Scissor/cross beak

[Normy84]

Good day, we recently purchased for our breeding program 8 Mille Fleur d’Uccle chicks, they are now 3 weeks old, 2 I noticed today have crossed or scissor beak, one fairly severe. We had other breeds in the brooder with them and these 2 are the only chicks that have this. We have hatched hundreds of chicks and this is the first time we've seen this.

My wife is reaching out to the breeder, what is the cause of this and is there a remedy?

 

[Sammi_0411]

Pretty sure theres no remedy? One my quails has it could be genetics could be temp humidy when incubated u can do things such as sofr food or layer mash waterer at certain levels etc pretty sure theres no cure tho sorry if im wrong im sure someone will let me kno
U have pics?
Sam xx

 

[NatJ]

My wife is reaching out to the breeder, what is the cause of this and is there a remedy?

Sometimes the cause is genetic, sometimes it is caused by some detail while the eggs were incubating, and there may be other causes that we don't know about.

There is no complete fix. The chicks usually have trouble eating, and the beak grows too long because it does not wear down normally.

If you want to keep the chicks and care for them, you will need to trim the beak yourself when it gets long. And you will probably need to provide food in a deeper dish, or food served wet, or both. That makes it possible for the chicken to scoop the feed up with its beak, because of course they cannot grab bits when the tips of the beak do not line up.

Some chicks with crossbeak do fine, if the beak gets trimmed and the food is served right. Others slowly starve to death anyway. Tube feeding works, but most people are not willing to stick a tube down a chickens throat to feed it two or three or more times per day.

If you are not willing to provide special care, it might be kindest to cull (kill) the chicks now.
If you want to try raising them, I suggest you weigh them and also weigh some of the other chicks, and compare weights on a regular basis. If the ones with crossbeak grow just as fast as the normal chicks, they are fine. But if the crossbeak ones grow more slowly, or do not grow at all, that would mean they are not getting enough to eat.

Because crossbeak can sometimes be genetic, I strongly recommend that you not breed from the ones that have it, even if they grow well and seem healthy otherwise.

 

[Coops Dad]

I had a hen with a pretty good crossbeak, about like you crossing your fingers. I used a file to dress the upper and lower halves to each other as much as possible. It needed attention about once every 6 weeks. She lived a long and happy life until the neighbor's dog caught her.

 

[Sammi_0411]

Heres my sweetie

 

[Coops Dad]

That's pretty crossed. If you can do a little correction on it with a fine wood file when she gets a little older, she'll probably be just fine.

 

[TheCluckyClucker2]

How are they now?