Pet's Name Bourbon and Chizzers

LocationJuneau, AK

Pet's StoryA dog and a chicken became flockmates when Chizzers became a house chicken. Here is her story. Don’t run with scissors. That’s what her mother would have told her, but she got shipped off to Alaska the day she was born, and was never taught that important lesson. The scissors weren’t evident during her first two weeks of life. But nature had a different plan for her. A genetic defect common among her breed led to her upper and lower jaw growing at different rates, creating a twist In her beak. She seemed fine for a while, but sometime during her 3rd week, we started to notice the obvious difference in her size and development. Back to the drawing board. How do you teach a scissor beaked bird to eat? Worried that her efforts to peck were in vain, I started syringe feeding her to get some nutrition in her and in hopes of putting some weight on her. Backyardchickens.com turned me onto a hand-feeding formula for exotic birds, parrots and such... and works for chickens. If I can get enough weight on her, can she learn to adapt with this mis-formed beak she’s got? Can she ‘grow into it?’ Only time will tell. But she’s got a fighting spirit. When the worms come out, she runs to the center of the circle of chicks, to get her fair share. She pushes the others out of the way, like she’s 3x their size. She does not act small. And so, I’ll match my effort to the size of her spirit. Bourbon is her mama hen, and she snuggles with him as often as possible.