I need a loving home for a cross beak chick

Date sort Score sort
Kissmygrits

Kissmygrits

In the Brooder
6 Years
Jun 5, 2013
33
0
22
Wake Forest, NC
I'm in need of a loving home for a cross beak chick that was in a box of other chick someone gave us. She/he is about 2-4 weeks old and is a Mottled D'uccle. I have a heat lamp & I have been feeding with a dropper but he/she is still screaming all the time. I'm scared that he/she is not getting enough and I don't have the heart to put it down, especially if it had a chance. Thank you for looking. I can email a picture if you are interested.
 
I have a year-old EE hen with a bad case of scissor beak that began to develop at about a week of age. I had little hope for her and didn't think i was up to the task of caring for her but I didnt want to bring her back to the breeder since I suspected they would cull her. My husband convinced me to give it a try and with some TLC she is doing quite well (even laying eggs). I use a deep ceramic crock for her feed, use the "mash" form of layer feed and use a bowl for the water also. She can scoop her mash into her beak and then dunks in the water. I dont give her much else but she can also scoop some ground scratch. She's with only one other hen in our barn and has the sweetest personality. Occasionally I have to clip off some of her beak if it starts to interfere with her eating (keep the styptic powder handy just incase!) If you can't find a home for your little one, try some of these ideas and hopefully she will do well!
 
Hello KristineY, I'm trying hard with different mixture of food but her beak is so bad that her she can do is lick drops of water or wet food with her tiny tongue if it is put on it. I made a watery mixture of starter feed, then I later tried some yogurt. This morning I mixed started feed, water & greek yogurt but even with using a blender, the bits & pieces get stuck in the dropper. Do you have a recipe that you used for the best stuff I can try to get in her? And maybe another way of getting it in her besides the dropper? Thank you.
 
try pulsing the chick food in the Cusinart and adding some yogurt. I never hand-fed mine (I wanted her to learn the best she could how to eat because I knew I couldn't hand-feed forever. Try trimming off some of her beak with baby toenail clippers (drop in boiling water to sanitize) clip only the part which extends beyond her tongue..don't want the tongue not to have a place to stay hydrated. If you are nervous to do that, find an avian vet to show you how. If she has less obstruction with the over-lapped beak, it may be easier for her to eat.

"Crookie" (my husband named her.. he's not too creative) has a pretty long bottom beak and her top curls under so I have to cut that down to keep it out of her way. As she has gotten older I notice that sometimes it's broken off, so I think she rubs her beak on something to wear it down. Someone posted about putting a brick or piece of concrete in with the bird to give them something to wear their beak on.

I'll put a picture of Crookie up so you can compare the severity of your chick to her crossed beak. I want to say that Crookie's beak was as crossed as it would get by about 5 weeks of age.
 
I live in MA, so we're pretty far apart, unfortunately.
sad.png
Hope you find a good home for the lil chick!
smile.png
 
I wanted to thank everyone for your advice and prayers. With all the feedings and other stuff, she was just not strong enough to make it. Her cross beak was very severe and was also affecting the amount of eating. She was only getting the liquid. My youngest daughter made sure she gave her a lot of kisses and whispered sweet things in her ear before we put her in the box for burial. Thank you again.
 
I lost the hatch-mate to Crookie early on because she also was just too severe. My husband and I drove all the way to PA to buy what we were told were pure bred Ameraucana pullets. Out of 4 chicks two were cross beaks and one rooster (nastiest rooster ever to boot). I was heartsick about the cross beak chicks and wanted to drive 3 hours back and return them but like I said, DH wouldn't let me. I'm glad I did what I could to make them comfortable. The one that died had a short but comfortable life. Your chick too was loved and that was a wonderful gift that you gave her. All the best, Kristine
 

Similar threads

K
    • Like
Cross beak advice
Replies
5
Views
934
Packy
Packy

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom