Chick with short top beak.

[RubberChickenLubber]

I had to help one of my chicks out of the egg today. It zipped about an inch and stopped. I noticed the top of its beak was shorter than the bottom. I'm thinking it shouldn't be any worse than a debeaked chick. What do you think. I wanted to do pics, but the kids weren't cooperating, and then my batteries died.

 

[rooster-red]

As long as its not too short it should be like having a debeaked chicken.

 

[hooligan]

You can look up the special care for debeaked chickens on the net and it should give you some ideas on anything specific you need to do.

 

[patandchickens]

For debeaked chickens the main thing is to remember they can't pick up small objects off hard surfaces very well -- they need a deeper surface so the lower beak can 'plunge in' enough to let them grab the piece of food with the short top beak.

So I would think the main thing would be to make sure the chick has somewhere with a good deep layer of food to eat, not just single particles scattered on a paper towel or cardboard box (one food-particle deep).

Good luck,

Pat

 

[RubberChickenLubber]

i have one of the "trough" chick feeders with the holes and keep it full, so it has plenty of depth to use to grab. I don't think it's doing too well though. We'll see a little more in a few days.