Cross beak chick

[Ursuline Chick]

Just read this thread, and was sorry to hear you had to go through this. Thank you for sharing, it must have been hard to do, but has helped others with this same problem.

 

[CzyChikenMath]

Just read this thread, and was sorry to hear you had to go through this. Thank you for sharing, it must have been hard to do, but has helped others with this same problem.

Thank was kind of you. TU Ursuline chick

 

[Rachel TW]

Hi
I'm new to the whole chicken raising thing, and my Americana has a severe cross bill. It's gotten worse since she was hatched. She is now about 8 weeks and still somehow surviving. I would like to help her as much as I can. I read someone pushed theirs back into line then taped the beak for 2 days and it worked. Do you think I can do the same here? Or will I hurt her? I love her dearly and I am willing to hand feed if necessary. So if that's the case, is there some kind of recipe to make a stew for chickens that I can use a dropper and keep her sustained? Thanks so much. I'm a mess about this

Hi Lindsay,
Could you please provide an update on your cross beak chicken? How is she eating and has she made it? Did you hand feed? I am struggling with my 4 mo old Americauna cross beak chick whose beak is more severe than most of the pictures I see online. She just has a really hard time getting food in her mouth (despite separation from the others several times a day for feeding in a very large dish). She's unfortunately a picky eater too and refuses to eat anything besides her dry crumble (no wet crumble, no oatmeal mash, etc.). I am doing all that I can and am perfectly happy to continue to give her extra care every day but want her to have the best quality of life possible. Despite what many others are saying online about crossbeaks not being proper chickens, she still behaves like a happy chicken, scratching around and exploring, getting excited about new things and attention, snuggling with her sisters and rooster. She is bright eyed and endlessly curious, just like all the others. She does not appear to be suffering although she's very skinny and always very hungry. As long as she continues to have a zest for life, I won't give up on her. Any advice you can give is greatly appreciated.

 

[Amiloo928]

I’ve just read through this thread and I wanted to share some encouraging info for those of you with Cross Beak Birds.

This is Tardis, my Crossbeak baby. She is almost 4 years old.

For about 3 years, she laid fairly consistently (3-4 per week). Her eggs were abnormally large, and often misshapen, but she laid well enough. We got her when she was about 2.5 years old, from a lady whose farm was going under. It’s hard to see in this photo, but a tiny part of her upper beak actually crosses below the lower one when she isn’t eating. She has figured out how to adjust and tap the tips together for pecking, but doesn’t always do it. I think it’s hard for her, like one of us intentionally shifting our jaw sideways to eat. She has always been smaller than all of our othe hens, and when you pick her up she barely weighs anything at all comparatively. But, she is healthy, and happy, and is certainly not at the bottom of the pecking order (which I honestly don’t see as a problem unless she were being severely bullied, somebody has to be at the bottom!). When she was young, the lady who raised her used to mix crumble into yogurt for her, which made it easier for her to scoop up and she ate very well. Now, we only give yogurt as an occassinal treat, and she eats the layer crumble just fine on her own. She is definitely a pet now, and she knows it. She comes running at the sound of her name, follows me around, and pecks at my legs until I pick her up. She LOVES to be carried around the yard. The only trouble she has had more than the other girls is that she tends to get mites worse than they do, but it’s easily manageable with a dust bath and DE.

Tardis has such an incredibly sweet disposition, and I largely attribute it to the extra attention she got due to the crossbeak.

I hope this encourages some of you with crossbeak babies to give them a chance and invest the time into them if you can. In our experience, it has paid off. She would never be breeding stock, but she has brought so much happiness to our flock and our family, as well as the family that had her before us.

 

[Rachel TW]

I’ve just read through this thread and I wanted to share some encouraging info for those of you with Cross Beak Birds.

This is Tardis, my Crossbeak baby. She is almost 4 years old.
View attachment 1510788

Thanks so much for sharing your story. Super encouraging for those of us who are struggling with our special chicks.