Scissor Beak and hand feeding

[Tayscafe]

I am new to chickens. This is our first batch of ladies. We got them at about 1 week old they are now about 4-5 weeks old. One is a scissor beak. I've been reading what I can do.....culling is not an option unless just absolutely necessary.

I read you can hand feed them parrot hand feed formula. I bought some today. I fed her a little bit ago and it went well..... Messy but well . My question is how frequently should I feed her? I have also added 2 deeper feeder crocks for her to eat and drink out of in between my hand feeding her.

Thank you for any and all help/suggestions. We also trimmed her top beak to help her scoop up food.

Thanks
Kristi

 

[teach1rusl]

If she's able to eat/drink well from the deep containers, you probably won't need to hand feed her... Depending on how severe her cross beak is, keep close tabs on her weight to make sure she is getting enough nutrition, especially if she's a fluffy breed, because fluff can hide a lot of boniness. Not much worse than slowly starving to death...

Oh...and moistening the feed a little may make it easier for her to scoop up globs rather than try for individual pieces of crumble...

 

[Tayscafe]

Thanks for your suggestion. She is looking smaller than the others so I fed her 3 times today. She now jumps up to grab the syringe I'm using. I'm hoping if I can supplement she'll learn to eat and drink.i think she is getting some food, just not quite as much as she needs. I guess time will tell.

Thanks again

 

[suzukimom]

I'd like to start hand feeding too for my sweet little girl. I feed everyone else pellets. Would a small or large pellet work best when she tries to peck for her own food?

I'm still fairly new at caring for my chickie babes. This is my first scissor beak gal.

 

[froggiesheins]

You have 10 posts now so if you can post a pic of little scissor beak it would be most helpful.....You can do trimming to help her get a better grab on food. So far it sounds like you are doing good by her..LOL

 

[binkii70]

my little Sami is crossed beaked. She's 2 1/2 wks..She's a Salmon Faverolles..i hand feed her too..but make sure she has a deep dish so she can scoop her food also..it worries me alot too..she isn't smaller than the others actually she's bigger..and has alot of energy..but still i worry..she is my first that's has this..my first batch is 2 months old and they are all healthy..i got 8 more babies and i noticed Sami had the crossed beak..im not sure what to do either only to make sure she eats and is able to drink..i do wonder, will this get worse as she grows or should i wait as long as i can to trim her top beak?

 

[binkii70]

I will post a photo of her tomorrow and maybe someone can help me out too..she's full and fast asleep now..

 

[Tayscafe]

Update on Sister ScissorBeak......we have affectionately renamed her . The kids at the school we got her from had named her Rattlesnake but never worked for us. Now we just call her Sister or Scissor.

Back to update...she has a lot more energy and I am optimistic. I feel starting her on the formula was the right thing to do. At least now she has the energy to fight to make this work. I now am able to put it in a small bowl and she eats it herself. I just stay in to keep the others from eating. She now seems to be content and will go and settle down with the rest of them instead of pacing around chirping for something to eat! I will keep everyone posted and thanks again for suggestions and support. . I'll post a picture once I can get a good shot of her.....

 

[teach1rusl]

Glad to hear she's doing better!

 

[Tayscafe]

Update: still doing good and growing!!!!

I started off a week ago feeding her with a dropper, then a spoon, now she eats it in the bowl. Have also supplemented with softened crumble. They all seem to like her "special diet". I feel we have given her the fighting chance that she needed.

We most definitely made the right choice to start on the formula