Questions about cross beak

[CMV]

I have a 17 week old BR pullet that had a small split in the top of her beak. I didn't bother to do anything about the split because it was quite small and appeared to be resolving itself by peeling and flaking off. Today the split piece peeled away and I thought the problem was resolved aside from a slightly ragged appearance. After looking carefully at her beak I realized that she didn't look quite right and that's when I discovered she has a minor cross beak. The original split was probably caused because of the cross. I am pretty observant and feel I should have noted this problem before now, but didn't. My question is do cross beaks get progressively worse over time? The cross beak is very minor and is not causing any real problems, but will that change as she ages? She is in no danger of starving unless the beak gets radically worse and now I am wondering if that could happen. I plan to trim her beak slightly to better align the beak edges and clean up the ragged appearance.

I appreciate any answers. Thanks.

 

[Afrochicken]

ive heard it develops within a few days to weeks after hatching, and sometimes get worse over time. ive also heard of chickens dieing of it, but in strongly severe occasions. i hav a friend with a cross beak roo who is doing fine GL

 

[Chicken_Lover4567]

I have a BR hen who is now 2 years old. She has pretty severe cross beak, but aside from being a tad bit thinner then the other girls, she is healthy and happy.

She eats pretty normally, although occasionally the others do pick on her. It's just a waiting game I suppose, but figuring my girl has survived, there IS hope.

 

[SpringChickens]

I had one who had a severe cross beak who lived for 1.5 years. She became our favorite chicken and was the sweetest one of the group (I think from all the extra attention). We just let her have access to the feed bin - she needed the deep feed to eat efficiently. She actually just died last weekend

we were heart broke.

When she was younger, we tried trimming her beak, but it seemed to be very stressful for her AND it didn't seem to help any.

 

[SpringChickens]

Also, at 17 weeks old, she probably won't get much worse. I wouldn't hatch any of her eggs though, because it is genetic and the next generation is often worse.

If its just minor, she shouldn't have any problems eating and should live a very normal life.

 

[Afrochicken]

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im sorry to hear you guys lost your fav to crossbeak.

 

[SpringChickens]

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Thanks! We are really depressed about it. At least she got a good 1 1/2 years - it's more than she would have gotten a lot of other places.

 

[CMV]

Thanks everyone. I'm sorry to hear about your loss SpringChickens. It's always tough to lose one and worse when it's a favorite pet. I hadn't planned on using any of her eggs as breed stock because I knew it was a genetic condition. I suspect that the cross beak is getting progressively worse because I am sure I would have noticed it before now. I will be watching her closely from this point on.

Thanks again. Wish me luck with the trimming. I am a bit nervous about it.

 

[SpringChickens]

I agree about the cross beak getting worse with time. When we got the batch of chicks with the cross beak, all of them looked fine. A week or two later, we noticed one with a cross beak, but the rest looked fine. That chick actually died around 12 weeks of age due to a VERY severe cross beak. She never got larger than a 3-4 week old chick.

Our one that just died didn't show any signs of cross beak until she was probably around 4 weeks old. It got progressively worse, but it seemed to stop developing around the time she went through puberty. I really hope that yours doesn't get much worse - I don't think it should.