need advice on crossbeak chick

I'm sorry I don't have much advised but wanted to say I can feel for your situation. I think the decision to euthanize is such a personal one. I have a chick with a wry leg and I can't bear to put her down. She limps around but eats well and socializes with the others. I've been hoping it'll turn out to be a roo to make my decision easier. 

In my opinion: If she's made it to this age without tube feeding I can't imagine she would ever NEED to be tube fed. She may not get as big as the others but if she were MY chick and she were otherwise seemingly fine (not abused by the others etc) I'd just leave her...but then again I hate to cull anything :D

So when you say her mates are passing her up, do you mean they weigh more? I would feel her breast bone and crop to see how well she's eating. That is a surefire way to see if she's getting enough. If her breast bone feels bony with very little meat on it compared to the others then I would be concerned that she's slowly starving. If she's just eaten and you feel that there is barely anything in her crop then that would also be an indication she's not getting enough to eat.

Her cross-beak doesn't look as bad as some I've seen but if you plan to keep her alive you will need to file her beak on a fairly regular basis, at least once a month depending on how fast it grows. Because the front part of her beak doesn't meet together as it should, it will not naturally file down as she pecks like it would on a non handicap chicken. The more it grows without being filed, the harder it will be for her to eat. A large very course finger nail file works well for this. She will also likely never be able to eat food in pellet form but you'll just have to watch and see what type of food she has the best success with. As far as containers, it may be that the 1" hanging feeder is easier for her, in which case you'll always need to make sure food is available in it. I would think the dog feeder would be easier for her, but you'll be the best one to make that decision.

It is my opinion that if you have to force feed her to keep her alive, she's not living a quality life and should be put down. I've force fed a hen before but it was a hen that eventually got better and was able to eat on her own so force feeding was no longer required. As far as I know, this is not a condition that will get better with time.

If you decide that she requires more maintenance than you can handle, don't feel bad about putting her down. It is neither right nor wrong to keep her alive. Animals were put here for us, not the other way around so I would recommend you make a decision your heart can be settled with.

Tough situation! Me, personally, especially if it's a hen, I would keep her. Monthly maintenance with a beak is easily done and I personally like the chickens with the weird quirks. Then again, I single handedly brought my wry neck chick back to life so I'm a softie for lost causes. If worse comes to worst, you will just have a "different" hen that lays eggs! 

I would say your mash recipe is a great idea to try and get her weight where it should be (not sure what it should be at her age, but you could try weighing the others of the same breed and comparing). I would feed her things that really encourage her to want more and raw egg is definitely one of them, although I'm sure others would disagree. The only thing I haven't used in your mix before is oatmeal but if it works, use it. Other things I've used; plain yogurt with live cultures and molasses. I'm not sure how easy it would be for her to eat wet food but for under the weather chickens or as a treat I'll usually add water to the chick starter and then mix in the other stuff . For whatever reason chickens seem to enjoy the wet food better than when it's dry.

If the other ameraucana continues to bother crossbeak then I would either sell the bully on craigslist or buy a chicken saddle or anti-pick stuff for crossbeak's back. I have a semi -blind hen and a neurologically disabled hen in my flock and I've sold all the hens that seemed to give them the hardest time, only because they are favorites and the bully hens weren't. It was amazing to me, I would never have thought that they could hang with the rest of the flock, 22 altogether, but they do fine now that I've gotten rid of the ones that seemed to look for opportunities to be jerks. There are very docile hens and bully hens in the chicken world and all you have to do is watch to find out who's who.

When you try to file her beak here are a few tips:

- have her between your legs with her head facing away from you with a towel wrapped around her body to keep her in place and keep her from flapping while you work.

- hold firmly onto the top or bottom portion of her beak (whichever you are working on) with one hand and hold the file with the other hand. You'll need to slip the file into her mouth in a perpendicular fashion working the file back and forth.. The top half of her beak will grow more, in my experience, than the bottom half and fortunately it's the easier to file. With the bottom half you'll need to be careful not to file her gum and you'll need to have a very good grip on it so it doesn't jar her jaw uncomfortably.

- I've only had to do this with one hen and surprisingly she didn't seem to mind it too much but I was very patient, slow, gentle and persistent.

Good Luck with what ever you decide .. I Dont think I would have the time to dote to just one hen .. But Bless you if you do

I never would have thought dairy was good for birds either, and maybe it's not, but I've used it many times with no ill effects that I know of. I like using yogurt because it's got a good high fat and protein content, it's got beneficial bacteria for their digestive systems and they seem to like it. I probably wouldn't use it long term, but for giving a bird just that little extra boost I think it's good. I've seen a lot of others on BYC use it too.

If your thinking about making your own deep dish feeder I've found this one to be wonderful: http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/simple-pvc-hopper-type-feeder I listed some of the things I like about it in the comments section. It's just an all around great feeder, I haven't found a thing I don't like about it yet but I did make a funnel for mine so it would be easier to fill.