Diary of a Crossbeak: Support for Special Needs Chickens and their Keepers

[Nimby Chickens]

I will start by saying that I wasn't sure where this thread should go, and chose this sub-forum because I wanted to make a thread for chickens with genetic issues and I felt it did not belong in Emergencies, Diseases, Injuries, and Cures since it was none of those things.

Any sort of special needs chicken is more than welcome here. I would like for this thread to become a wealth of information for owners of these animals, a line of support for those not sure what to do, and a place to share pictures and be proud of our special chooks. They may not be the prettiest birds but they more than make up for it in personality.

Let me begin by introducing my feathery dog, Bird.



Bird began her life at a hatchery and it was sheer luck that I found her at our feed store. She had made it past the cull squad with a severe crossbeak and a crater where her eye should have been. I saw her, felt intense pity for her, and offered to buy her. They said if I bought a normal one, I could have her for free. I agreed and went home with two black stars who would eventually be named Sally Sweet and Bird.





While Sally grew up normally, recognizing that she was, in fact, a chicken who liked to do chicken things, Bird has none of these notions. Bird likes to consider herself people. She doesn't like being outside, doesn't like other chickens, and is pretty convinced she needs to live in the house with the other people. She follows me around and if I am going inside, she ninjas her way in with more deftness than my cats.

Having both Bird and her direct hatchmate has given me an interesting look at what Bird would have been, and is a way to see just how far behind she is. Her deformity, in the beginning, only made it hard for her to eat, but now it is very close to impossible. I tube feed her these days, and I want to be able to teach others how easy it is to do this.

Bird is shockingly smart as well. For a chicken with a slightly-smooshed-in-the-egg skull, she is insanely bright. This is a picture of her after she snuck onto the porch with the singular intention of jumping into the food bag and cutting out the middle man. I found her like this, gleefully flinging food around in the bag and pecking haphazardly into its depths.



Her personality and antics have made her by far my favorite chicken, and I love her very much. She is unique, talkative, smart, hilarious, and so worth all the work I put into taking care of her- and honestly it is not that much.

So if you are on the fence about whether or not to cull your chicken with a deformity, we would be more than happy to help you out here.

 

[Nimby Chickens]

Awww, your gals are so cute. They look really good! I love the way they were eating yogurt, you could almost hear the 'numnumnumnum' sounds.

Earlier you asked for a tube-feeding tutorial, and I'm here to deliver!

TUBE FEEDING TUTORIAL

First, you will need supplies.


Pictured: olive oil, 20-ml syringe, feeding tube (it's in the olive oil), and Polyvisol.

The feeding tube can be bought from a vet (that is where I got mine) just make sure you mention chicken size. Mine was $3.00. The tube is also known as a red rubber tube and come in sizes called French (Fr.). Most standard sized chickens are probably going to be about a 10 or 14 Fr. Also, the larger the diameter of the tube you can get, the less likely you are going to have to deal with clogs.

The vet gave me the syringes as well for free (no needles to go with them obviously, just the syringe) and the rest can be bought at the store. The bigger the syringe, the better since you don't have to draw up more often. If you can get a 35cc syringe most women with average sized hands find these easiest to work with. Most vets would be able to get you a 60cc syringe, but unless you have large hands these are a real pain when they are full and you're pushing the food through. If possible, many people find catheter tip syringes easier to use with a red rubber tube. The 20cc syringe shown in the tutorial is a leur-lock syringe, leur-lock syringes have threading at the tip that helps hold needles in place. It doesn't do much for a red rubber tube but will work if you have nothing else.

I use the oil to grease the feeding tube and also the plunger on the syringe to make it go down smoother.

Blending the Food

I use a cheap, Walmart blender that cost maybe $13. If you have a nicer blender, that will work too! The only important thing is that it have a liquefy setting or something similar. Do not use a food processor as in my experience they do not work for this.

I use a different mixture depending on what I have handy, but generally here is what I put in:

chicken crumbles
very hot water
yogurt or heavy whipping cream
mayonnaise
olive oil

I then blend the bejesus out of this mixture, leaving it on liquefy for 5 minutes and adding hot water if it is too thick, and then blending some more. The blender is your friend. You want the end result to be a velvety-smooth goop that will flow easily through the syringe. However, you will get clogs no matter what you do. I advise NOT trying to force it because I did once and the tube popped off and I squirted goo all over my poor fiancee. Just pull the plunger back and forth until it frees up, or if it is really bad, disconnect it from the tube, poke a needle through the tip to see if the clog is there, and try again.


Velvety goop! (I dropped poly-vi-sol on top so I could make sure she gets some in her.)

Inserting the Tube

I need my fiancee' to help out at this point. It's very hard to insert the feeding tube alone. So grab a buddy, wrap your chook in a towel or shirt, and have them hold your chickeny friend like this:



Holding them like this, they can't escape and your buddy can feel the feeding tube going down into the crop. The first few times you will be terrified of getting it in the wrong hole, but after a while you will be a pro. Another tip, make sure the chicken's neck is extended. Chickens and other birds have a sort of S shaped neck when they are holding it naturally, and this can make it more difficult to pass the tube. If you look at the pictures in you can see that my fiancee has Bird's neck extended so that it is more or less straight for the feeding.



You want to aim the feeding tube down the LEFT side of the chicken's mouth if you are facing her. The crop goes off to the chicken's right side. You can feel the crop and jiggle the feeding tube to be sure it's in the right place. When you are sure it's down the right hole, attach the syringe to the feeding tube and fill your chicken with goo! Do not overfeed or you'll have a chicken squirting food out of her mouth.

Important note: Don't force the tube! It should slide down the esophagus into the crop smoothly and without resistance, especially if you are using olive oil to lubricate. If you have to force it, you're in the wrong place and you need to pull out and try again. If you stay to the right side of the mouth/throat (your left if you are facing the chicken while doing this) then it should slide in easy and you'll be fine. Red rubber tubes are a very safe way to tube feed. Some people also use metal gavage tubes, but these can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing because they can cause tears to the crop if force is used, the red rubber tube doesn't have enough substance to it to cause the crop to rupture unless you are using what will obviously be too much force.

Bird fights a little because I think the feeding tube feels weird and a little uncomfortable, but she settles down after a while. She is able to take 6 1/2 syringes full from the 20 ml syringes I have.

I would like to thank AinaWGSD for her contribution to this tutorial and Bird for being patient while I took pictures.

 

[NV Gunter]

Hi, I'm new here. I've been reading here for the last few days and when I found this thread I knew that I had to get an account.
I'm not usually one to post things, but I just had to say thank you for starting this thread. I had a cross beak EE, Dottie, a couple of years back. When she was brought home, her beak was almost normal. As she grew up it became progressively worse. When I went to the local feed store, their “Chicken Lady” told me that all I had to do was feed her out of a deep dish bowl. I stared doing that, but the other girls would push her off the bowl. So I started feeding her by sitting on the walk way and holding a blue dixie cup full of food instead. That worked well for her. I don't think she ever gave an egg and she was always under weight, but she had the best personality of all the girls. The second winter that I had her she died. I know now that she was probably malnourished and I wish that I would have had some of the advice here to help her out. So again, thank you.



So now for a funny story about why the color of the dixie cup was important in the above story. Dottie knew what color her cup was. You could walk around with any color of cup in the backyard, except blue. I'm not sure how much color chickens see, but she knew her cup one way or another.
One of the blue cups had escaped and was lying in the middle of the yard. I was standing in the kitchen watching the girls out the window when the guys who mow my lawn showed up. It was like slow motion, he bent down to pick up the cup and Dottie saw it. She came as fast as her little legs could carry her from across the yard and started doing “that” chicken jump at him. You know the one. The one that's all wings and chattering. Anyway the poor guy, it scared the heck out of him and he was yelling, “Oh my God! Oh my God!” at the top of his lungs . The other guys that were working with him were laughing and I was running out of the back door yelling “Drop the cup! Drop the cup!”. When he stopped yelling to take a breath and heard me yelling, he threw the cup a few feet away and she she followed it to where it landed. When she figured out that it was empty she came over to me for her for her treats. I always keep a bowl of scratch by the back door and had grabbed it on the run out. I apologized to the guy, but I don't think that he believed me because I was laughing so hard. It was funny as all get out. This story does not do it justice.
Sorry, that was kind of long winded, but I couldn't resist sharing that story about my cross beak. By no means was she stupid and because of all the hand feeding she was vary tame. My mother used to tease me that she was my “lap chicken”. So again, thank you for posting this thread to help promote awareness that you don't always have to euthanize a cross break chicken.

 

[robinwiththechickens]

I am so, so glad you started this thread! I am subscribing and am anticipating lots of great advice. My 2 cross-beakers Britney and Lindsay have been with me about 6-weeks now, and I love them already!

Britney Spears:



Lindsay Lohan:



Here is a video of them enjoying some yogurt.


This is the only treat I have found so far that they can eat. They really seem to like it, but they sure do make a mess!

 

[bruceh]

i was with a vet today. we are working on a artficial beak for chickens that have cross beak ..

 

[Nimby Chickens]

This is Bird's house at night. I keep her inside when it is cold so she doesn't waste calories staying warm.

I zip-tied an empty yogurt cup in there so she can have food whenever she wants even though she doesn't get much when she tries. I keep it topped off.

 

[BirdyMe]

It's so great reading stories of people helping birds that need some extra TLC! All of the pictures of these birds are just gorgeous!

I searched for picture of my old EE crossbeaker, but couldn't find one. But here's this years special needs baby:



His name is Thaddeus. He's two weeks old now, and he's doing fine. He's the sweetest of the lot!

 

[artsyrobin]

i am laughing at that! oh my! yes, i think you are right, i wonder if adding nutrients to their water- extra things will help? thank you for sharing her!

Hi, I'm new here. I've been reading here for the last few days and when I found this thread I knew that I had to get an account.
I'm not usually one to post things, but I just had to say thank you for starting this thread. I had a cross beak EE, Dottie, a couple of years back. When she was brought home, her beak was almost normal. As she grew up it became progressively worse. When I went to the local feed store, their “Chicken Lady” told me that all I had to do was feed her out of a deep dish bowl. I stared doing that, but the other girls would push her off the bowl. So I started feeding her by sitting on the walk way and holding a blue dixie cup full of food instead. That worked well for her. I don't think she ever gave an egg and she was always under weight, but she had the best personality of all the girls. The second winter that I had her she died. I know now that she was probably malnourished and I wish that I would have had some of the advice here to help her out. So again, thank you.



So now for a funny story about why the color of the dixie cup was important in the above story. Dottie knew what color her cup was. You could walk around with any color of cup in the backyard, except blue. I'm not sure how much color chickens see, but she knew her cup one way or another.
One of the blue cups had escaped and was lying in the middle of the yard. I was standing in the kitchen watching the girls out the window when the guys who mow my lawn showed up. It was like slow motion, he bent down to pick up the cup and Dottie saw it. She came as fast as her little legs could carry her from across the yard and started doing “that” chicken jump at him. You know the one. The one that's all wings and chattering. Anyway the poor guy, it scared the heck out of him and he was yelling, “Oh my God! Oh my God!” at the top of his lungs . The other guys that were working with him were laughing and I was running out of the back door yelling “Drop the cup! Drop the cup!”. When he stopped yelling to take a breath and heard me yelling, he threw the cup a few feet away and she she followed it to where it landed. When she figured out that it was empty she came over to me for her for her treats. I always keep a bowl of scratch by the back door and had grabbed it on the run out. I apologized to the guy, but I don't think that he believed me because I was laughing so hard. It was funny as all get out. This story does not do it justice.
Sorry, that was kind of long winded, but I couldn't resist sharing that story about my cross beak. By no means was she stupid and because of all the hand feeding she was vary tame. My mother used to tease me that she was my “lap chicken”. So again, thank you for posting this thread to help promote awareness that you don't always have to euthanize a cross break chicken.

 

[ReikiStar]

It's so nice to see so many people trying to give cross-beaks a chance at a good life. We are the proud parents of an EE roo cross-beak who is a year old. He regularly spars with our Spitzhauben roo and even plays house. The Spitz shows my EE a good place to "nest" and the EE obliges by going to see this wonderful spot and making the same noise. They live with another rooster in a bachelor pad.

Col. Brandon (our EE cross-beak) gets his beak filed once a week, top and bottom. We use a Pedipaws style tool since it's quicker and easier on all of us. It literally takes 20 seconds or less a week to maintain his beak. His top beak is off to the side and grew down ward, I believe from all the pecking he did, he re-modeled how the top beak grew. I wish I could get it shorter, but it is what it is. He eats Scratch & Peck organic feed which are whole grains. He pecks at his food and kind of tosses the grains into his mouth. He also uses his tongue to capture the grains and take then into his mouth that way. He is a little thinner than the others, but he's strong, healthy and happy. We keep their feed bowl filled deeply with this feed. The worst is when he claws at it, trying to scratch it out of the bowl. No matter how many times I tell him, he doesn't understand he can't pick it up off the ground.

Just wanted to share what kind of feed works for us. Brandon was having none of that "mush" stuff, so it's a good thing he can manage with the whole grains. We also mix in chick grit so that he's getting some into his crop to break down the food.

The other roosters let him eat and when he comes in for his weekly "beakicure", we feed him until he's got a large golf ball sized crop. He can pick up pieces of bread and break some off. I also know there is no way he would have survived if we hadn't begun maintaining his beak when he was little and continue to do so. I think most of these birds need regular trimming to keep the beak short enough so that its somewhat useable.

The cross-beak is a genetic mutation that is actually a deformity of the skull. Some of us are fortunate that the birds have reached maturity and are able to feed themselves. But other birds, either their cross beak will continue to grow too severely to eat or the skull crushes in on the brain and can cause death and dysfunction that way. It's purely a judgement call on whether the beak is too severe to work with.

From my travels, I've noticed the cross-beak mutation happens in EE's and silkies more often than any other breeds.

 

[Panth]

I wouldn't worry too much about him, Puddin. If he was going to have problems, he probably already would. My main flock rooster has a slightly twisted head much like yours and he is a year and a half old and never had any issues. He is mostly free range.

Thought I would post a pic of the "ugliest" chick ever: my man Spaz, he is going through Chick-a-saurus stages right now so he is even funnier looking, but seems to be pretty healthy and feisty. He is pretty messy when he eats.