Crooked beak chick

Hello,
I recently looked at one of my chicks. He has a crooked beak. Im not sure if its too severe or not. I have been watching him and I dont know if he is eating or drinking. He does attempt to peck but doesnt pick up much. He is the youngest of my chicks so he doesnt get as much food since the others push the little guy away. I have been hand feeding and watering him. Is there anything I can do? My last resort is to cull him but i would rather not do that. His tongue is rather moist still so I think hes getting water. I just feel bad for him. Can he survive? Heres a pic of him (he is a silkie, sorry for the very bad quality. It was taken by a cellphone)

Hes maybe 2/3 weeks old. He wasnt born like this, he was like this when i came back from vacation

You will need a very deep dish to feed since he will have a hard time feeding and picking up food. There are some people on here who have had luck keeping their severe crooked beaks alive and happy with deep dish. Unfortunately, our little guy with a severe crooked beak just couldn't get enough food and was really skinny, so we eventually put him down. I think it depends on which beak is crooked too (top or bottom).

It takes several weeks to develop...that is why you didn't see it before. It usually shows up at about 2 weeks or so.

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Thank you. Im hoping we dont have to put him down. I love him alot. Im hoping it doesnt get worse. I will keep a very close eye on the baby and hope that i dont have to cull him. Do you think it looks severe?

We have an Arucauna that is similar. The bottom beak is severely crooked. I've been feeding her by hand, and she's very tame now. We eventually began putting her in a cloth cat bed that is made with high sides so she can peck away at the food in a deeper pile, and she isn't heavy, but seems happy and getting enough for now. She climbs up on my hand to be carried inside from the yard for this feeding. On mine , I believe the crooked bottom beal is caused by the top beak being hooked, unlike her sisters... Good Luck with yours!

We have a leghorn with crooked beak. Its a genetic thing with what we presume to be severe overbreeding. Anyway, he/she (supposed to be a she, but is showing signs of being neither sex i.e no comb development, no crowing, thick legs and neck) but the sweetest and most curious thing ever. Deep dish feeding works well, he/she just eats all day long. Seems to still be gaining weight, so we're not too concerned unless showing signs of distress starts occurring. We will not let he/she breed to pass on any of these traits and will cull if losing weight or distressed. This is part of raising chickens, is to know when is enough and to cull.

I have a little cuckoo d'anver hen and she has crooked beak. I don't know if it is the top or bottom. The bottom seems to be completely straight and long, but the top one crosses over it. I feed her with a deep dish so she can get her beak in there. I also use a grinding tool on her lower beak as it seems to keep growing, or I will clip it with clippers. But she is the sweetest thing. lets me pick her up so she can eat. I put her food where she can get to it and now that she can fly, she goes to eat herself. She is thinner that her mom and aunt, but she is doing fine and is sweet as can be. BTW, I named her Chrissy, for her criss-cross beak. )

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Thank you. Im hoping we dont have to put him down. I love him alot. Im hoping it doesnt get worse. I will keep a very close eye on the baby and hope that i dont have to cull him. Do you think it looks severe?

At that age, it seems that it will end up being pretty severe, especially since it is the lower beak. But, with a deep dish, the chick may be able to eat enough and survive like a normal chicken...just with a crooked beak. There are reports on here of some that just couldn't keep weight on (like my little guy) and others who have grown hens that are normal other than having a cross beak and eats out of a deep dish. Crumbles may work better than mash as well since the larger pieces will probably be easier to eat. Unfortunately, our feed stores were all of out of crumbles when we had our little guys, so we had a heck of a time eating mash. He would stand at his bowl and eat all day long and still couldn't get weight on. I think if he had crumbles, he may have been able to ingest more food.

I have one with a very severe crooked beak, she's maybe 4 months old or so now, and what I just discovered in the last week or so is that if I take their starter mash and soak it so it's very wet, almost like a thick soup or so and have it in a deep dish- i'm using a rubber horse grain pan, then she can eat just as much as everyone else! She's been getting a lot of food intake now, and she's happy and healthy, and when I open her coop she runs out and jumps on the feed bucket going, "feed me!" Can't get it mixed fast enough for those guys...

He sadly passed away the morning I came back from vacation