Chick has a gnarled beak & no comb

[- Serama Mama -]

Hello everyone!

I did my best to search here and on Google for any answers but I came up empty so I'm hoping perhaps some of you more knowledgeable folks on BYC might know something! I have a 3 week old Polish Crested chick (*strong suspicions that she is a hen) who seems to not have a comb coming in at all. Her beak actually comes back downward somewhat and the nostrils look kind of gnarly... meanwhile we haven't seen the slightest hint of a comb coming in. Here's some photos I have taken of her (*her name is Maja by the way):

I've read that sometimes pea combs can be barely noticeable but even my friend who keeps chickens herself said I should probably post on here and see if anyone else knew what was going on. Her beak's shape doesn't seem to match any of the other chickens and there doesn't seem to be even the slightest hint of comb growing in; just beak and nostrils. She is an otherwise happy, healthy 3 week old chick; she eats and drinks just fine, runs around, peeps loudly, and even tends to the 1 week old Serama chicks as if they were her own. So whatever is going on, I don't think it's affecting her quality of life.

I'm just hoping someone could tell me whether it's just a very slow growing comb or if it's a weird congenital defect or something else that I may not have considered. Any advice or answers would be much appreciated! Thank you so much for reading

 

[Oncoming Storm]

My crested polish has a v comb but honestly her waddles are more noticeable than her comb. I’m not sure what exactly this is. Perhaps it is extremely slow growth and one day she’ll just pop out a comb. But my polish has a very small comb and she’s going on a year old now. I have to dig through her fluff to find it.

 

[- Serama Mama -]

My crested polish has a v comb but honestly her waddles are more noticeable than her comb. I’m not sure what exactly this is. Perhaps it is extremely slow growth and one day she’ll just pop out a comb. But my polish has a very small comb and she’s going on a year old now. I have to dig through her fluff to find it.

Thank you for responding! I'd seen another post on here from someone who had a similar question and most of the advice seemed to be, "it's just growing in slowly and will likely be a very small comb". Once we noticed this, I assumed she'd probably just have a very small comb but it's also the shape of the beak that's concerning me; there's almost negative space where the comb should be! Like someone just took a chunk out where it would normally grow. Even my grandfather, when he first saw her, asked if she "had a hole in her head"

Hopefully it's just something similar to yours, where she's just not going to have much of one at all. Whatever is going on there doesn't seem to be affecting her day to day activities so I guess I'll just keep an eye on it and hope for the best.