Chick with cross beak *pics*

[raindrop]

This is one of my salmon favorelle chicks, standard size from Ideal. She is 4 days old. How much worse will her beak get if it looks like this at this age? So far she is doing just fine, no problems eating or drinking and is growing and active. Her stool is normal. It does not seem to have gotten any worse over the past 2 days since I first noticed it.

Thanks for any advice from those who have raised chicks with this condition.

 

[tclews]

I'm so glad to have seen your post because this happened to our one of our sweet chickens last year and she eventually died from starvation. Unfortunately, I didn't start researching it until it was too late, but found out that it is very easy to fix this problem. The problem is actually in your chicken's jaw and if you start giving her Calc/Phos and Bioplasma (cell salts available at your local natural foods store) the jaw will grow normally and she will have a normal beak. It was incredibly sad to see our sweet chick slowly die. We thought she was growing normally, but soon discovered that her crop was empty and the reason she was following us around all the time was because she eventually couldn't get any food.

I found out about the cell salts from a wildlife rescuer (she saves hawks, deer, etc.). She was very disappointed to hear I had waited until our chicken was six months old to call her. If I, like you, had started giving her cell salts early on, she would have been fine.

You can dissolve the cell salts in the chicken water. It is good for the other chicks too.

 

[raindrop]

turnerstar-
Do you have any before and after beak trimming pictures of your hen you could post? I am having a hard time visualizing what to do and how soon to start.
Thanks

 

[jessica117]

How do you trim a beak? What do you use, a sharp knife? I have a 6 month old pullet who I think is going to start having problems if I don't trim her beak soon. I just have no idea where to start.

 

[normajean]

What I used was a pair of disinfected dog/cat nail trimmers. I also "hooded" the chick to minimize stress (covered her eyes and flipped her over) and also some blood clotting silver nitrate (for when the beak bleeds after trimming).
For my older pullet 8weeks she has a nearly totally opposing beak 90deg, I trimmed both her top and a little off of the bottom (just a tiny bit to help the top and bottom match up better). She is very active and 2 weeks later she eats her chick starter mash right up with little to no difficulty, and forages and pecks at scratch with the other chickies. She is not picked on and growth wise is just a tad behind the regular beaked chickens.

Just don't forget the quick stop/silver nitrate and to disinfect the trimmers.
If the top beak is just a little crossed, try to just trim a little and leave the bottom alone. I would not trim the bottom unless it was absolutely necessary for eating. The bottom beak is how they scoop water and food so it is the important part of the two beaks.
I also have a little 3 day old that I noticed a VERY slight mismatch and I went ahead a trimmed the top beak just a tad and her beak is meeting up well. I will keep trimming if needed as she grows, and I keep an eye on both of them to make sure they drink and eat mash well.
Good luck and keep in touch....
-nj

 

[SQbrahmas]

Crossed beaks are gentetic faults. Completely hereditary.

 

[bawk_bawk]

Our 2 year hen Bessie has a pretty crossed beak, but seems to eat and drink well. She does take longer to eat and drink than the other birds, and is often pecked by them, but she's managed to survive so far.

For people with crossed beaked birds, watch out for cannibalism with your flock, because the ones with the disabilities will most likely be the first ones pecked at after the smallest birds.

 

[Chicken Happy]

My two crossed beaked Wyandotte sisters are over a year now and do just fine. I considered culling them, but decided to see how they developed. They are a tad bit smaller than their normal sister and BIG BROTHER, but are just fine. They are good layers and foragers.




The other was irritated at me and turned her butt to me in the box....no pic.

 

[Lufalcoa]

Thank you so much for the help! I have good news!!! The two survivors chickens are very healthy!

A week later the incident and her beak came back to normal position and she seems to be eating normally. I didn't gave her any medicine, because she seems to have had no pain (well, she wasn't complaining). I just feeded her very well and gave a little bit extra calcium mixed at her food.

I am looking foward to get other female chickens, I am just waiting they grow a little bit more.


I wish I could post pics from her (and her brother) but the internet connection it's not working out now, later I try again.

Luiza.

 

[Zondra]

Hey everyone.... I'm new to this site, just joined. We recently got a variety of chicks. When they weren't too old, our Americauna chick started to develop cross beak. I didn't know what it was called, and we tried several different things to try and fix it. As she grew, it got worse. This chicken, Ester, developed quite the personality. The attached photo was taken about a week before she perished.

Ester thought she was either a human or a dog. She liked to play with our German Shepherd. She would help me garden (and I would try to hand feed her worms - which didn't work)... She was so much smaller than the other chicks, and could squeeze out of the chicken coop wires easily - she used this to her advantage and was always coming out to be with the people, or the dog. We were worried that she would train the dog to hold the dog door open, and that we'd be sleeping at night and suddenly Ester would jump up onto our bed and want to snuggle. That didn't happen, but we wouldn't have been surprised if it did. It was amazing how much personality that little deformed chicken had. I didn't discover this thread until after she was gone. It's been good to read about other people's experiences with crossbeaked chickens. Anyway, I just wanted to share my favorite picture of Ester.