cross beak! help! :(

[chickengonewild]

my 4 week old chicken has cross beak bad. we noticed it when she was 1 week old but didnt think anything about it. it has gotten much worse. can anyone tell me if they think she will survive?

 

[MadabtChickens]

I got lots of help from this thread when I had a cross-beaked chick. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-for-special-needs-chickens-and-their-keepers

 

[red horse ranch]

my 4 week old chicken has cross beak bad. we noticed it when she was 1 week old but didnt think anything about it. it has gotten much worse. can anyone tell me if they think she will survive?

I've had several of them turn out that way. They will live for 2 - 4 months, slowly starving to death. It's so sad because they are usually the sweetest, friendliest ones of all.

 

[chickengonewild]

Thank you guys for your help/advice. We don't have the time to feed her through a feeding tub, and i surely don't want her to suffer.

If she dies in the box before i get home, will the other chickens eat her and turn into cannibals? I heard that could happen, just getting it clarified.

 

[red horse ranch]

Thank you guys for your help/advice. We don't have the time to feed her through a feeding tub, and i surely don't want her to suffer.

If she dies in the box before i get home, will the other chickens eat her and turn into cannibals? I heard that could happen, just getting it clarified.

The live chicks won't bother a dead one. Maybe grown chickens will bother a dead one but I've never had chicks do it.
The bad thing about a chick like that is that they are usually otherwise healthy. And they will live until they starve to death.

 

[Realtree4]

The live chicks won't bother a dead one. Maybe grown chickens will bother a dead one but I've never had chicks do it.
The bad thing about a chick like that is that they are usually otherwise healthy. And they will live until they starve to death.

X2

We had one like that and did end up culling it. Poor thing was using every once of energy to get food....I did have a seperate bowl for it, but it acted like it was starving 99% of the time. Then one day I noticed that the other chicks were starting to peck at it's exposed tongue and that was it for me. I didn't want it to live getting its tongue pecked by the others and I definitely didn't want it to starve to death.

Red Horse Ranch is correct that they are usually healthy and IMO, waiting for it to die from starvation isn't really the best way to watch them go. People will say that theirs died peacefully in their hands, but the harsh truth in that starvation is never peaceful.

That's just my 2 cents worth though.