using a contraceptive implant (made for dogs) to stop crowing...Anyone ever heard of this?

[jonaeselaye]

I agree male. He is at age where many if not most of mine do not crow regularly, if at all.

Yes the vet agrees that he is fairly young so the implant is more likely to be successful. He stops crowing completely at around 12pm so the vet believes that he may still do his half crows in the morning out of habit but if the implant is successful, it will stop him from getting the urge to start crowing more often.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Will he be sterile?

 

[jonaeselaye]

Will he be sterile?

Yes I believe so. The vet said that there may be changes to his appearance as he's currently molting and may not regrow his saddle feathers. He is likely also to going to be disinterested in mounting my girls. Not a bad thing for me because I don't want chicks and I definitely don't want him attempting to mate with my silkies but it could be problematic for those wanting to keep their roos for breeding.

 

[centrarchid]

What is the proposed mechanism for female feathering? In chickens in the absence of femaleness over riding, the male pattern prevails.

 

[jonaeselaye]

What is the proposed mechanism for female feathering? In chickens in the absence of femaleness over riding, the male pattern prevails.

I am unsure but I can ask the avian vet when we bring him back for a health check

 

[leighks]

Did you repeat the implant application?
From what I read, it's not a one and done but a semi-yearly treatment.

@jonaeselaye maybe I missed it, but how old is your bird?

Yes you are correct, it’s typically repeated in 6 months. But I’m my roo’s case I didn’t see a big enough improvement for a long enough time to merit the expense of another implant.

 

[aart]

Yes you are correct, it’s typically repeated in 6 months. But I’m my roo’s case I didn’t see a big enough improvement for a long enough time to merit the expense of another implant.

Might need to be implanted before testicles grow to any size.

 

[leighks]

Where on his body is the implant injected?

For my roo the implant was given in the back of the neck. He gave an injection to numb up the area first, put the implant in via a large needle, then put some tissue glue over the area to make sure it didn’t migrate out. It didn’t seem to bother my roo at all.

 

[leighks]

Might need to be implanted before testicles grow to any size.

Yes I definitely should have done it sooner, but he didn’t start jumping at me until around a year of age. Before that he was very well behaved around people.

 

[jonaeselaye]

An update on Maya, it has been around 1 month since he was given the implant.
When he initially got the implant he crowed a lot more the next few days and was very moody for about a week. I communicate regularly with the vet who administered his implant and she said the implant will initially stimulate his hormones before dampening them.
This does seem to be the case because now he only crows a few times a day or some days not at all.

He is a lot calmer now than he use to be. He still mounts my 6 hens but not as much as before and most of the times he just steps on them but doesn't mate with them. Interestingly, we are still getting a few fertile eggs. Though I believe he will become completely sterile after his 3rd implant.

His physical appearance is noticeably different. His body and tail have become quite round. I've attached a before and now photo, his tail looks very different to me. In the first photo he had a long defined tail and now it looks similar to my hens' tails.