Debeaked Chickens-Please Help Me!

[Lunachick]

Hi ChooksinIowa, thank you for rescuing her. She looks like my Pearl, same beak too. Your girl should eat fine because her beak top and bottom are even, so she can easily pick up food. The other hen I have has a "shovel" beak, her bottom beak is longer than the top part, and she struggles a little bit more for food. But she is also the "boss chicken" and even she does very well.

Just make sure her food and water dished are deep enough for her to plow into.

Extra goodies won't hurt either.

Good luck with your new bird, she looks sweet.

 

[marymac]

hi. I'm still learning here. What is the purpose in de beaking?

 

[simba49450]

those poor chickens, yes debeaking is very cruel but yet people do it cause they say it hurts when they peck them (yeah right pthh). some never recover, you may have to like hand feed them and they can be your special needs babies, which there is nothing wrong with that. i personally feel it should be out lawed. try making the food a very lite touch of soupiness it may help, good think on your part of the grit in the mix. keep us posted. and good luck

 

[ChooksinIowa]

Marymac - I've also read that some people de-beak in order to prevent cannibalism in chicks. Sometimes they can be extremely aggressive with each other and even kill and eat each other. I think, however, even in that situation, the debeaking is not as brutal as what was done to Rosie.

She did fine with the cut up grapes and cottage cheese this morning, and seems to be doing OK with the chick crumbles. I want to try and get some weight on her because she is so desperately skinny and bony. I hope the chick crumbles are higher fat/protein maybe? One thing that is funny with her, compared to my others, is watching how she uses her tongue. She almost looks like a snake. She is constantly sticking out her tongue and it is long and pointy! She uses it in the food dish like a scoop thing.

She also seemed to love the dust bath bowl of sand that I gave her. She was really getting going on that this morning. She needs it because her poor feathers are pretty grubby underneath and she seems to be moulting (or maybe just losing feathers due to being so underfed/undernourished).

I just love her to bits, so will do my best for her.
Claire

 

[needmorechickens!]

This is probably a dumb question, but do their beaks not ever grow back?
~Rebecca

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
I agreee totally with Miss Prissy here (others too). Crumbles are better than pellets, mine couldn't eat the pellets. I like her recipes. I was also tricking mine by taking yogurt and a bit of oatmeal, and more crumbles to make mush. She didn't realize she was eating the healthy food, LOL. I went thru several feeders, the last one I had realized that she looked like she was eating but was not getting any feed. I finally switched to a wide deep bowl standing in a 9 x 12 x 2 roasting pan to collect the mess. She ate for 2 hrs straight. Also, add some olive oil or fat or margerine for calories. Try to give her some time alone with the feed or mash. Let her pig out. If she's free ranging, she might be spending too much time trying to get too little food.

Sorry, I meant both your girls.

 

[JennsPeeps]

needmorechickens! :

This is probably a dumb question, but do their beaks not ever grow back?

It's like the difference between trimming your fingernails and cutting off the nail bed.

Chickens' beaks do continue to grow over the length of their lives. They're able to keep them trimmed on their own through pecking at dirt & wiping their beaks on things. My little cochin with a twisted beak does need to have her beak filed and trimmed, just like a dog's claws sometimes need to be addressed if they're not walking on surfaces that wear the claw down naturally. I only take off the very tip of her beak (maybe 1-2mm), which allows her to eat/drink better. It will eventually grow back and I'll have to do it again.

When a chicken is debeaked, the beak is cut past the point where it regenerates itself. It's like if your nail bed were cut off. You'd still have a finger but the nail wouldn't grow.​

 

[hoosierhen]

God Bless you for helping her.

 

[ChooksinIowa]

Well, I just got home from work and checked on Red Rosie. I had her out in my arms for about 20 minutes. She is certainly losing a lot of feathers and her skin or something seems flakey. She left all these white flakes on me. Maybe feather bits? I don't know if that is molting (I only got my first chickens a month ago) or if that's a problem of some other sort. She seemed more active today than yesterday. She snuggled up to me a bit and tried to bite my earring, which made me laugh. She has really different feather colors depending on where they are on her body. She must be some kind of crazy mix. I ruffled her feathers all over and kind of gave her a gentle scrub with my fingertips. She leaned into me for that and really seemed to like it. She has been using the dust bath also. I'm going to fix her cottage cheese mixed with a little oatmeal, olive oil, cut grapes, and chick crumbles for her evening special snack. She appears to have eaten some of the chick crumbles through the day. She also definitely drank her water.

I'm really pleased with how she seemed this evening so I take that as a good sign.
Claire

 

[JennsPeeps]

Well done, Claire! It sounds like you've got a great addition to your family there.