Three week old golden laced Wyandotte with scissor beak

[Blacka11]

I have six Golden Laced Wyandotte chicks, our first batch of chickens ever. They are three weeks old. I think one is a rooster and one has scissor beak. I’m fairly confident the scissor beak is from a hatching issue because the whole skull looks a little deformed. I think I caught it very early as is just barely starting to cross. My question is: Is correction possible with taping the beak during the night or using “braces”? I’ve seen some talk about this in all my reading about it. I know it will probably get worse, I’m just wondering if by catching this early I could correct it? I supply her with wet chick starter and she seems to eat well enough so far but she and another chick are the two smallest by a good bit. I cannot have a high needs chick, I can’t commit tons of the extra time she might need, but I’m hoping if I can correct it somewhat it will be manageable to keep her.

 

[Smileybans]

I wouldn’t tape it at night. She still needs to eat at night at that age. However I have had a type of physical therapy suggested for my Beakers. It was suggested that you can hold the top and bottom beak together for about 5 minutes a day and it might realign.

I will tell you though cross beak chicks can really do the same as other chicks. It just depends on how bad the cross is. My Beakers can eat and drink with the rest of the flock. She’s a bantam silkie and is the feistiest of them all. She picks fights with my standard sized girls.

This is her in December. I tried filing her beak and cutting it with cat nail clippers. But in the end she has the ability to keep it at the length that’s right for her. So she isn’t as high maintenance as I thought.

 

[Blacka11]

I wouldn’t tape it at night. She still needs to eat at night at that age. However I have had a type of physical therapy suggested for my Beakers. It was suggested that you can hold the top and bottom beak together for about 5 minutes a day and it might realign.

I will tell you though cross beak chicks can really do the same as other chicks. It just depends on how bad the cross is. My Beakers can eat and drink with the rest of the flock. She’s a bantam silkie and is the feistiest of them all. She picks fights with my standard sized girls.

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This is her in December. I tried filing her beak and cutting it with cat nail clippers. But in the end she has the ability to keep it at the length that’s right for her. So she isn’t as high maintenance as I thought.

I really appreciate the reassurance, thank you so much!