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

[BullChick]

We have a chick we named hawk face, though the sex is unknown at the moment since it's only about 4 weeks old with a hooked beak. Both top and bottom appear to be aligned just fine however the chick can't completely close it's mouth. Any suggestions? It's growing the same rate as the rest it's age. ( it was peeping in this photo, the beak closes with a small gap between top and bottom)



h.

Omg! She is adorable!! I would give filing a try.

 

[Coralietg]

It's been a while since my last post, after the chick in my profile picture passed away. Found ourself with another crossbeak, an EE female. My youngest daughter has completely taken to her, so we're letting her do her thing for now. She eats from the top of the feeder, climbs right in. Seems to be drinking fine. Hopefully she stays healthy.

 

[BullChick]

It's been a while since my last post, after the chick in my profile picture passed away. Found ourself with another crossbeak, an EE female. My youngest daughter has completely taken to her, so we're letting her do her thing for now. She eats from the top of the feeder, climbs right in. Seems to be drinking fine. Hopefully she stays healthy.

 

[amydanielle]

This is my first time with baby chicks. I have a crossbeak. A friend sent me this support thread, and I am so grateful for it. Thank you so much. She is a banty d'uccle mille fleur from a hatchery. I bought her at the local feed store. I currently have six of these babies, two are looking like roos. Can't have roos here by ordinance, so I will be down to four hens in a bit. Nobody crowing yet!! I estimate this chick hatched about March 28th. I noticed the cross beak about three weeks later, became concerned about it about a week after that. She eats. She is the first one at the dishes. I put yogurt in there as well. I have started supplementing in the evenings with the recipe of chicken mash that was on here. Had a difficult time trying to supplement for a chick as I don't know what I am doing. What seems to be working right now is a 6 ml syringe with a catheter tip, bought from a local vet who doesn't feel comfortable with birds, but was kind enough to sell me the syringe. Last night she ate about 9 ml. Gross estimate as the process is very messy and it all doesn't go into her. Had lots of problems with clogging until this syringe seems to work. The information on here was for an adult chicken, and I am trying to adapt for a chick. How much should she be getting? Thanks so much for this thread. She is my profile picture. We call her Beaker. I saw someone else on here with a crossbeak named Beaker and it stuck...

 

[BullChick]

Chicks/chickens eat several times a day. She can probably eat on her own. A deeper dish will help her. If you are adding yogurt, or making mash, she should be fine on her own. If she is near the dish, she is hungry.
I hope I answered you. If not, I am sorry I misunderstood the question.

 

[amydanielle]

She is the first one to the dish, and she does eat. She is very much smaller than the others but I think the changes I have made have helped. She is hanging fine with the others, and they do not seem to be picking on her. For this reason I am loathe to remove her from her flock. I top off food several times a day, and she eats longer than the others for obvious reasons, but I was just worried that despite my efforts, she may still not be getting enough to eat because I really don't know what I am doing. I think I am lucky that she does in fact eat independently. So I have been supplementing in the evenings to top her off so I know that she is getting enough. I hope that my efforts are making a difference, but she does eat. Hurrah!

 

[BartolicsBroods]

This is puffy, I was wondering if she would be cross beak or something else. He has a large gap on the right side of her beak but the left side lines up perfectly. Also the points line up. Any help would be great! She used to be the same size as the other chicks born the same day, but is now slightly smaller. I watch her eat, she can peck and get food but she does have some fall out because of the gap.

 

[AlpineButterfly]

My crossbeak started out with the points lining up, but as they grew, they got off-set. I think my advice is to keep an eye on it, and start preparing for the possibility of filing it. Good luck!

 

[bantambury]

M

We have a chick we named hawk face, though the sex is unknown at the moment since it's only about 4 weeks old with a hooked beak. Both top and bottom appear to be aligned just fine however the chick can't completely close it's mouth. Any suggestions? It's growing the same rate as the rest it's age. ( it was peeping in this photo, the beak closes with a small gap between top and bottom) h.

my crossbeak baby girl now 5 months old, her beak is alot like that. She cant close it all the way and there is a gap but if i close it a bit it closes but che cant hold it that way. I think your baby is fine as long as it eats.

 

[sayga]

I couldn't read ALL the pages here. Is cross beak + one small eye a problem with how they were in the shell or a genetic issue? We have a cream legbar rooster chick who has a mild crossbeak and one small eye. I really wanted a blue egg layer! I am thinking of breeding him with one of my white egg layers but if it's a genetic issue, I don't want to breed him. If he just grew that way, then it should be fine. We can't have roosters so we will eat him once he starts crowing, but we should have a couple of weeks when he is fertile and mating before we have to cull him. Just trying to decide whether he is breedable or not (and I don't care that the chicks would be mutts; they are just for our own fun, eggs, and meat).