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

[Durty B]

I am glad to have come across this posting. My man went to our local silkie breeder to get me a few babies ( trying to get out of the dog house) and came home with a cute but severely cross beaked babe. I'm not sure if we can do much for it but now we feel optimistic after reading y'all post. wish us luck!

 

[artsyrobin]

glad you have her! i am new to crossbeaks, but from what i have read, deep dish with wet mash helps- my little gertie seems to be eating fine that way, i did trim the bottom beak a little, had to be care not to catch his tongue- just watch to make sure yours is eating and keep us posted!

 

[kiana325]

Hello Everyone! I joined just for this thread too. I had wanted chickens for years now, but it wasn't until a friend fell for a chick at the local farm store that I finally brought them home. I came home with 5 chicks, 2 NH Reds, and 3 EE on the 26th of March. I've learned so much in the last month! I'm a sucker for a lost cause. Always have been. Without knowing any better I picked the baby with the crossed beak. It wasn't bad at first. My family had an amazon parrot for years with a crossed beak that did just fine. I loved that bird so much and the little chick reminded me of him. The parrot had come to us with the name Doc. For the most part I just called him Bird or Doc Bird, so thought it fitting that the cross beak be Doc Chicken. Initially Doc ate, drank, and grew with the rest of the babies. However, after a week or so it became clear that her beak was getting progressively worse, my research started. As the others overtook her in the growth department I wondered if I was going to have to make a hard decision. I've read information here, talked to the vet, talked to folks I know that have chickens, contacted Blue Seal about nutrition information. At first I was feeding a horrible mixture of baby food and yogurt and my chicken was failing. When I found this thread with the information about tube feeding I took out the blender and changed my approach. Within a couple days of getting the chick starter mix out of the blender Doc was looking much better. I hand fed her with a syringe for a couple weeks. It was a slow, messy process. It took her time to learn how to eat and me time to learn how to feed her. For the last couple weeks now she has been eating on her own. She could manage to get some of the dry Blue Seal chick starter down as well when the bowl was full, but the moist mix is still easiest for her. I bought Poulin crumbles over the weekend and those crumbles are too big. I'm going to try feeding her what I put dry through the blender tomorrow though. She is still much smaller than everyone else and I know nutrition is always going to be a problem, but she is growing, has feathered out beautifully, and seems to act like a chicken... or a dog.

Last week I threw my back out. There were a couple days when I could hardly walk. Doc adapted quickly and learned to fly up onto my arm to get to her meals, as I couldn't bend down to get her. I would then walk the both of us over to the front porch and set her and her food cup on the raised porch. It was adorable all last week. Well this past Tuesday I had a job fair I was going to. I had to get all dressed up, black skirt, heels, the works! Spent the morning working on resumes and cover letters and was all set to go by mid afternoon. Doc was trolling the porch before I left, so I figured I'd bring her some lunch as I went out the door. Well, I open the door resumes and chicken food in hand and she runs across the porch and flies at me! Chicken food and feathers fly everywhere! I think I tried to be mad for a minute before bursting out laughing. I have chicken food all over the front of my skirt and across the deck. Poor Doc has none left in her bowl and is looking up at me with a look that plainly says "well what did you do that for?" I'm nothing if not flexible, so I return to the house, take off the skirt, rinse it off in the shower, throw it in the dryer for 20 minutes, feed Doc again, and am back out the door, this time no chicken food. Luckily the job fair was a good 4 hours long. I still had plenty of time. Waiting for an interview a bunch of the other folks were chatting about the reasons they came a little later "I had a dentist appointment" or "I waited to pick my kid up from school". I couldn't bring myself to admit I had been attacked by my own chicken!

Thanks so much for the great thread and the laughs and support it has brought me. Doc thanks you too. She's only been with me a few weeks and she is already got a special spot in my heart. I hope I can do right by her.


Baby Doc


What's Up Doc?


Happily eating her soup on her own!

 

[bantyshanty]

I want to thank everyone who has spent time & effort posting their stories on this thread so far. It really means a lot to me. I've never had a cross-beaked chick/chicken.... But, I've nursed and am nursing chickens with all sorts of other abnormalities. There are always a few inside our house who have special needs. Lately it is the beautiful blind Polish/Cochin mix I got from a swap meet who really can't find her food at all, and the partially paralyzed EE who's super affectionate, and loves being fed scrambled eggs, and the tiny Serama hen with wacky hormones that don't tell her to brood her own eggs but make her frequently act like she's got phantom chicks to protect & feed. I can't have her around other chickens --she attacks them & she's only 9 oz. Many other sick or wounded chicks have gotten up to an hour of my time a day, and I've loved every moment with them. These special animals come into our lives to open our hearts more & teach us about other kinds of wisdom.

 

[artsyrobin]

i havwe discovered with gertie, who is oblivious to her crossbeak, that chopped boiled egg is the best consistancy to eat, and she taught me today, never open the door without watching where she is- she is my shadow and went out the door with me! i hope we have a long time with her...

 

[Ldeal]

Its awesome to see a posting for cross beaked chicks. I had one named Hollie whom we adored. We saw her in with all her hatch mates at the feed store and just fell in love with her little beak. The owners of the feed store I go to are so nice and let us have her. So we brought her and Chichi our SLW home. At first her beak wasn't a huge problem just a little funny looking.
http://i50.tinypic.com/iptph2.jpg

Then as she got older it got harder for her to eat like Chichi. So we started hand feeding and getting ideas about how to make her as happy as she could be. She was one of the sweetest girls i had. Would follow my every move and always be right there when I came home. We finally figured out that she could eat perfectly fine if her food was mash and boy did she eat it up.
http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u428/ldeal540/hollie.jpg

Hollie went to live a very happy life with our other hens and her adoptive mommy dog. Our 5 year old mutt Noodle would always clean her after every meal and Hollie loved it. Then one day we started our day off like any other day. Hollie had her mash, got cleaned, tried to peck around with the other girls and we went off to work. Later that day when we came home we realized Hollie wasn't there waiting for us at the gate. So we went looking for our special girl. Sadly we found her under her favorite bush looking like she was sleeping. We still are unsure why Hollie passed away being as active and healthy as she was but with the Cross beak condition you really don't know what else could be going wrong inside. We had Her for an awesome 7 months and I would do it again in a heart beat. Don't ever give up on your little special chicks. They may have a deformity but they are still full of life.
http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u428/ldeal540/fun017.jpg

 

[artsyrobin]

i need some ideas on feeding, he doesn't seem to be getting a full crop, what more can i give him to bulk up his nutrition, at first hee ate the wet mash, but now he seems to be getting pickier...

 

[yoie]

This is my little cross beak girl, she is also missing one of her eyes (actually most of the right side of her face). Her name is Borg, she is a Buff Rock. She is living in the Silkie chick pen, they look to her like a mother hen. Even though they are all the same age. She does pretty well, just has to concentrate on the feeder before going for it, I don't think she has the best depth perception with just having the one eye. She is a piggie though and pushes the Silkies out of the way to gorge herself

 

[AnimalCrazed]

How will her beak grow? my EE is 6 weeks old and has this really slight cross beak. any opinions on how this will end up?

 

[artsyrobin]

i a in a dilemma with gertie..... he obviously isn't eating well, have tried various ways to feed him, he is eating very little, lethargic- i really don't think he will make it long....we need a miracle with him