My rooster has a cross beak problem.
We did not notice it when he was a baby, but as he grew older, the cross beak problem has gotten worse.
He will be a year old later this month, and I noticed that he had problems eating the little pieces of whole wheat bread that I was trying to hand feed him today. He just couldn't get it into his mouth, as much as he wanted to eat some of that bread. I pulled him away from the girls, so that I could try and feed him without their competition. I tried putting it on the ground for him to eat, and tried putting it into his mouth for him. But he just couldn't seem to eat it, and it was so frustrating for him. I really felt bad for my little guy.
He does seem to be able to eat his lady friend's layer pellets and chicken scratch out of open buckets or #10 cans, but sometimes has problems eating them out of the feeder strips (you know, the kind with holes in them for the chickens to eat through), unless the strip is full. We have started keeping an open #10 can filled with layer pellets, since he seems to do better with that than the feeder strips. And at treat (scratch) time, we keep the bucket topped off so that he can eat directly out of the bucket, instead of foraging scratch off of the coop floor like the others.
He's a member of our family, so culling is not an option.
But is there something we can do to make it easier for him to eat?
We did not notice it when he was a baby, but as he grew older, the cross beak problem has gotten worse.
He will be a year old later this month, and I noticed that he had problems eating the little pieces of whole wheat bread that I was trying to hand feed him today. He just couldn't get it into his mouth, as much as he wanted to eat some of that bread. I pulled him away from the girls, so that I could try and feed him without their competition. I tried putting it on the ground for him to eat, and tried putting it into his mouth for him. But he just couldn't seem to eat it, and it was so frustrating for him. I really felt bad for my little guy.
He does seem to be able to eat his lady friend's layer pellets and chicken scratch out of open buckets or #10 cans, but sometimes has problems eating them out of the feeder strips (you know, the kind with holes in them for the chickens to eat through), unless the strip is full. We have started keeping an open #10 can filled with layer pellets, since he seems to do better with that than the feeder strips. And at treat (scratch) time, we keep the bucket topped off so that he can eat directly out of the bucket, instead of foraging scratch off of the coop floor like the others.
He's a member of our family, so culling is not an option.
But is there something we can do to make it easier for him to eat?
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