# Top Beak Not Growing...?



## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

I thought this chick has scissor beak because her beak was starting to misalign. That was a week or two ago and now she's grown it's no longer misaligned... however something else weird is going on. Her top beak isn't growing but her bottom beak is, giving her a nasty underbite. Anyone ever see this before? It may be due to injury because I took her out after the other chicks pecked her cere off (no idea why that happened either but she healed just fine from it and the rest went back to behaving themselves... Sigh)


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Its a genetic problem. Do not use this bird for breeding.

I will have to do some digging to see if I can find a good explanation of what it is. http://www.genetics.org/content/26/4/426.full.pdf This is a mouthful to read. If I had kept my genetics book I could have put it in English a bit better.


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

She's going to a pet home in a couple days.... someone with a flock of disabled hens (I kid you not!) I think it'll be a good placement as she can still grow up to lay perfectly fine eating eggs.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

She might. Don't get upset if you find that they lost her at an early age. It appears that few make it long in adulthood when carrying this lethal gene. 

But its good to know she has a good home to go to and it frees you up to not have to worry about hatching chicks from her by accident.


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## WhitecatFarm (Oct 10, 2014)

I suspect the injury to her cere, may have affected the growth of her top beak.


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

I read that article linked above (sorry took me a few tries my computer likes to freeze with PDF files!) Very interesting. Also interesting to note this breed is not polydactyl so they may have been off in that hypothesis. She's not short by any means either but I guess it didn't say they all were. I have let the new owner know all this new info. Even though I am letting her have it for free it's good to be on the up and up about these things. I don't want anyone feeling used.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I wish I still had my genetics book. I remember reading about it there concerning different beak deformities. I don't remember it mentioning anything about other stunted bones or being five toed.

I also don't remember it mentioning that the top beak would catch up to the lower.


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## WhitecatFarm (Oct 10, 2014)

The article refers to chicks that either hatched with the abnormality or had it present before hatching. My understand was that this anomaly developed in this chick after hatching. The damage to her cere ( It may be due to injury because I took her out after the other chicks pecked her cere off (no idea why that happened either but she healed just fine from it and the rest went back to behaving themselves... Sigh) would definitely affect the growth of the upper beak.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

So, the question now is, did any of the others peck at the cere when they were still in the brooder? 

Whitecat, many people do not notice beak deformitites when peeps are still very small. When you think about it with those tiny faces it isn't that easy to see a problem that is very very small. The genetic form of cross beak does not begin to become visible until six weeks of age.


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## WeeLittleChicken (Aug 31, 2012)

No, no one else had their ceres pecked here so I do not have anyone to compare her to. No one else showed up with scissorbeak either. These chicks are 5 weeks old. Don't know if that means anything but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Strange thing is this morning her beak was almost grown to the length it should have been. I don't know if this will continue because she went off to her new home today but I will try and keep in touch to see how she grows. At this point it's just a curiosity though.


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## chickenhen (Apr 22, 2015)

That could be a type of "crooked beek" --- a genetic problem which appears in young chicks and pullets and will always be that way unless the longer beek is trimmed.


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