Can I trim my silkie's crest?

[NYREDS]

6chickens in St. Charles :

Please dont go all preachy on us. Its something like adopting a puppy then discovering its a nonsense with special grooming needs. Or those poor people with pugs (ever heard what THEIR special needs are? Uggh!) Well, we love our chicken, weird crest or not. We do our best to take care of him. Everybody's different, nobody's perfect.

I raise [arguably] some of the best Pugs you'll ever see & I have no idea what their special needs are? Please enlighten me.​

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:
Can't answer your dubbing ? since I can't seem to follow the logic. If it was obvious that a birds crest was trimmed it had no business winning & the judge who placed the bird must have been having an off day. It's called faking. An exhibitor sometimes will do a bit of judicious plucking ie black from the crest of a WC Black Polish but even that, if too obvious, should keep a bird from placing very high.
At a show last year I passed over a WC Black Polish pullet that was a beauty because there was a 1/2 inch bald strip in the front of her crest where feathers were pulled. The exhibitor, a well known Polish breeder ask why & when I showed hin he laughed & said "you got me". He knew he'd gone too far & hoped the judge wouldn't pick it up.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

Quote:
Can't answer your dubbing ? since I can't seem to follow the logic. If it was obvious that a birds crest was trimmed it had no business winning & the judge who placed the bird must have been having an off day. It's called faking. An exhibitor sometimes will do a bit of judicious plucking ie black from the crest of a WC Black Polish but even that, if too obvious, should keep a bird from placing very high.
At a show last year I passed over a WC Black Polish pullet that was a beauty because there was a 1/2 inch bald strip in the front of her crest where feathers were pulled. The exhibitor, a well known Polish breeder ask why & when I showed hin he laughed & said "you got me". He knew he'd gone too far & hoped the judge wouldn't pick it up.

I think the poster is talking about rectal glands. I had a pug that had rectal gland issues and have heard from other pug owners that theirs did too. I have no idea if this is a common problem, just trying to surmise what the poster meant.

(tried to use the correct word a-n-a-l but the filter would have none of it!! )

 

[Windchyme]

Quote:
Can't answer your dubbing ? since I can't seem to follow the logic. If it was obvious that a birds crest was trimmed it had no business winning & the judge who placed the bird must have been having an off day. It's called faking. An exhibitor sometimes will do a bit of judicious plucking ie black from the crest of a WC Black Polish but even that, if too obvious, should keep a bird from placing very high.

**** I think any plucking ought to be penalized at a show. I know silkie people who routinely pluck black feathers out of a buff in order to show a "clear" buff or a white feather out of a blue or black bird or colored feathers out of a white. I personally think it's cheating and I won't have anything to do with it- maybe I am a purist in that way. If they can live with a win like that, good for them, but I wouldn't feel too proud of it. I won't even trim eyes on a silkie I am getting ready to show.

 

[19hhbelgian]

Hmmmm... This went from a simple question to

way to easily

. Anyway, I have 2 silkies one too young to have problems seeing, but my other one, Splish Splash, ran full bore into 2 black australorp butts yesterday... Time for a trim if you ask me!!

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

I am so tired, so very tired. and now this, we're all talking about b-u-t-t-s and the strange trouble with them... Will the filter h ave trouble with this?

OK so I am an RN, and I love dogs (now I love chickens too) 3 years ago all the other RNs at my job adopted dogs. Some got pugs, figuring they take care of b-u-t-t-s every day and the pugs are worth the trouble. Oh really, they are. Far as I know, all the adopted pugs are still happy in their homes! If I weren't so tired, so very tired, I would love a pug too. Maybe a few pugs!

So to the pug loving responder, WHATS YOUR SECRET to pug hind-end health? If I believed I would be able to bring my tired feet home to "nobody else with a butt problem today" I just might adopt and rescue some pugs! But I deal with suffering every day, and as bright as I try to make it, I know I don't really want to come home to much more suffering. I have met suffering pugs. If you have the secret to that gland thing NOT becoming a problem, please share!

We asked Mr. Peeps if he wants a crest trim. He said he's not ready yet. That story about the Polish hens getting trimmed scared him. He'll tell us when he's ready. He and Roaster posed for this picture, you can see they're smiling so pretty:

 

[adeechickluv]

Right, OK, don't know how this informative thread turned into a debate about pugs ...
I have one golden laced Polish chicken, shes around 3 1/2 months old. She is amazing and we love her. She always makes us laugh. But we soon realized that she doesn't quite know where she's going. She can see downwards, but not up. If you hoold your hand above her, she will not notice. I think we will trim her soon, but I am scared that something might go wrong. I'm not showing her, so I don't think there's anything wrong with trimming. Advice would be helped. Pictures too, please, of trimmed chickens!!

 

[Blowmeuhkiss]

Help! Last night i gave my Harry a mohawk so he could see better. I felt terrible or him. When he figured out what i was doing, he stayed still and really let me give him a cute do. He seemed so happy. Now this morning he wont shut up. Instead of his normal 10am cockadoodledoo he was up at 8 and hasnt shut up for 3 hours.

 

[YborChix]

The breed standard says that the crest should not obstruct the eyes and not trimming would cause deductions in a showing environment.

 

[YborChix]

Whoops. Duplicate.