2 Week Old Chick w/ Misaligned Beak (pic)

[dwczerr]

Hello,

I am new to the forum, and to raising chickens but my wife and I have read tons of information and had everything in place to raise our 16 chicks. We've had the girls for just over two weeks and everyone is healthy and happy, but 1 of our 2 Araucana chicks has developed a misaligned beak and it is causing some concern. We first noticed it when she was about a week old, and it seems to have become more misaligned within the past few days. It does not seem to be impacting her ability to eat, drink, or preen - in fact she is the largest of the 16 chicks and is quite active and inquisitive.

From my point of view it seems as though the tip of the upper beak that curves downward is getting in the way of the lower beak and causing the misalignment. If you press on the lower beak it takes very little pressure to push it back into alignment, but it won't stay. We took her to a vet today that deals with birds, but she seemed fairly unsure of the situation and provided my wife with no real direction or action, though she did say she would get in touch with someone more knowledgeable on poultry and get back to us.

We need to know what the long term impacts of this might be, will it get worse and impact her ability to eat and drink? Is there a way to correct this? Can the upper beak be gently trimmed or filed for a better fit? Any other thoughts or ideas? I've included (hopefully) two of the clearest and most recent pictures that show the problem that were taken this evening.

Thanks a bunch! David

 

[Loveshisbirds]

HI there i had a Roo that was like that when he was a chick he could eat fine when he got older we just trimmed his up beak alittle its very easy and safe if her eating slows down i would consider doing it sooner.

 

[mlheran]

That's something that's happened to me recently as well (https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2127).

From what I've learned since, it's a fairly common genetic defect in the Ameraucanas. The top beak is not actually pushing/splaying it out in as much as the lower beak is structurally flawed. Trimming the top (but not the bottom!) can help, but I've found that my chick keeps her top pretty worn down because of the deep-scooping action needed when she eats.

If you are keeping these chickens for breeding you'd definitely need to exclude her (or cull, in the extreme). But from what I've read on the above thread, she'll lead a nearly normal life otherwise!

 

[Busmom129]

I also have a chick just over 2 weeks old with the same situation. The older she gets the more the bottom seems to misalign. but she is eating, drinknig, and preening, and socializing. she is the smallest so I worry about her. can anyone please tell me how to trim her beak? will it hurt her? any help is greatly appreciated.