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

[bruceh]

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

 

[kiana325]

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

Wow! That could be really interesting. Could you share more information?

 

[FrankiesMom]

I am very new to 'chickening' and I found in my new flock a young crossbeak my husband called 'Frankenbeak'. I felt the name might hurt her feeling, so it's Duchess Von Frankenbeak (Frankie for short), thank you very much. LOL

Frankie is a Austrolorp and is half the size of her five sisters (all sisters, we hope!), but manages quite well and is now approximately 8 weeks old. I say approximately because the lady I bought the six BA chicks from didn't have a clue how old they were, so I'm going by pictures and guessing.

Anyway, Frankie adores any human, but me in particular. She cuddles and purrs and coos and happily tells you all about her day and she is adored in return. She rides on my shoulder or on the front of the wheelbarrow when I'm gardening. If I or someone else is sitting down, she'll fly up to your lap for a cuddle and she always dives into the bowl of food I put in the 'teenager' coop every night.

Thanks to this forum, I may help Frankie to not just survive, but thrive by giving her a mash meal and, if it comes to it, tube feeding. Her cross is quite severe and I will now also see if I can clip it back a bit for her.
We may not have her around long, but we'll make sure she has a great life while she's here!

 

[Zrcalo]

To get rid of chicken lice there's a spray in petstores for cockatiels and parrots I use called "lice-away". It kills them instantly and the next day the chickens were clear. I've used it many times. highly reccomend it.

 

[Ldeal]

i recommend it too, my EE Rose got really sick and wouldn't preen herself so i used that and it worked great, she also made a full recovery.

 

[Nimby Chickens]

I just wanted to let everyone know that Bird is doing awesome and has been laying eggs for a couple months now! Her eggs are HUGE!

Glad to hear everyone's stories. Let us know if anyone needs advice or help, and keep us updated!

 

[Panth]

One of my new Polish chicks ended up having a pretty severe crossbeak. Spaz is just over 3 weeks old now. I'm not sure how much actual chick starter he is getting on his own, but I have had really good luck so far with wholewheat bread soaked in yogurt (I mix in other things on a regular basis, like ground up chick starter, eggs, mashed veggies, or oatmeal). By using the stringy bread as a base, he is able to grab the glob and tilt his head back and suck it down. I do have to hold the bread in order for him to do it though, he isn't able to pick much up on his own. He does seem to have plenty of energy, even though I work fulltime and can only feed him 3 times a day. He will fly out of the brooder and across the room to me whenever I walk thru the door. Ugh, and he is teaching all the other chicks that flying out of the brooder gets you yogurt

. I did end up having to trim his beak last week. He bled pretty badly, so be really careful if you try this...but he is eating much much easier now, so it really did help.

 

[Shianne]

I am glad I found this forum. =) We have a 10 week old Golden Laced Polish chick who has crossbeak. Didn't even know that's what she had, I thought something had happened to her. She seems to be in good health right now and now I have information if I need to step in and start helping her. Love all the stories on here and pictures, and so sorry to those who have lost theirs.

 

[kilby]

Your a good Mom. Keep smilin' and the world smiles with you. So true eh!

5 comet/red stars, 3 dogs, 4 lovebirds, two cats, one parrot.

I feed 'em yogurt too, homemade, because I think they love it.
To get more nutrition though in a small beak you might sprout some organic grain and then blitz it with a blender and sprinkle on top of yogurt. Sprouted grain has 100X the nutrients of dry grains. Sprouting flax though is hard to do. Grounding flax easy. Buy organic though.

 

[LilChickyCoop]

Hi, I'm glad I found this post about needy chicks and chickens. I new at this I just got my Chickie's 10 days ago and 1 has a deformed leg or I guess I should say foot that turns under. I didn't notice it at first but right after I put them into their cage, I tuned around to put the water in the cage and the other chicks were dragging her around the cage by her leg. Still not knowing she was lame I quickly rescued her from them and that's when I noticed her leg. The first thing I did was to put her in box by herself so the other chicks would not peck at her and hurt her. Then I fashioned a splint out of a narrow flat type ice cream stick. I wrap ed that with stretchy medical tape so her little foot would not slip on it. Then I place her foot on it and wrapped the tape around it loosely making sure it would not slip off in anyway. So far so good. I left it on for 3 days the first time and looked at it and it had helped some. So I redid the process again, hopefully she will regain some control over her foot. She can walk with it like it is but she hobbles around on it. I'm sure she will live, my husband named her Geraldine and positive she will be spoiled. I just want her foot to straighten enough so the other check ens don't peck on her.