beak problem.

[bonwald]

I have a 10 day old chick whose beak doesn't fit together correctly. The lower beak stays over to one side and the top beak seems more rounded than it should be. Also the top beak is longer than the bottom. What should I do?

 

[buckabucka]

You have a cross-beak, -a genetic defect. Depending on how bad it is, the chick may or may not be able to survive. I had one cross-beak that lived 10 weeks, never really grew, and then died. I probably should have culled it early on. The second one, though, somehow manages to eat, and she is our favorite hen with big personality.
Some people trim their beak, and I read one post about someone who fixed theirs by taping it for a certain number of hours with long breaks for eating and drinking. You will have to watch it, as sometimes it gets worse.
Good luck!

 

[1 hen and 1 roo]

what kind of water system are you using with the chicks?
We have had this happen from using Rabbit Waterers in some of our coops. The chicks will peak at the waterer playing with it which must be like filing it I guess. We had to take those type water systems out of the brooder and young chick coops.
We did have a black Ameraucana chick we ordered on internet with normal chick water system get a twisted beak. It was the only one out of 27 chicks that had it. We culled it.
We had a d'Anver chick that hatched from our d'anver chickens we got from Missouri that had a twisted beak just a few weeks into it's life and had to cull it as well. The other 7 chicks were fine.
We have had older pullets and cockerels get the bottom beak growing faster than the top beak and had to trim the bottom so the top would go over it. The top naturally trims the bottom beak if it is over the bottom.

 

[maizy'smom]

My Sylvie, SLW, will be 14 weeks old tomorrow and has had a "wicked" cross-beak from about week 2. She is slightly smaller than her roommates, but she's actually at the top of the pecking order. We have made some accommodations so that she can thrive... we give her wet mash in a deep dish, so that she can get a bigger mouth-full, and in this hot weather, she enjoys a slice of cold watermelon. Since she isn't able to peck at leaves and grass when the other girls are foraging, I chop up some kale or other greens and mix them into the wet mash just for her. One side-effect of eating wet and sticky food is that Sylvie often needs to wiped down, if not bathed, since she ends up wearing her food. But in all other ways, Sylvie is doing just as well as her peers. She just won't be sitting for any cover-girl portraits, but that's okay by us.....she's our most interesting character.