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

[BullChick]

Am I too attached to my chickens? My husband just made a nasty comment about Cadbury being a funny looking mother. He defended it by saying, "well, with that cross beak!!"
I am very upset.

 

[AlpineButterfly]

Am I too attached to my chickens? My husband just made a nasty comment about Cadbury being a funny looking mother. He defended it by saying, "well, with that cross beak!!"
I am very upset.

I'm sorry your husband made an upsetting comment. I can understand being attached to your chickens.

I love my chickens, and I miss them every day when I am at work. And even though my little frizzle, Violet, has a cross-beak, I still think she is so pretty!

 

[DavidILoveYou22]

Hello. Today I was at the feed store, and I saw a one-eyed crossbeaked Ameraucana chick... and I brought her home. She seems to be doing well so far, she has eaten by herself, and drank once. We have also fed and watered her by syringe. She seems to be doing well so far, but I haven't had a crossbeak before so I basically have no idea what I am doing.

Here she is: https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/a/6332005/default/

Is there anything special I should know about her care?

 

[artsyrobin]

what i have done with mine is offer food in a deep dish, and i make it wet, about the consistancy of cookie dough, she is a sweet little one! Just monitor her, might need to periodically clean her beak as it gets pretty messy when they eat-

 

[DavidILoveYou22]

OK. Right now she is eating food out of a pretty deep jam jar, and I am occasionally feeding her with a syringe. The food in the jar is just really crushed up, fine, dry feed right now, but I just put some water and feed in the blender to make some wet, mushy stuff. I am going to go replace it now with the blended stuff. She doesn't seem to know how to drink by herself, I keep trying to show her but she will only take water from a syringe. She is very lively though, and seems quite happy.

 

[artsyrobin]

if you are feeding her chick crumbles, you should be able to just wet it, also, one of the problems with syringing food, its easy to do it wrong and strangle them- my little one does fine scooping the food up and oddly, if she is trying to get somewhere she can't quite reach, she uses that beak like a parrot

 

[DavidILoveYou22]

I would be feeding her chick crumbles, except that I ran out, so she is on pelleted 20% meat bird grower which I have to crush up every time I feed. It seems to be working but I need to buy some crumbles soon.

I don't really use the syringe much anymore, at least not its actual use, I just sort of scoop some food onto the tip, and push it onto her beak. She did really well when I fed her this evening, and even pecked at the syringe!

 

[AlpineButterfly]

A pedi-paws, like ramirezframing said. I have a shop dremel I use on the lowest settings and it does the same thing. Just a more powerful tool. I have had success with large, heavy grit nail files, also. I have been able to find them anywhere from the dollar store to Walmart. Just have to go to the nail and beauty and look for them, typically in a bucket or a flat package on the racks. Just go slow and shape it. You can see some parts of the beak that are kind of see-through-ish. It's hard to explain, but it's easier once you really get working on them. You will see a line of growth and then a more solid end where it forms the quick. Kind of like a nail where you have the growth and then the part that attaches to the finger. Just gently trim away with the file or dremel until you get that excess growth off. If you are using a dremel, you often will get a tiny drop of blood if you are still learning where the quick is. If you nick them, just shape and round it down but don't take it back any further.

You should be able to see on the sides of the beak where it has a bit more growth. It's like shaping a lid for a tea kettle! You just need to gently shave off what you can so that the beak seats correctly. My crossbeak's face wont seat correctly. I take down the sides as best as I can so it has a more solid fit. I am hoping, eventually, if I keep at it that the beak will either stay the same so he can still eat/drink OR get a bit better with grow out. We'll see. If I can, I may try to do a picture guide! Just hard to do that and hold a chicken at the same time, lol!

I took Violet to the vet to get her beak trimmed the first time. Tonight I started filing it on my own... it went ok, but I am so worried about hurting her! I guess I will get better at it with practice. I would love to see your picture guide, if you ever get a chance to do it. I thought about trying to get someone to take pictures of Violet before and after, but didn't get to it today. Maybe next time. How often do you end up filing your chicken's beak?

 

[DavidILoveYou22]

Just wanted to update on Alone but not Afraid, now nicknamed "Dancer." She is doing great, and I am hand feeding her five-six times per day. She is HUGE! I think she will be massive when she grows up. Her only problem is that she is getting her food EVERYWHERE when I feed, since the mash I am currently feeding her is the consistency of pudding. It ends up all over her face, her feet, the floor, my face, my arms... everywhere. I even had to give her a bath today because she was so icky and paper towels weren't working anymore. Any suggestions on how to cut down on the mess?

 

[BullChick]

Just wanted to update on Alone but not Afraid, now nicknamed "Dancer." She is doing great, and I am hand feeding her five-six times per day. She is HUGE! I think she will be massive when she grows up. Her only problem is that she is getting her food EVERYWHERE when I feed, since the mash I am currently feeding her is the consistency of pudding. It ends up all over her face, her feet, the floor, my face, my arms... everywhere. I even had to give her a bath today because she was so icky and paper towels weren't working anymore. Any suggestions on how to cut down on the mess?

Thicker feed.