions

Thanks for posting the pics! Igor looks like she's handing things just fine

I'm still optimistic that Dixie will be able to eat regular food but we shall see.... She's doing a great job so far. She's almost the same size as her cell mates. They do peck at her beak quite a bit but she seems to take it in stride-she doesn't run away.

So far, so good. I'm glad we didn't cull her right away. The timing of this was just awful with everything going on simultaneously with our dog getting deathly ill but that's another story. In any event, I'll update the thread as she grows up. She's at 2.5 weeks right now.

Still doing pretty good, she is eating her dry crumbles and I've been putting mash down every day or two as well. Seems to be handling both fine. She's a little smaller than her cellmates and she is at the bottom of the pecking order with the others pecking her beak but she handles herself well. Crazy little thing, runs all over the place with the others. She does stay under the heat plate a little more than the other three but I'm chalking that up to her being a little smaller.

In any event, here she is with her pals. She's the blue splash ameraucana. The others are lavender orpington, EE, and SLW. I have my suspicions the SLW is a rooster but time will tell.

Here is an updated picture at 4.5 weeks. Interestingly, she is more interested in the dry crumbles than the mash although we offer both on most days.

We booted them out of the house about a week ago and built them a little area in our coop where they can watch the big chickens. They still have access to their heat source.

She is noticeably smaller than the other 3 and seems to kind of do her own thing like maybe she isn't quite as integrated with her pals although there is no obvious bullying or squabbling. It takes her a longer time to eat but she is full of energy and is doing just fine outdoors. She has decided she absolutely loves to be picked up and cuddled which is a first for me-I hope she doesn't change as it is precious.

She struggles with the horizontal water nipples which are what our big girls use and the other 3 will use at some point so I gave up on that for now and just put a normal waterer in. I picked up a bucket with the vertical nipples as well so we have a plan once they're fully integrated into the coop.

My biggest concern at this point is integration as it is clear that my Dominique and RIR cannot wait to torture their new tiny roommates. Hopefully this won't be an issue if we take things slow.

I cannot believe how much energy I expend stressing about these chickens! Never ending....

Unfortunately Dixie passed away this morning at 8.5 weeks old.

She never did catch up to the other chicks in terms of size and was falling farther and farther behind. I had ended up separating her as the other ones were far too big to continue to live indoors and needed to be put outside.

She did seem to do a little better solo as she didn't have to compete for food or water but ultimately she just wasn't able to consume enough food to thrive.

In hindsight, I wish I would have culled her when I first noticed the defect at 1 week old. The reality is that we became too attached to her to be able to make a rational decision about when to end her suffering. In the end, she probably suffered more than she should have as a result of our hesitancy. This could have been avoided by not delaying the decision.

She was the sweetest little thing and will be missed dearly. Wish this would have turned out very differently.

I' m sorry that you lost Dixie, and sure that you did all you could to save her. Your story may help someone who is going through a similar issue who reads this.

Thank you.