Please give me advice on this chick-*twisted beak*UPDATE Pg.4

[OHMYCHICKIES]

I'm so sorry about Ziggy. I had a chick that had a bigger top beak than the bottom. It couldn't eat right, but it ate. I couldn't trim it because then the nose would have a problem. She was just deformed in that area. I kept babying her but she didn't thrive. The others were huge compared to her. She ended up dying on her own, peacefully. She lasted about 2 months.

 

[Babsadon]

They are doing well. Thanks for asking. The twisted beak hen, Penny has graduated to eating on her own. She is very lively, and hard to catch. She learned to run away from me because she doesn't like to be hand fed. the rooster, Magnus is much tamer, and I can catch him easily. I have not hand-fed Penny for three days, just to see how she does. She has been eating a "porridge" of 10-grain cereal, tofu, wheat grass,collards, mustard, and carrots--all ground up in a food processor with lots of water. Her tongue is pretty strong so she kind of slurps up the food using her tongue and upper beak. She has a peculiar "twitch". She will suddenly twist her head back over her shoulder and then straighten back up again. Actually her head has a slight tilt to the side all the time. I guess it is part of the same genetic problem that caused her lower jaw to be useless.

 

[baldie]

Hello! I have a pullet that has the same problem. She was born this way, and she is now 19 weeks old. I paired her up in my coop with my black cochin bantam, (he was injured by the other chicks, they de-feathered him), and they are in a dog cage in the coop, so they can be with the other chickens. They sell layer mesh, which would be easy for her to eat, so you don't have to feed her yogurt, and I'll tell ya, she is our friendliest, happiest chicken we have. (We have 45 of them). She will be needy, but she will also make a great pet, and possibly even lay, I should find out soon. Also, I have been researching this for a while and I was told they sell a tool to trim dogs nails, this could be used on the beak. It is important to file her beak so it doesn't splinter also.

 

[Babsadon]

That's a coincidence. Penny and Magnus are also in a dog cage inside a 9' x 12' aviary where I have 6 older, "normal" chickens and 2 pigeons. I keep them separate from the bigger chickens so they won't be bullied. I let the "normal" chickens out of the aviary every morning to free range in the back yard. Then Magnus and Penny get let out of the dog cage to wander around the aviary with the pigeons. When they are larger I will move them into an old play house and give them their own little yard. I probably won't let them free range in the back yard because they are both potentially easy catches for predators. (so far the only potential predators are the occasional possum and my pug.)

I don't know if Penny will make a great pet. She keeps running away from me. Magnus is much friendlier.

Barbara