Will crossbeak get worse

[borzoimom]

I got new chicks last week. They are 1 week old today. This evening, I noticed one chick has a slightly mal-aligned beak. She is eating and drinking just fine, the alignment is only slightly off. What I need to know is will this continue to get worse as the chick grows or better? I know no one can make any guarantees, but what has been the experiences of others?

 

[froggiesheins]

Boy I wish I had some great words of wisdom for you, but I don't......As long as she is able to eat and drink just keep an eye on it. I have a 4 month old hen with scissor beak and I now am gently filing the high sides of top and bottom to get a larger "grabbing" surface for her.......time will tell, just make sure she keeps the weight up.....which means she is eating...

 

[ISANNAH]

Hi,
We had the same situation and here is my experience. Buddy was born with a cross or sissor beak. You CAN do something about it IF you do it now, if you wait too long, it cannot be corrected. We brought him to a pet store owner who had birds and he said they can do something, so ask at your local bird loving pet store ( charged me 10.00 only!) or take to vet. There must be a brace. It depends on how much investment you want to put into the bird. We were too late with buddy, his beak was already too deformed. We put tons of effort and love into getting food into him and he rewarded us by his unusual, loving behavior. He did NOT act like a chicken at all, he followed us around and he literally jumped up on our shoulder like a parrot and stayed there as long as we allowed him to! He also did a 100 things that normal chickens never do. As you can tell we LOVED him! LOL We bought chick grow, chick quick and made him a mash 2x a day. He lived only about 9 months, but he will never be forgotten. God gives special qualities to deformed animals ( and humans!) to make us love them. He died in the coldest part of the winter, he was just not getting enough to stay alive. So, I would do the brace, or prepare for the worse. I still cry when I remember buddy. Good luck!

 

[CMV]

There are no tried and true methods for dealing with crossbeak. There is at least one method involving medication, but even that is only somewhat successful (and I don't believe the med is available easily in the US). Crossbeak doesn't just affect the beak. It is a deformity of the facial bones and musculature, as well. It will get progressively worse until about 16-18 weeks (maybe longer if the bird's growth is retarded from malnutrition) when the bird reaches its full skeletal growth.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[froggiesheins]

There are no tried and true methods for dealing with crossbeak.  There is at least one method involving medication, but even that is only somewhat successful (and I don't believe the med is available easily in the US).  Crossbeak doesn't just affect the beak.  It is a deformity of the facial bones and musculature, as well.  It will get progressively worse until about 16-18 weeks (maybe longer if the bird's growth is retarded from malnutrition) when the bird reaches its full skeletal growth.

I hope this helps.  Good luck.

WOW, that sure helps for me. My serama is now 4 months so this will be about as bad as it will get for her, she might have a good life then....THANK YOU for posting this info CMV and I hope it helps borzoimom too!

 

[pnp4kidz]

I have two hens with cross beak, both are happy productive 9 mo old hens now... they eat crumble or pellets, and in good weight...
so, I think they 'can' do ok...
I didn't want to cull them just because... so I waited it out...

 

[froggiesheins]

I have two hens with cross beak, both are happy productive 9 mo old hens now... they eat crumble or pellets, and in good weight...
so, I think they 'can' do ok...
I didn't want to cull them just because... so I waited it out...

YER A GOOD CHICKEN MAMA! Its great to hear they are doing well....

 

[pnp4kidz]

Thanks!