crooked beak

[chicken+quail=luv]

my hen has a crooked beak. i mean, the lower jaw doesn't match up with the upper jaw. when we were hatching her and her siblings, we had the incubator in a bathroom. my sister was taking a shower, and the temperature rose about 5 degrees f. could her beak be a result of this temperature?

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Did she hatch with a crooked beak or did it develop a couple of weeks later? If she hatched with it, then it's an incubation problem (most likely, sometimes also due to damage during shipping). If it developed later then it's a genetic problem.

 

[Chickenfortress]

I've had this too, but in hatchery birds. I don't think it's anything you've done, it just occurs. Crossbeak is hard on the bird. My EE seemed to be doing fine with it, but over a week, she lost most of her weight due to an inability to eat, and died. I have seen others post that their crossbeak birds did fine. It looked to me like the maxilla on one side just didn't get the signal to grow with the rest of the bird, and the other sides continued growth pushed the jaw to the side. Anyway, while it's uncommon, it occurs naturally. Theres nothing that can be done to correct it. You may well have to decide if the deformity is serious enough that you have to cull the bird to save it from a long drawn out death. In my birds case, I couldn't even tell that it had a problem until it was seriously malnourished because the feathers hid its weight loss. Here's hoping yours turns out not too serious.

 

[chicken+quail=luv]

we noticed it a couple weeks after she hatched, so it was probably a genetic problem. and also, it's VERY crooked, but she seems to be doing fine, even though she's a LOT lighter than my younger hen. thanks for the help!

 

[CUDA]

Scissored beaks are a genetic defect. They get culled on my yard.

 

[mypicklebird]

*chicken+quail=luv* :

we noticed it a couple weeks after she hatched, so it was probably a genetic problem. and also, it's VERY crooked, but she seems to be doing fine, even though she's a LOT lighter than my younger hen. thanks for the help!

trauma can also cause scissor beak- if the growing part gets damaged, it will grow crooked. often is it genetic.

if she is lighter than a younger bird, and she is not a banty being compared to a standard- she is probably slowly starving to death

a quick way to check to see if she is eating well is to check on her at night- chickens fill their crops before going to bed. compare her crop to another bird(s) at the same time after dark. if hers is empty or small compared to everyone elses, she is slowly starving to death.

untreated scissor beak is a sad sad thing- they are hungry but cannot pick up food though they can still drink. they LOOK like they are eating because they are always at the food and flinging it around and pecking (though they don't get much in). the upper beak over grows and forces the lower beak to the side and eventually dislocates the jaw joint. if addressed early, and trimmed aggressively and regularly, you may be able to keep her ability to eat. putting food in a deeper dish and experimenting with food particle size or texture may help- but if you cannot do this for her- and she cannot meet her calorie needs (ie not growing or thin) you should humanely end her life. being hungry all the time and being surrounded by food you cannot eat is, well, cruel. It takes many weeks to starve to death, or longer if she occasionally can get a bite in.​

 

[luvmychicknkids]

I have had two hatch with this problem. One lived about two weeks, the other died immediately after hatching. They were both also missing the eye on the side the top beak pointed toward. Anyway, the one that lived, I now know, slowly starved.

I THOUGHT she was eating but I watched the others grow and she didn't. I thought maybe she was just smaller, thought her defects were holding her back developmentally. One day she just died. I feel horrible every time I think of what I let her go through.

 

[FarmerDenise]

It depends on the severity of the crossed beak and on how much effort you can put into the bird. I had one who had only a slightly deformed beak and managed well. She was a little smaller than her sister, but even started laying before our whole flock was killed by a dog.
The following spring (last year) I got new chicks and ended up with one that had a severe scissor beak. She had been attacked first by her foster mother hen, then by a Blue Jay. I kept her in the house and took her outside only when someone could watch her, since the older hens always picked on her. She became my special buddy, but it also was a lot of work. For a long time she was able to feed herself, but finally I ended up feeding her with a tube. This was not something I could have done, if I had an outside job to go to. I also was unable to go anywhere unless I brought my "pet chicken" with me.

 

[CUDA]

The scissored beak is a lack of bone structure on one side of the head, which allows the muscle that works the lower beak become overly contracted because there is no bone to keep it from doing so. This is what pulls the lower beak off to the side, and why it gets worse over time. Sometimes it shows up right away, sometimes it takes a few weeks to show up, but it is a genetic defect.

 

[luvmychicknkids]

Quote:
Do you think that is why the two I had were also lacking an eye? Perhaps because the part of the skull with the eye socket was also missing? Just curious, I have often wondered what the connection could be.