Missing beaks

[Banana01]

You need to buy an all inclusive feed with vitamins because it's all they'll get to eat 95% of the time. You can hand feed them very easily treats. Dry food in a large deep pan should be accessible to them somewhat easily, but depends on your feed pellet size you have. A soft pellet with some powdery consistency would be ideal. Tube feeding is not an option for long term survivability. I don't like the idea of wetting the food because you want them to live a normal life and it needs to be easy on you too. If they struggle with hand feeding, I hope with some patience they will get used to it.

 

[Banana01]

Do you have some sort of rotating machinery on your property? Any moving gears, chains, machinery that maybe starts or runs automatically? If they are pecking around insects around moving machinery I can see a beak ending up like that. But I am intrigued how they got like this if it was sudden or gradually.

 

[curliegirlie89]

So their beaks just disappeared one day?

Honestly, I’m not sure. Today is the first day we’ve noticed it.

 

[curliegirlie89]

Do you have some sort of rotating machinery on your property? Any moving gears, chains, machinery that maybe starts or runs automatically? If they are pecking around insects around moving machinery I can see a beak ending up like that. But I am intrigued how they got like this if it was sudden or gradually.

No machinery that would cause this. Not sure if this was gradual or sudden. The edges are not really sharp. I don’t know if that means anything or not.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Do they peck on a hard surface?
Concrete run floor?

 

[Fluffy_Feathers]

Honestly, I’m not sure. Today is the first day we’ve noticed it.

If this was a sudden thing, I'm assuming that there would be a good amount of bleeding. Do you believe you would have noticed bleeding/injury like that if it happened suddenly? Or have you seen blood around the coop and on the feeders that could indicate something like that? If this is something you would have noticed, then I'm inclined to think maybe it happened gradually. But even so that's just so weird. It looks pretty rounded and healed up. There doesn't seem to be any quick showing so if it did happened suddenly it'd have to happen a while ago I would think. Do any of the others seem to have any wearing down on their beaks, even if it's not to the extent of the two you've shown?

 

[curliegirlie89]

If this was a sudden thing, I'm assuming that there would be a good amount of bleeding. Do you believe you would have noticed bleeding/injury like that if it happened suddenly? Or have you seen blood around the coop and on the feeders that could indicate something like that? If this is something you would have noticed, then I'm inclined to think maybe it happened gradually. But even so that's just so weird. It looks pretty rounded and healed up. There doesn't seem to be any quick showing so if it did happened suddenly it'd have to happen a while ago I would think. Do any of the others seem to have any wearing down on their beaks, even if it's not to the extent of the two you've shown?

I think we would have noticed blood and/or feathers. My gut feeling when I looked at her beak was that this was something gradual or well healed. However, I have no idea what this could be if it was gradual.

 

[Banana01]

Honestly, I’m not sure. Today is the first day we’ve noticed it.

No machinery that would cause this. Not sure if this was gradual or sudden. The edges are not really sharp. I don’t know if that means anything or not.

It is rounded and smooth, so looks like a gradual change.

I hope their tongues are still functioning. I'm not sure if they will have the use of their tongue to move food and water to the back of their throats. The tongue is adapted for collecting food, manipulating food and swallowing.

It looks like in the photo they still have a tongue, but do you happen to be able to observe them eating, do you see their tongue when they tilt their head back to swallow?

 

[curliegirlie89]

Do they peck on a hard surface?
Concrete run floor?

We have one small 4’x6’ piece of plastic that the feeder sits on. But the rest of the yard is grass and they free range into our yard and pastures. No concrete except for our driveway.

 

[curliegirlie89]

It is rounded and smooth, so looks like a gradual change.

I hope their tongues are still functioning. I'm not sure if they will have the use of their tongue to move food and water to the back of their throats. The tongue is adapted for collecting food, manipulating food and swallowing.

It looks like in the photo they still have a tongue, but do you happen to be able to observe them eating, do you see their tongue when they tilt their head back to swallow?

The one that I was able to examine closely still has a working tongue. She was able to eat small bits of pellet feed that I gave to her by hand. But I had to feed her individual pieces. The other one I could not catch.