have a 3 wk old EE, that i didnt really notice a problem with until tonight. its top beak is ok but the bottom is pushed over to one side and looks a bit twisted. is this a deformity? or did it injure itself. it runs arround the cage, eats and drinks with the other chicks. i will get picts tomorrow. first my polish chick with its leg prob. and now this... not too pleased right now. they are eating medicated chick feed now and i am adding electrolytes to there water.
Yeah, it sounds like a cross beak, or crooked beak. You can do a search, many people have had this problem to varying degrees...including me. I first noticed when our EE was about 3-4 weeks that she needed "braces" like our son! It was a slight unalignment of beak top and bottom. Now, a year later, her bottom part of her beak is extremely crooked. She still lays wonderful green/blue eggs, eats well (is larger than her sister!) and generally acts like all the other chickens. She isn't able to enjoy seeds, etc as well. She eats best at a deep feeder we made from a 5 gallon bucket and a planter base. Some people have birds that loose weight, and eventually die. Hopefully yours will grow and do well. Best of luck!
Some are hatched with cross beak and some seem to "develop" it for some reason. I have one hatched out that way but it's a real bad deformity...head is kinda twisted and only has one eye. He/she is an ee as well but I just let him do his thing and he's thriving at 3 months old now. Since I don't know the gender I call it Charlie.
Here are the photos i promised. I just hope this one makes it. I got 5 EE's 2 chocolate ones"cocoa krispie" and Cocoa puff", 2 cream ones "oatmeal" "and other one doesn't have a name yet", and one chipmunk one that we named "safari"
We have the same problem with a dark cornish chick, - now 2 weeks old. It is pretty bad, even worse than your photos. The chick is slightly smaller than the others, but so far, it does manage to get some food in. It definitely has to spend more time at the feeder. I'm going to keep an eye on it, and if it stops growing or seems to be starving, we'll have to cull. I do hope it will survive, but am resisting the urge to hand-feed, as I certainly wouldn't want that to become a necessity. We put our chick feeder up on bricks, hoping that would help it to eat. Good luck with yours! Robin
I did the same thing last week. I put the feeder up on a brick. so it worked out nice. I have new babies coming tomorrow so I took out the quart feeder and put in the tray feeder. so the older birds can eat it easier. when i changed that today. cocoa krispie the one with the beak problem came over and sat in the middle of it to eat. so its doing ok for now. thanks everyone for your comments. you are all great.
This is a cross beak, or scissor beak, which is actually a jaw malformation, probably genetic, and prevalent in EE's but occurs in other breeds also. It is pretty pronounced at 3 weeks, will undoubtedly get worse as the chick gets older. This will make it extremely difficult for the chick to eat and drink, and will probably require a deep feeder that she can scoop the feed out, and some require hand feeding. Some folks trim the beaks, or have a veterinarian do it, if it is not severe and the bird can survive and do reasonably well. That has not been my experience. Don't get too attached, is my advice. Sorry!
