Scissor Beak Polish

[Jessi.Smith]

I have a 12 week old Polish that has scissor beak. The changes this the past month seem kinda drastic. He is the same size as my other 3 polish, so I dont think he is having trouble eating. Is there an age that the scissor beak stops progressing?
As a chick (2 days old):

On 10/21 (8 weeks old)

And today..

Thanks!

 

[sourland]

Very sadly in my experience scissor beak has been a progressive condition. I hope this is not the case with your bird. Trimming the beak and providing moistened feed in deep feed dishes can help prolong their lives.

 

[kissezmychicken]

I was given a silkie hen that has a scissor beak..she was going to kill her, anyway, took her to the vet, he trimmed her and showed me what to do, she's three years old, healthy as can be and a great foster mom!!! I trim and file her about once month..no big deal. She eats and drinks fine. Don't use her eggs to hatch but they can be eaten and they can sit on other eggs if needed

 

[ejtrout31]

It won’t stop growing I have never used moist food but u will need a dip food and water dishes he will also make a big mess when eating I like to take a tooth brush to clean his beak often

 

[lilmillefleur]

We had a bantam polish with cross beak. Unlike yours however this one could not eat and was half the size of the other polish bantam. It was always distress chirping and never seemed to settle down. I felt so bad for it and honestly just wanted it to die.
We were going to humanely euthanize it at the vet but we were too late and it died the very day we scheduled the appointment.
Even if it did live, we just don’t have to time or energy to make special arrangements for it, since we are gone over most of the week.
I wish you luck with your chicken.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry about your polish chicken and it’s beak deformity. As Sourland has posted it can worsen with growing, and his suggestions can help. Here is a good link about managing a cross beak chicken, and you might also want to include a large rock or pavers on which your chicken can hone it’s beak:
https://the-chicken-chick.com/scissor-beak-aka-crossed-beak-what-it/

 

[Rachel TW]

I think it's about 4 months that the beak reaches its worst and stays there. It will keep growing and may need periodic trims, but the angle of the cross beak stabilizes around there, and certainly by maturity.

As your chicken's beak gets worse, just make sure he actually is eating enough. My cross beak used to be a very flighty bird that didn't want to be touched so I didn't realize how skinny she was getting as her cross beak progressed. I fed her separately from the other chickens twice a day using a giant bowl and she pecked at it nonstop and it looked like she was eating. Then one day at 3-4 months old, she flew in my arms squawking (desperately hungry) and she was nothing but skin and bones. After she ate from the bowl for over an hour, I checked her crop and it felt empty. All those times I'd been feeding her, she was hardly picking up anything and slowly starving to death.

What she really needed was mash (wettened crumbles about the consistency of oatmeal) but it took a lot of work on my part to convince her to eat it. I cried the day she finally ate it. I was getting close to killing her because she was slowly starving to death and only wanted to eat the dry crumbles she couldn't pick up (I tried even giving her scrambled egg, oatmeal, yogurt, scratch, etc. - she wanted none of it). Now that she does eat mash, she is healthy and happy. I check her crop after every meal to make sure it's full. I feed it to her 2-3 times a day, separate from the flock. So as your boy grows, please check his crop and make sure he's not getting skinny.

Another thing to keep in mind is that cross beaks sometimes have trouble with preening. Some say they are at an increased risk for external parasites because of this, but I haven't had a problem. I have noticed that my cross beak doesn't do as well on the really cold nights and I think this is because she isn't preening her feathers as well and so they aren't insulating her as well. On extremely cold nights, I bring her inside.

Cross beaks are extra work and time if their beaks are really crooked, but if you are able to do it, the relationship you build with them is really special. Cheesy, I know, but I have a closeness with mine that I never could have had if she were a normal bird.

 

[Rachel TW]

I think moving one of your smaller coops in the big run is a wonderful idea. If your chicken is stressed from isolation, he won't eat. Being in the same area should work perfectly.

If your chicken realizes you are handling him to feed him, I suspect he won't be aggressive. That's how mine worked out at least - she was the worst at being handled (not aggressive but she would freak out) and now she's docile as long as it's me, the food lady. It took some time to get here.

Here is a YouTube video of a woman trimming a chicken beak that I found helpful my first time -

You can use a dremel, dog nail clippers, or human nail clippers. We rarely clip our girl's beak because she is able to eat mash fine with it a little long, but it just depends on the individual bird.

There also is an excellent Cross Beak support thread on this forum here. I tried to search for it, but for some reason when I click on search an Error is coming up, but it's a thread for special needs chickens that ended up being almost exclusively about cross beaks.

I did find a summary of the support thread through google: https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...kens-including-tube-feeding-techniques.64321/

 

[Amer]

I had a bird like that. During the winter... (born in late May) he started growing weaker and fading then his comb turned purple, and he could barely move, he wasted away, and then he died. I think of breathing problems, you see, his comb was purple from lack of oxygen in his blood.

 

[Jessi.Smith]

I will keep an eye out for any breathing issues. After looking at Crossbeak Poultry in Motion, I don't think Monkey's crossbeak is that severe - some have bottom beaks that stick out completely to the side and they seem to do just fine. So hopefully that is good news for the little Monkey