Underbite. Not debeaked. other different behavior from this one.

[Katsouth]

Hey there, Waffle is a salmon favorelle, 9 weeksish and she kind of distances herself from the other four girls. Theyre about nine weeks old. Her underbite is particularly bad and this is after my husband filed it. It seems like she eats wet mash OK but I have yet to see her pick up a single meal worm, but not for lack of trying. Usually if she tries a couple times to pick one up, she will then just run away, almost like she’s embarrassed.

She also tends to isolate and hang out on her own. One of the birds was picking on her quite a bit for a while, but now that weather is better and they’re less bored and outside more it’s better. Yet she still prefers to kind of go off on her own…

It’s a mix flock, but we do have one other salmon favorelle. They stuck together in the beginning, but now the other one is a little bit bigger and they don’t seem to be buddies anymore.

My husband tried to shave it down tonight but we are worried about a quick? It’s a bit even more jagged now and rough. We have shown her rocks/cement, and she doesn’t seem to file her beak down the way the others do on the cement. she often has food all over her beak, just like she doesn’t care lol. The others wipe their beaks more.

I must say she’s the doofiest of the bunch. But I feel so sad for her when the others are enjoying a treat.

 

[nuthatched]

Easter eggers are prone to beak issues.

 

[Mrs. K]

I would not expect this chicks to do well, the longer it lives, the larger it grows the more difficult it will be for the bird to eat enough for her needs. The fact that she is smaller than her flock mates is not a good sign. People tend to think she is just genetically smaller, but more than likely she cannot eat enough.

The fact that she is avoiding the more healthy and more active birds is also another indicator that she is not getting enough food too eat. Or that she is using more energy to eat, than she gets out of eating.

Often times these birds have other genetic defects too, internally. I would not expect this bird to live a long time.

Mrs K

 

[maryn7]

I'll give you some anecdotal positivity - though I expect Mrs. K is right.

I have an EE that doesn't have any issues beakwise, but was also more of a loner and didn't fit in seamlessly with the flock. We call her 'sneakthief' because she always had to dart in and grab any snacks, food, etc., as her sisters would run her off. She squatted first amongst the pullets last summer, but never laid any eggs - and it was very clear that the other girls knew she was different than them and treated her like a baby to be pushed around. She started laying at 10 months, and then became more accepted in the group. But she remains my doofiest bird, too, and often does her own thing. And it's clearly had an impact personality-wise; she was my sweetest, most 'hold me!' chick, but she's now my flightiest hen - I think because she's been run off so much by her sisters when she was young (honestly, they treat her fine - she's just a sensitive girl).

If you want to make a go of it with your SF, I'd consider taking her aside for individual feeding of wet mash so that you're sure she's getting enough to eat and gains size to match her sisters. You might have to do this a few times per day - but that would also give you a chance to experiment with seeing what she can eat effectively. And then maybe you can find a way to help her eat effectively without assistance.

I don't know anything about beak shaving - but you're right to be thoughtful about not cutting it too deeply. I think some folks use nail files, as well. Just found this post, which demonstrates areas to trim to make sure I was right about the nail file thing.

Good luck! It's hard when you see one of them trying to keep up. Hope she's able to turn it around.