Baby chick with scissor beak!

Apoirier143

Hatching
Apr 26, 2021
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Hi everyone so I recently got some baby chicks. One of them has developed a scissor beak and out of over 5 years of raising chickens I have never seen this. What is the best way I can help my baby chick.
 
Just make sure he eating and drinking properly... If not assist with layer mash and syringe water etc I have a rock in coop so bird can file beak down.. At later point may need to file and trim beak.there'sTube vids for that . Do u have a pic? heres my quail Edward scissor beak (bad name I know couldn't help myself lol) he gets on okay at moment and it's pretty bad
 

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Just make sure he eating and drinking properly... If not assist with layer mash and syringe water etc I have a rock in coop so bird can file beak down.. At later point may need to file and trim beak.there'sTube vids for that . Do u have a pic? heres my quail Edward scissor beak (bad name I know couldn't help myself lol) he gets on okay at moment and it's pretty bad
E7CAD669-02E8-4504-819C-F12B84947DEA.jpeg

This is the best pic I have my baby chick is a Americana.
 
Hi everyone so I recently got some baby chicks. One of them has developed a scissor beak and out of over 5 years of raising chickens I have never seen this. What is the best way I can help my baby chick.

You could weigh the chick regularly, to see how well it grows. You can compare the weight of the cross beak one with some of your other chicks. Of course some chicks will grow a bit faster than others, but at least you will be able to tell if it is growing at a fairly reasonable rate.

As some of the other posters have commented, that chick might do fine, with a bit of extra care.
Here is one article with a bunch of tips:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...kens-including-tube-feeding-techniques.64321/
The article does include a list of extra foods you could feed the chick, but I would just start with normal chick starter, and add water if needed. If the chick is able to eat enough of that, there will be no need for special foods.

But for some chicks, the crossed beak gets worse, and they cannot eat enough food, and they slowly starve to death. If a chick is starving, you will know because they grow slowly or not at all (weigh the chick to see), and at some point they will sit around instead of acting lively and healthy. If a chick gets that bad, it is probably kinder to euthanize it :(
 
Some people may not recommend it, but you can very carefully trim or file the beak. I had a silkie hen with the same issue and was able to help her resolve it! I think catching it while they're still young and it hasn't progressed is key.
I only trimmed a very very small amount because cutting too much/ far could cause bleeding.

You can see the lighter part of the beak & that's the only part I touched.

Some people say if you put it back into place & keep doing it then it will correct itself. (Not sure if this is true)
 


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