Cross beak

[Jay262]

I noticed one of my silkies now at 6 months seems to have a crossed beak. Is this something they develop due to the beak being to long because i never noticed it up until a couple days ago and i do a fair bit of up close handling of my birds. A better question if they develop it can i trim it to fix it? She doesnt seem to have a problem eating or drinking but is noticable smaller then the others. In trimming how far back should i trim it?

 

[chicmom]

Usually, it's something they're born with.....Could she have gotten her beak stuck somewhere and sort of jarred it crooked?

 

[Jay262]

Not that i know of but anything is possible i guess. I will try to get a pic later. Is it something i can fix by trimming though. Should i cull her at this point? If i breed her in the future will this trait be passed onto off spring?

 

[donnaboydjones]

One of my chicks was a cross beak and I never noticed it until she was about 4 months old . I have a friend whos a vet tech and she would come over and dremel the beak cause as my hen got older the worse it got. After each sanding down, it would get worse the next time. The last time she wasn't able to sand it down at all because it immediately started to bleed. I talked to the vet about surgically removing some of her beek, but was told that the chances of her even surving the surgery weren't good. I had to make the hardest decision and let her go. My sweet girl was 8mths old and followed me every where. I'm sure it's because I hand feed her. I have read many posts where others cross beaks have survived and are able to thrive. I pray yours ends up the same.