chick with crossed beak...need answers

[Indiana hens]

It is funny because I have been in your shoes and I still have the hen and she is not productive.

She will never be a fat hen.

Oh and of coarse she is very friendly from all the special attention. The alternative is to offer her up for free. Any takers?

 

[mypicklebird]

They all start mild- if you can see it in a young chick, it will progress. These birds need close monitoring and weekly to monthly beak care, if allowed to live. They do get worse, and generally they cannot eat enough to survive long term.

It makes me so sad to read about birds with cross beak/scissor beak ect that are skinny and small and die young, as most of these birds live a life of constant hunger and probably end up starving to death. Just because a bird is at the feeder and acts like it is eating or is trying to eat- does not mean it is meeting it's needs. It has to work so hard to get every piece of food, as it can neither pick up food nor move it backwards normally with it's tongue. For all of you with skinny or young scissor beak birds- pick them up at night time after it has gone to roost- does it have a full crop? If not- your bird is slowly starving. Or confine the bird and look to see if the food is disappearing or just getting pushed around + are the feces large or small? If your bird makes it to 2 years old with no special care, I stand corrected, but if your bird is stunted or skinnny and dies before 2, it likely slowly starved to death.
In the hands of most (but of course not all) people with back yard flocks, the average scissor beak bird needs more care than we can provide to survive with a decent quality of live. I would cull any poultry with scissor beak, unless you are very very serious about monitoring this bird and properly caring for it (ie beak care, special feeding, and weekly wt checks).

 

[RockyToggRanch]

Why is there no corrective process? No brace or anything. Has anyone ever tried bracing the beak in alignment when the chick is small?

 

[princess araucana]

With a very skinny/ starving bird, would canned cat food be a good idea for nutrient dense food?

Good words of advice mypicklebird

 

[chickenpiedpiper]

Quote:
Last spring, we got a cross beak polish chick, who was growing and seemed healthy. When it looked like the beak was really getting crossed, I called our vet, who is one of those rare and wonderful vets who likes his job, and chickens! He is also an exotics vet, and saw our little chick as an opportunity to flex his skills in practice for some overpriced parrot.

So, to make a long story short, he tried 3 different cutting edge high tech proceedures on our little 'roly', but none of them 'took'. He tried a brace like thing that kept the beak aligned, as well as building up one side of the beak to keep things where they needed to be. Everything possible was tried in the name of experience and learning. Sadly. nothing worked.

So, we learned a valuable and sad lesson. In a home, where Roly could have been a house chicken with special foods and treatment, she may have lived a good life, but in our situation, and with the extremity of her deformity, (it was not a mild case!) she really didnt have a great outlook, so she was humanely euthanized.

However, Our Vet did try, and there is possible solutions available, but they are really pricey! His wife told me that if we had been paying him for these proceedures, it would have been close to $1000.00!! We dont have that in our budget for ourselves, nevermind our beloved critters! Sheesh!

Evaluate each birds situation, some crossbeak is mild. Examine how far you personally can go in the extra care and food department, and let 'quality of life' be a determining factor, if you can. Some birds do well despite it, chickens are tough. But as a previous poster said, a life of constant hunger or starvation when surrounded by plenty is not a good quality of life.

Good Luck to you, and good job for not just 'culling it'.

 

[midoris]

We have a cross beaked hen who's a year old. We've never done anything special for her, she lives and eats with the other chickens without a problem. She has foot deformaties as well, and we considered culling her early on but decided to wait and see. I'd never breed her, and she looks goofy as heck, but in our situation she's no burden. Heck I have plenty of days when I look goofy as heck too!

 

[cluckychick]

I hatched a cross beak out of my very first batch of chicks. It wasn't that bad but got worse as it grew. I culled at about 2 weeks, I felt sorry for it and thought "I'd never wanna live like that"

 

[MoodyChicken]

He'll probably grow out of it in time, especially if it's minor. They don't usually get worse.

 

[RockyToggRanch]

Quote:
Thank you.

That gives me hope. I'll make sure he keeps eating and drinking.

 

[rebecca10782]

We have a girl with a crossed beak, she has never had any trouble eating because with have the food and water six inches of the ground. We bring her grapes and oatmeal and she has no trouble at all eating. Her beak is very very crossed. It has never overgrown, I am guessing because they are free range during the day and she probably wears the tip down by foraging. There is absolutely no reason to kill a chicken with a deformity as long as they are not suffering, they just need a little more love and attention.