Cross Beak Chick-4 Weeks old-Advice Needed

[AlixClausen]

Hello All,
Hopefully I am posting in the correct place. This is my first time posting ever on BYC.

We adopted a 4 week old chick yesterday from someone who could not care for her due to her having cross beak. This is my first time having a chick, I have only ever had already mature hens, so I am doing my best to care for her and have done some research but would like some advice.

She seems to be eating, but I cannot tell 100%, she kinda looks like she is flinging food around. We have her in her very own hen house during the day with access to plenty of food and water. She seems to drink water very well. But I am concerned about her eating, is there a way to tell if she is not getting enough food? Because if she cannot feed herself, I don't want her to suffer. What signs should I look out for?


We are keeping her in the outdoor hen house during the day (in the shade) so it is not too hot, and during the evening we are bringing her inside the house because it's about 60 degrees at night and I read that was too cold for her.

I also added some electrolyte/vitamin mix to her water to help her out a bit to.

Can anyone offer me any advice on how to best care for this little chick? I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[TheFoxyChicken]

Sorry that you never received an answer on this. There are so many threads and not enough people to answer.
We have a girl that looks about the same. As long as she is putting on weight, she will be fine. The only down side to this is that her feathers will not be as pretty as the other birds. Because she will not be able to fix them with her beak as well. Her eating will be more like scarfing food down instead of pecking around. She will need bag feed more than free range food. Since she may not be able to cut off grass as well. But, otherwise there should be no reason she won't make a fine egg layer.