Rooster beak won't close

[mahossard]

I posted several weeks ago about trying to help chickens who had been attacked by dogs. My chickens have made tremendous progress with healing. One is living a normal life in the coop with the two uninjured chickens, she won't open her eye, but other than that she is great. The other two are still in my house recovering. The rooster has started flying out of the container I have him in and I think he must have had a crash landing because he seems to have hurt his jaw or something in the beak area. He is completely unable to shut his mouth. I have tried gently to re-align this, I did this persistently with my hen and her beak is now straight, but his beak will not move at all. He was just starting to put weight back on from the dog injuries and now he is getting very light again. He has a lot of interest in feeding in fact, he's driving me crazy by flinging the food all over the cage, but I'm not sure how much he is actually eating. I hand fed him for two or three weeks after the do attack, I can do that again if the beak thing is temporary, but I don't want to do it forever. Does anyone know what causes this? His beak is crooked, unable to shut at all completely hanging open, and seemingly too long.

Thank you for any advice,
Darby

 

[mahossard]

I hope this isn't breaking rules, but I'm responding to my own post so it stays fresh and doesn't get buried under newer posts. I would like to know if his beak is from injury or malnutrition or something else, then I can decide the best way to help him. I did read that making the food deep and having sides to the feeding container helps animals with crooked beaks,so I am trying that.

Thank you for tolerating me posting to myself.

 

[realsis]

I wish I knew how to help .I have a cross beak of my own and best advice is to make mash so they get more to eat and continue to gain weight.on straight seed my bird got too thin. Then I started making mash out of her seed and she gained weight! Just add water to the food regular seed and mash it up. they love it that way and tend to eat more. How this happened too your bird I do not know. Mine was born with it. all you can do now is move forward and try to accommodate him. Deeper dishes mash food separate feedings. Watch his weight closely. If its an injury that caused this he might get better. Or he will learn to live with it. Can he still drink OK? I hope these little tips help. You might also want to trim the upper beak once a month because it will get over grown. I use toe nail clippers and trim small portions at a time being careful not to get into the quick. Likely you will need to do the trimming because it likely will over grow due to mis alignment. Hope this helps. Good luck and best wishes.