Hook beak & weight okay????

[Fpaul]

I have 3 different breed-4 week old chicks. One has quite a hook beak. I was going to wait to file it down when she got older, but when I weighed them, she was less. She does eat albeit probably not efficiently. Is her weight alright for her breed? She I be concerned that her growth is being stunted?
Starcrunch (Green Queen) @ 186 grams

Moonpie (black Austraulorp) @ 233 grams

Twinkie (EE) @ 273 grams

 

[NatJ]

Is her weight alright for her breed? She I be concerned that her growth is being stunted?

I don't know what weight is right for her.

You can gently feel her crop-- it should feel partly full during the day, and quite full shortly before she goes to sleep for the night.

You can also watch her behavior. It is normal for baby chicks to run around actively, eat and drink, and take lots of naps. If her sleeping and activity are about the same as the other chicks, she is probably fine. But if she sleeps a lot more and is a lot less active, then she is probably not getting enough to eat.

I have 3 different breed-4 week old chicks. One has quite a hook beak. I was going to wait to file it down when she got older, but when I weighed them, she was less. She does eat albeit probably not efficiently.

You could try filing her upper beak a bit. You can also clip the very tip off with nail clippers (like you'd use on a person), and then file the corners a little bit. Of course you only want to remove the end of the beak, not further up where there are nerves and blood vessels inside, and you may need to watch out for her tongue as well.

You could try offering wet food (chick starter + water), to see if that encourages her to eat more. (Don't let it sit around long enough to spoil, but it is safe for chicks to eat as much wet food as they want, just like they can have as much dry feed and as much water as they want.)

If you put a glop of wet food on a large stone, she will probably wipe her beak on the stone between bites (to clean it), and that may file her beak a little bit too. It won't shorten her beak enough to make a big difference, but it also won't stress the chick and might help a little.

 

[Fpaul]

I don't know what weight is right for her.

You can gently feel her crop-- it should feel partly full during the day, and quite full shortly before she goes to sleep for the night.

Yea she’s so active! She’s even competing with my EE to be the top chick! I’ll definitely check her crop and also try some wet food!
Since she’s acting fine I won’t worry about it too much. But I’ll definitely keep an eye on her.

 

[NatJ]

Yea she’s so active! She’s even competing with my EE to be the top chick! I’ll definitely check her crop and also try some wet food!
Since she’s acting fine I won’t worry about it too much. But I’ll definitely keep an eye on her.

Sounds good!