Crossed Beak?? Some questions

[Rare Feathers Farm]

So my mottled houdan bantam rooster (the only one I have) started to develop a crossed-beak last week. It's slowly gotten worse. He did not hatch with it and he's about 3-4 months old (hatched this spring). I e-mailed the guy I got the eggs from (paid almost $80 for 6+) and so far, have not received any repsonse. My white houdans from the same dude are doing fine...so far.

So since this happened later in life, is this genetic?

Is it curable? Preventable?

Caused by diet?

I have them on Purina Sun-Fresh Chick Starter (it is medicated). They also have free-choice grit.

They also get lots of greens & grasshoppers to eat every day...this houdan is in with all of my others hatched earlier this year as well as the ones hatched last month (one LB & one BA). In addition, about once a week, I boil up all of the eggs that didn't sell & mash them up (shells & all and feed them back to the chickens).

None of my other birds in that pen or any other pen are having this issue.

The last crossed beak chick I had (LB) hatched that way (last summer from shipped eggs) & despite my best efforts, died about 2 weeks later.

Oh and I did use my Dremel tool to try to shave off a little bit of the twisted part last night. He seems to be eating/drinking okay, still but I am still worried.

 

[Freckle Face Farm]

Not sure what exactly causes it but I have a silkie with acrossed beak he is almost 10 months old he eat and drinks fine..I will always keep him when I go outside he follows me everywhere I go its so cute...

 

[robin416]

The scientific community is looking at genetics. The reason they are looking at genetics is if they breed two birds they know were produced from cross beak birds the majority of the peeps hatched will be cross beaked. Mortality is very high for those peeps.

If the cross beak is bred with a bird with out the gene the incidence of cross beak goes down quite a bit.

 

[racuda]

My 5 week old cross-beak Silkie died today. It became noticeable after 4 or 5 days and got steadily worse. From now on, if I have another cross-beak I will cull it as soon as I can.

 

[pips&peeps]

Most of the cross beak chicks we see are not genetic. They just happen.

Indidences where the beak is shorter on the top or bottom are genetic.

 

[robin416]

This is verbatim from Genetics of the Fowl:

The most common kind of crooked beak in older chickens is probably that which develops between 3 and 8 weeks of age in chicks which were normal at hatching. The lower beak is unaffected except that, since it is not used for pecking, the end is not worn down as much as in normal fowls and one side is worn more than the other. At maturity the tip tend to curl downward. In the skulls of affected birds there is a marked asymmetry of the maxillae, nasal, and pre-maxillae, which is probably responsible for the condition of the beak.

Genetics. This type of crooked beak is hereditary, but the manifestation of the character is so irregular that a definite genetic basis for it is as yet unknown. In extensive studies by Landauer the condition was clearly recessive to the normal, but no Mendelian ratios were observed. Some matings of normal parents produced only a single cross beak in 21, 30 and 48 chicks. From four matings of cross beaked birds inter se the ratio was 91 normal: 53 cross beaked. Apparently only a small proportion of the birds homozygous for crooked beak are visibly affected.

The only other comments concerning cross beak involved what they call a non genetic condition that is purely an accident. It then goes on to relate that the problem is rarely seen because the embryos die near the end of incubation.

 

[pips&peeps]

The most common kind of crooked beak in older chickens is probably that which develops between 3 and 8 weeks of age in chicks which were normal at hatching. The lower beak is unaffected except that, since it is not used for pecking, the end is not worn down as much as in normal fowls and one side is worn more than the other. At maturity the tip tend to curl downward. In the skulls of affected birds there is a marked asymmetry of the maxillae, nasal, and pre-maxillae, which is probably responsible for the condition of the beak.

You forgot a paragraph, now we are talking about a different type of condition:

Birds with the upper beak straight but much shortened are sometimes found in families showing crooked beaks, and the two forms are probably genetially identical.

Then it goes on to this:

Genetics. This type of crooked beak is hereditary, but the manifestation of the character is so irregular that a definite genetic basis for it is as yet unknown. In extensive studies by Landauer the condition was clearly recessive to the normal, but no Mendelian ratios were observed. Some matings of normal parents produced only a single cross beak in 21, 30 and 48 chicks. From four matings of cross beaked birds inter se the ratio was 91 normal: 53 cross beaked. Apparently only a small proportion of the birds homozygous for crooked beak are visibly affected.​