Off center beak

[mylittlehippie]

Has anyone ever had a chicken with an off center beak? I have a chick who for the last several weeks is eating and drinking fine but her beak is totally crooked. It almost looks like her top jaw is too long but she’s only a month old. And her bottom jaw is cocked out to the side. Any idea what caused this or what her prognosis might be.

 

[featheredplanets]

She has scissor beak. This can be caused by genetics, incubation issues or accidents. It may worsen as she gets older but a deep pan of food (sometimes moistened) can help, as can a deeper pan of water. There’s no treatment or fixing it but pretty much all scissor beaks lead normal happy chicken lives. Once she’s much older keep an eye on it as sometimes they don’t scrape them like normal beaks so they need filing or trimming, like you would a dog nail, just the tip. It would be a good idea not to breed from her, incase it’s genetic, as it will continue to be passed down.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Scissor beak is correct, and though I feed fermented feed in deep dishes regularly to my chicks ones with deformities this severe are rarely healthy in my experience. Every scissor beak I've had that was this severe this early just kept getting worse until the chick would be 10 weeks old and 1/3rd the size of its siblings because it could not eat properly.

But if they chick is growing normally it may be OK.

 

[mylittlehippie]

Thanks guys! In my 6 years of having chickens I had never seen this before. So far she’s growing at the same rate as the others but as you said I’m not sure that will continue. It does also seem like the top park might need some filing. I’ll keep an eye on her thanks so much