Ameraucana Breeders Club

The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club => Housing, Health & Hatching => Topic started by: Mitchell Taylor on September 26, 2017, 12:34:45 AM

Title: Cross beak
Post by: Mitchell Taylor on September 26, 2017, 12:34:45 AM
While observing our chick's today my wife and I noticed one of our (blue Ameraucana) chick's has cross beak. While we have no intention of breeding this chick due to the deformity we are wondering if this chick is a pullet, like we think how negativity will this affect this chick as it developes. If the chick is a pullet and the cross beak will not physically pain the chick or hurt its ability to eat and produce eggs we'll simply keep it as an egg layer since we are still developing our flock but,  ultimately we want to do what's best for the chick and treat it as humanly as possible.

Thanks for any advise or help.

Mitch and Tiffany
Title: Re: Cross beak
Post by: Birdcrazy on September 26, 2017, 07:30:07 AM
My experience with cross beak chicks is that they never get better, the condition just continues to worsen as the chick ages. Many times if not eliminated, nature does the eliminating before the chick reaches adult age. The condition worsens until it is difficult for the bird to eat or drink properly. I have read various articles on the cause of cross beak chicks that have varying causes for the problem. Any where from heredity to type of feed ingested. I myself would not keep a cross beak chick for possible breeding stock. It could be opening a can of worms in your breeding program.
Title: Re: Cross beak
Post by: Don on September 26, 2017, 09:10:58 AM
Mitch and Tiffany,  I agree with Gordon that often they get worse as the beak continues to grow.  I have seen them as both pullet and cockerel so don't think there is anyway to predict the sex from this beak.  And this bird might make a decent layer down the road, or it might develop a problem eating and drinking as mentioned. You are right to keep it out of your breeding flock. I've never noticed that it caused the bird any pain.  If you had to start culling chicks because they were crowded, I would probably start with this chick. 
Title: Re: Cross beak
Post by: Mitchell Taylor on September 26, 2017, 04:52:42 PM
Thank you guys for the information it's extremely helpful.