Cross-beaked bird: Beak badly overgrown. Should I trim?

[clucks-r-us]

Cross-beaked hen, less than six months old. The beak is horribly overgrown. She weighs about 1/3 of the others out of the same clutch. Does well on feed. Should we trim her beak? if so, how? We trim our dog's nails with a Dremel tool...any suggestions welcome.

 

[onthespot]

I had one like that. It just kept getting worse and she died.

 

[WingingIt]

I have an EE with a crossed beak and I just trimmed her beak tonight. When she was smaller I used one of those metal emory boards and used the rougher side first then the smoother side. Now that she's bigger I use those dog toenail trimmers that have the hole that you put the nail (beak) thru and when you squeeze the handles the blades come together and cut it. I use a small flashlight first to see where the blood vessels are so I'm sure not to cut that far.

Mine's pretty bad, even with trimming it comes NO WHERE near even and straight but their feeder is deep enough that with it trimmed she can shove her beak down in there and get food - she sort of shoves her beak straight down and forces the food in that way, if that makes sense.

Right now she's the same size as our other EE that's her age so I'm just keeping on with this. If she gets to where she can't eat and lags way behind in size we'll cull her to spare her from starving to death.

 

[Judy]

Clucks, if your bird weighs 1/3 of the others, I strongly suspect she is not getting enough to eat. These birds typically need a deep dish of food to scoop from. Trimming often helps them eat better but they will still have a problem.

 

[fourfeathers]

Ditto to what Wingingit said on how to trim. Have some bloodstop on hand when you do it just in case. I have a roo with pretty bad crook beak, but he does well and is a hefty weight. I make sure that he has a deep bowl and will sometimes add a little water to make a mash since that can be easier to scoop. I never use a metal feeder or one with holes, they can break their beak on the metal ones. But, use a rubber feed bowl or pet crock bowl. I hand feed him treat like raisins because he can't pick them up. When trimming, take a little off at a time, use the light to see where quick is, and file. good luck.

 

[Attack Chicken]

I have 2 cross beak wyandottes that I had adopted. 1 is not as bad as the other.2nd one went to heck, she had wryneck when she was little and her beak is worse than the first due to improper incubation by school. I watch her weight and feed her plenty of treats and food by hand. I had not yet had to trim her beak.She can pick an ant off a sidewalk! It's truely a miracle that she's still alive.

These are the ones that will snatch your heart up