# Help, scissor beak fixing??



## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

Hello, i have a young bird, around 3 days old with scissor beak, i checked parents and bird for cankers and did not see any. I heard it's possible to fix, and i know the bird can do fine with scissor beak. Is there a way people know of to fix it? Since this bird is so young i was hoping it would be easier at this age when it still in great growth. Nest mate does not have it nor any of squabs. Please let me know how to fix it if it is possible, I was hoping like taping it or something.


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## Msfreebird (Sep 23, 2007)

Oh, poor little guy  I've never had that happen before, so I can't help you with an answer. But I'll be watching to see how its corrected. I'm sure others will be along soon.


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

Taping is not really going to work because the baby has to be feed by the parents, tape may infere with breathing and it will probably just "shift" the alignment while on, but once off, mostly likely will shift right back to being scissored. I think your best bet is to try placing you index finger at the end of the corner of the beak on left side, to offer support and use you thumb to gently stroke the beak into line hold it there, release and repeat. It looks like there is some constriction on the right side, so you are trying to gently stretch to the opposite way the constriction is pulling the beak, to try and ease the constriction. Anyway, that's what I would try and you may have to do 4-5, 5 minute sessions a day.

Good luck,

Karyn


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## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

Thank you very much, My questions are these: After alining it up how long do i hold it there? just one second then release and repeat or one minute? Also do you feel its safe to do this for 5 mintues at a time 5 times a day when this bird is only 3 days old. I know the is probably the best time to start correcting it.


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

Paki Tipplers said:


> Thank you very much, My questions are these: After alining it up how long do i hold it there? just one second then release and repeat or one minute? Also do you feel its safe to do this for 5 mintues at a time 5 times a day when this bird is only 3 days old. I know the is probably the best time to start correcting it.


Yes, hold for a count of 10, release wait a few seconds and repeat. Of course you are going to get very careful and gentle with all of this. Use your best judgment on the length of time for a session, don't have the little guy in distress in any way, but I think you are going to have to spend at least a few minutes doing this for it to have an impact and lasting affect, and a number of times a day. Not sure you are going to end up with a completely normal looking alignment in the end, we can hope for this , but I feel trying to do some therapy on it may remodel it to have a better chance at limiting the amount of scissoring, than doing nothing. Keep us updated.

Karyn


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## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

Why did this happen so i know how to prevent it in the future? Like i said, i checked for cankers and the nest mate didn't have it. I have many other recently hatched and none of them have it so i didn't seem to be a food issue.


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

Paki Tipplers said:


> Why did this happen so i know how to prevent it in the future? Like i said, i checked for cankers and the nest mate didn't have it. I have many other recently hatched and none of them have it so i didn't seem to be a food issue.


Not really sure, to tell you truth, since you have no obvious signs of illness in your loft, could just be one of those things that just happen sometimes. I would be looking at some basic things like adding Red Cell or Wins More vitamins into their nutritional regimen and making sure a quality oyster shell git is be made available to your birds, if you are not already doing this.

Karyn


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## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

yes i am haha , they have good grit which had red, grey grit and oyster shells, which i add like 5 or 10 lb bag or more shells on top of it. I put red cell in the feed, not all to often, like once a week or a little less. Was kinda backing off it not wanting to do too much.


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

Paki Tipplers said:


> yes i am haha , they have good grit which had red, grey grit and oyster shells, which i add like 5 or 10 lb bag or more shells on top of it. I put red cell in the feed, not all to often, like once a week or a little less. Was kinda backing off it not wanting to do too much.


Sounds like you are on top of things, I guess I would just keep and eye out for this happening again, as once can kind of be explained away, and since I don't really believe in coincidences, twice would mean perhaps something is being missed. You could also ask over in the Homing & Racing Pigeon section if any of those guys have any thoughts. As some of those old timers have raised hundreds, if not thousands of birds over their careers, and may have an insight into something like this those of us who have only raised small amounts of birds may not have.

Karyn


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## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

Yeah if it comes up again ill start investigating more. My brother will be the one doing the "fixing" with keep you updated on how it is going.


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## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

Well did it a lot today, its at the point where when i release it lines up but whenever i go back to check it is back its old way. Since its lined up when i release i been moving it in the opposite direction. Is it good that it is lining up now? Will is start to grow straight as it gets older? The bird has a bit of an "under bite".


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

Paki Tipplers said:


> Well did it a lot today, its at the point where when i release it lines up but whenever i go back to check it is back its old way. Since its lined up when i release i been moving it in the opposite direction. Is it good that it is lining up now? Will is start to grow straight as it gets older? The bird has a bit of an "under bite".


Yes, exactly, you are training it, and as he grows and the beak starts to harden this training will result in a much better alignment for him. Thanks for the update.

Karyn


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## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

doesn't seem to be getting any better =/


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

It's been 4 days or so, and it may take weeks to do this, as the keratin sheaths that make up the beak are still very soft and in time will harden, finishing the keratinization process, to form a hardened, mature beak for him. You are trying to train the beak each day, as it is slowly going through this process in the coming weeks, into a better final alignment, it's not a case of doing this a few days and things should be fixed. As I mentioned earlier, you are trying to give him a better result as an adult, than just letting it be and doing nothing.

Karyn


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## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

I've been rebuked, I'm going to keep doing it, i can feel the beak getting harder it seems, maybe it's in my head.


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## Dobato (Jul 3, 2008)

No, not a rebuke at all, just laying it out with more detail, as perhaps I was not clear enough earlier. We really can not say with certainty how much of an improvement we are going to achieve in the end, but IMO, trying is better than not trying.

Karyn


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## mikis343 (Nov 26, 2013)

I know this thread is old but did this pigeon ever get better? Im just wondering because I have a scissor beak nestling and I want to try this method.


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