How much should I be trying to get this crossbeak to eat daily? And can I train her to eat sideways?

[Peppercorngal]

I am definitely not more experienced than you are with cross beak. I appreciate everything you have already learned and especially that you have shared it. The videos were great.

So far my girl seems to be feeding herself fine. I had noticed she was smaller than her siblings, but I do get some size range in my flock, so hadn’t really paid much attention to her eating.

So here’s my question... I had assumed that cross beaks were genetic. But with as many as I have hatched from this group of birds, I do have varied genetics, but not having another like this, I have to wonder if maybe it is an incubation issue instead of genetics. Have you looked into what causes it?

(The other slight cross beak I mentioned was a serama cockerel. The pullet is a bantam cochin. No possible relation. And I’ve never had any other seramas with it. I have had overgrown beaks that required minimal trimming, but not crossed)

I have read that incubation temperatures and their position in the shell can cause crossbeak. The chick should have his/her head under the wing and if it's not that is a problem. Most naturally hatched chicks don't have crossbeak. ??

 

[mew317]

I’ve delt with scissor beak (or crossbeak) bantam B.B. Red rooster with retardedness. He/she will learn on its own. The rooster I had was named Digger, as he dug around. R.I.P Digger, *forgot* - 2017 or 2016. We then had a day old or so chick that died this spring that had a missing eye and a messed up skull that was a roo.

 

[Daily_Flosser]

No cataract, it's his protective eyelid pulled over because of the flash. I think it's called the nictatiting eyelid. If you zoom in you can see it's pulled from left to right as you look at the photo. He had no eye issues!

thats what it looked like to me too! mine does that when I take a picture too!

 

[casportpony]

No cataract, it's his protective eyelid pulled over because of the flash. I think it's called the nictatiting eyelid. If you zoom in you can see it's pulled from left to right as you look at the photo. He had no eye issues!

It's a great picture!

 

[vivaciouswoman]

How is she today?

I'll update shorty!

 

[casportpony]

I'll update shorty!

I hope she's okay.

 

[vivaciouswoman]

I am definitely not more experienced than you are with cross beak. I appreciate everything you have already learned and especially that you have shared it. The videos were great.

So far my girl seems to be feeding herself fine. I had noticed she was smaller than her siblings, but I do get some size range in my flock, so hadn’t really paid much attention to her eating.

So here’s my question... I had assumed that cross beaks were genetic. But with as many as I have hatched from this group of birds, I do have varied genetics, but not having another like this, I have to wonder if maybe it is an incubation issue instead of genetics. Have you looked into what causes it?

(The other slight cross beak I mentioned was a serama cockerel. The pullet is a bantam cochin. No possible relation. And I’ve never had any other seramas with it. I have had overgrown beaks that required minimal trimming, but not crossed)

I'm going to say that this baby had a double whammy: genetics and a problem in the incubation. Here's why:

One of my babies, Brownie, was horribly malpositioned (see original thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/help-humidity-all-wrong.1250863/page-10 ) and it may have been a pink egg that I thought was brown. I think it's highly likely that it was this Ameraucana/Easter Egger that I have with the deformed beak, serious heart murmur (even my untrained ear can hear the squishiness of her heartbeat). If it was her, she was born upside down relative to her air cell and with her head under the WRONG wing! I see no signs of anybody else in the group having any issues whatsoever, so I suspect this is that baby.

But being mostly Ameraucana, I suspect genetics, too. Ameraucanas are much more likely to have crossed (or scissor) beaks than most other common breeds.

Like you, I see people blaming both: genetics and incubation errors. I think they're both potential causes. For the sake of safety, however, I would say that a bird with significant amounts of Ameraucana in its lineage should be assumed to have genetic problems. Listen for heartbeat, watch for potential kidney or heart malfunctions, etc. If you have even one other issue that you can identify, consider the bird to be a genetic dead end and don't pass those genes along.

If you don't find any other health concerns--no heart or breathing problems, no sign of any other organ issues or bone deformities--then it's a judgment call. To be safe, I probably would err on the side of not passing on genetics, but if it's a boy that everyone loves, I don't know.

Unfortunately, Little Miss Crossbeak is growing some really long, pointy neck feathers that suggest that we may not have a MISS here but perhaps a MISTER. I don't know what we'll do if it's a he. I don't want this chicken's genetics passed along, but how do you have a roo with a good quality of life and ensure no passage of genetic material within a large flock? This may be our $1,000,000 question in the near future...

Oddly, he/she/it is not picked on by the sisters, brothers, and 8 Buff Orpingtons that I have in the run together. (I'll go with "she" for my signal to the Universe that I hope it's not a roo!!...) I go grab her, she runs right up to me, I put her back, and the other chicks check her out but do not pick on her. I imagine she can still peck pretty strongly forward with that top beak to protect herself.

 

[vivaciouswoman]

Let's hope this pastes well!

She's doing great! Here is the 10-day chart of Little Miss Crossbeak's weight gain and feeding amount. The first few days, I probably fed 5-8 times per day. Since she has reliably been able to take 15+ ml per feeding we are down to 4 (once only 3) feedings per day. She is supposed to be more than 500 g at this point--around 7 weeks old, so I'm going to keep filling her crop to capacity as often as possible until I get some serious muscle gain. However, I have to be out of town in a few weeks for work, and I'm WORRIED! I'll be gone for about 9 days on 2 trips. I don't know how this is going to work for her! Worried!!

 

[vivaciouswoman]

Okay, so here are the videos I put together for posterity. Feel free to use them, share them, critique them, whatever!

First, here is my recipe for the tube feeding solution:

Next, here is the tube feeding solution when blended along with a little further guidance:

Finally, here is how I tube feed Little Miss Cross Beak. Please excuse the poor video quality. All of this is done solo!!

For some reason, I can't go back and edit this post!! So I have a couple of updates:
1--Grit can be dangerous. There is ALWAYS the chance of aspiration, and grit won't do well in the airways! So I only give grit when I'm CERTAIN she has none in her crop (should be able to feel it when empty or nearly empty) and I'm CERTAIN the tube is well positioned and fully in her crop.

2--If I have hesitation that the feeding tube may not be correctly positioned, I pull it out and try again from the start. The two times that I was hesitant, my instincts were right, and we had aspiration. No, there's no Heimlich for chickens, so if there bird aspirates, we just have to pray/beg the Universe that it's not too much and the body can take care of it on its own.

3--Make sure you have a good poultry vet for emergencies, such as apiration. I've got my vet's email address, and he usually gets back to me within a few hours during waking hours.

4-If in doubt about what's going on, take a short video, upload it to YouTube, set it to Public, and post it here on BYC and ask for help at the same time that you email your vet!

 

[casportpony]

I can merge a copy of your post above to your first post.