My friend has a chick with a bad scissor beak. We are wondering if she can live a fairly normal life or not. I know you have to watch for weight gain and she is eating and drinking in her own. My friend said she looked normal at first. Just wanting to find out the outcome of one this severe.
I'm sorry about the chick.
I do agree with
@LaFleche it is quite severe and likely will get worse as time goes by. Sometimes a chick with a deformity like this may have other developmental issues as well.
You could try and see how it goes. While she may be able to eat/drink on her own - is she getting enough to eat or just making a mess. You would want to weigh her now and track the weight to ensure she's getting enough to eat. Some birds seem to eat a lot or all the time but the fact is they are simply not getting enough and having to continually eat.
It's really up to you to decide what happens. Give her a chance or cull. It's so easy to get attached and you never know, she may thrive.
Some folks are able to keep up with the bird/dedicate time with them each day to ensure they are doing fine, hand or tube feed as well.
If you keep her, try to keep her cleaned off if possible. Since she's not really able to clean her beak well, the food will harden inside the beak. Likely get into the nares (nostrils) and plug them up too.
A lot depends on her personality - she may do o.k. with a flock, but have a plan of where to house/care for her if the others pick at her.
No one should judge one way or another whether you keep or cull. I would not use her for breeding.
Here's an article that may give you some tips.
https://the-chicken-chick.com/scissor-beak-aka-crossed-beak-what-it/
