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

[BullChick]

C'mon. You know you will get her a bigger feeder! Cute pic. Thanks for sharing.

 

[SusanRenee]

Ha! Probably will... Or maybe her own dish on the wall...

 

[NewToFarming]

I think you will need to get her own feed tub! My youngest crossbeak jumps in the feed also. She yells and screams like it is a new found treasure every day! She is a mom to chicks now and keeps trying to call them into it with her but they are too little yet. LOL

 

[calisto2986]

I'm fairly new to this site, but when I saw this thread I just Had to read it. I'm shocked at how many others there are out there that have had a problem with cross beak! We first tried our hand at chickens last spring, and lo and behold we ended up with a little hen which we lovingly called "Crooked Beak". She was the cutest little thing, a Berg's Hatchery Brown, and like most of you have said of your own, had the best personality of the bunch. Despite her problems she was most definitely my favorite. You could tell she had trouble eating, so I made sure that I had the feed dishes very full for her as much as I could. She was very light, and knowing what I know now, it probably would have been the most humane thing to cull her but we just kept praying for a miracle. Anyway, we went away for a weekend and forgot to mention to the people who were watching them that they needed to make sure to top up the food every day for her. I went to check on them the morning after I got back, and she was sitting in the middle of the coop, listless, and hardly there at all. I feel so bad for my little crooked beak but we didn't the time to tube feed a special needs chicken had we known there was such a thing. We have three children, at that time they would have been 3, 2, and almost 1, so as it was I found it hard to keep up with the chores as it was lol. Just wish that it could have turned out differently.

 

[BullChick]

I (and everyone else, I am sure) am sorry about your poor baby.

 

[Nimby Chickens]

I now have another special-needs chicken. Her name is Claire, and she is almost totally blind.

She definitely had vision before, but the past couple months I noticed her running in circles in the yard, getting lost, and slowly not making it to the coop at night. She was also getting picked on, when before she had been pretty high up the pecking order. She has what looks like a cataract in her eye on one side, but her other eye is clear.

I take her to the water and take her to her food. She is a picky eater and no longer eats chicken food by itself. I make her a mash with eggs and such to try and fatten her up, because she lost a lot of weight before I noticed her condition. She hasn't laid an egg in months and seems to have almost constant diarrhea. I am working with her and trying to improve her health. She is now living with Bird and they keep each other company.

 

[NewToFarming]

I now have another special-needs chicken. Her name is Claire, and she is almost totally blind.

She definitely had vision before, but the past couple months I noticed her running in circles in the yard, getting lost, and slowly not making it to the coop at night. She was also getting picked on, when before she had been pretty high up the pecking order. She has what looks like a cataract in her eye on one side, but her other eye is clear.

I take her to the water and take her to her food. She is a picky eater and no longer eats chicken food by itself. I make her a mash with eggs and such to try and fatten her up, because she lost a lot of weight before I noticed her condition. She hasn't laid an egg in months and seems to have almost constant diarrhea. I am working with her and trying to improve her health. She is now living with Bird and they keep each other company.

I am sorry to hear about Claire. I had a blind silkie and I would always keep things the same for her and also would start her off at the same spot everyday which was the main feed & water station. I set up a couple of others in case she could find her way back to the main one but she did learn her way around. I also elevated the feed and water because it seemed she connected better with it better a bit higher than on the ground. She would not quite peck low enough to find the food as well being on the ground. I would suggest you develop some sort of call for her so she knows to stop and pay attention when you do it and/or try to find you as a just in case. For me, it was a certain way I said her name.

 

[kellysmall87]

So, is it not possible for the beak to be filed or cut at the vets? Or is the problem more than "cosmetic" i.e does the deformity affect the mouth, throat etc. Just interested.
This thread is very interesting and good on you for feeding your chicken via the tube route. That seems like it would take a lot of patience and time.

 

[FrankiesMom]

From what I understand, the crossed beak is a sign of a skull deformity. You can trim the beak as it grows to help out somewhat, but there is no 'fix'. Love 'em as they are!

We started out putting Frankie's food up high and in a deep bowl. We now find that is not enough...she was losing weight when she had been doing so well. So, now she comes out of the HUGE chicken yard twice a day for her own meal of crumbs, scratch and mashed peas (her fave!) with a bit of water added to make it easier for her. She's much happier these days!! (Oh, and she has learned to come to her name...she knows it usually means treats. lol)

 

[kellysmall87]

From what I understand, the crossed beak is a sign of a skull deformity. You can trim the beak as it grows to help out somewhat, but there is no 'fix'. Love 'em as they are!

We started out putting Frankie's food up high and in a deep bowl. We now find that is not enough...she was losing weight when she had been doing so well. So, now she comes out of the HUGE chicken yard twice a day for her own meal of crumbs, scratch and mashed peas (her fave!) with a bit of water added to make it easier for her. She's much happier these days!! (Oh, and she has learned to come to her name...she knows it usually means treats. lol)

They are beautifully special, there's no doubt about that. But maybe the chicken would prefer to eat as best as it can by having the beak trimmed, rather than a tube down the neck. You are doing an absolutely brilliant job, an absolute dedication to that gorgeous chicken.