I have a 10-day old EE chick with a slight crossbeak. Should I be concerned?

[DawnB]

It's so slight that I just noticed it a couple of days ago. I've been watching her and she eats, drinks well and has been growing along with the others.

My question is will this get more dramatic as she gets older/bigger? Is there anything that I should be on the lookout for?

PS...I'll try to get a pic of her, but she won't stand still and I'll need a 2nd set of hands to hold her and take the pic...look for it later tonight.


Thanks,
Dawn

 

[kellysmall87]

Some cross beaks are so severe that the chicken has to either be syringe fed its whole life or put down, but it sounds like yours will be fine. It shouldn't change drastically as it gets older, but just keep an eye on her eating from time to time to make sure shes not having trouble.

 

[DawnB]

Thanks Kelly, I've seen some of those pics of the really severe ones. She's nothing like that. My biggest question was would it become more pronounced as she gets bigger. We'll keep an eye on her. She's actually one of the more curious and active chicks (she gets into EVERYTHING!

)

 

[kellysmall87]

Aww it sounds like shes really developing nicely. I dont *think* that it would get more severe as she grows.I hope someone else can help you out with more information. One thing you could try t do is to find someone who started a cross beak thread, and PM them to see how they go on and to see if they have anymore information that could give you the answers you need. x

 

[gimmie birdies]

I had a cross beak before a roo, he grew up and ate okay.

 

[hokankai]

I had one about your's age that DID get worse as it grew. It was something wrong with the facial bone itself, and as the chick grew it just got worse and worse. I had to put it down at 10 weeks.

Hopefully yours is not one of those cases. Just keep an eye on it and see if it gets worse as the chick gets bigger.

 

[hsvchick]

I have a crossbeak chicken. Hers did get progressively worse until around 4 months. A vet advised me to watch and see if she continued to "act" healthy and if so then not to worry. Her's is quite bad and I did find that keeping an open top on the feeder allowed her to perch on top of it and "scoop" her food. She is not able to "peck" anything as the beak doesn't meet at all. She is now one year and doing just fine. She is my friendliest, sweetest chicken and although she is much thinner than the other chickens, she is just as active and lays daily! Her name is Sweetpea and she certainly is one! She is an Americauna. Good luck on yours! I'm not sure I would be inclined to keep one if it had to be hand fed but I wouldn't give up as long as she is able to "scoop" her food and seems well. Crossbeak is in the back; not sure you can see the beak well.

 

[DawnB]

Everything about the rest of the shape of her head looks OK...but I'm no expert. She also has the cheek tufts of the EE's, so it may be distorting it some. Thanks for the heads-up tho...I will definitely keep an eye on her as she grows.

 

[cafarmgirl]

I had one in my last batch that I noticed at about 3 weeks of age, it was very slight and disappeared as she grew. Completely normal now.