How many toes should my chicken have?

[midget_farms]

I just started the flock this week. I decided to start with adult birds because I don't have time or desire to mess around with chicks. That is what hens are for. anyway - got a great deal from a neighbor who had a bunch of different birds. I got a silkie banty with the most messed up feet I've ever seen! There are toes growing from everywhere & her claws are a mess, curved & bent. How many toes should this bird have? Does anyone have a picture of what the feet should look like? I swear she has 2 toes attached to 1 knuckle. the toe is attached to the foot at a single location then splits into two separate toes. Is that normal?

 

[silkiechicken]

A silkie should have 5 toes. The regular set and an extra one sticking from the back side.

This is the best I have of silkie feet at the moment, you can see the extra pair behind it's legs pointing up. Sometimes the toes can stick together... and often silkies can have 6 or more. I had one that had 6 on each, and the extras were nubs sticking off his 5th!

 

[mhoward92]

No It don't sound normal. But if she is walking fine and seems to be happy then its ok. It was probabaly a Bone deformation when she was born. For her nails. just use some nail clippers to trim them. Don't get them TO short that it starts to irratate her feet otherwise she WILL PULL THEM OUT! Her foot problem might affect her later on though when she gets older. Are all of her toes close to the same size? or is it more like one toe then a little one growing out of that joint..

 

[midget_farms]

Wow - that makes sense now. Mine has the nubs sticking off of other toes for sure. I thought I was getting some kind of nuclear waste bird or something. I would post pictures, but I need to bring them back to health first. They have scaley leg mites (I think) really bad. I was trying to decide if the extra toes were some other disease instead of the mites.

 

[mhoward92]

Silkies often have that deformation problem..well i should not say often but "more occuring" than other chickens. I advised you to clip the nails but i was just thinking..you don't really have to clip the nails if you can let it outside. Im so use to being up north in the winter I often forget about the summer

really the nail problem wil ltake care of itself if you let the chicken outdoors. it will naturally file itself down blunt and short again. if you do decide to clip it though you need to be careful because unlike our nail their nails have blood pockets inside them. if you clip too short you will cut that pocket and it gets a bloody mess. so if you do decide to clip the nails get some flour or baking soda so if you do hit a blood pocket you can stop the bleeding. I would just Re-advise you to let it go outside. saves the risk of bleeding all over the place. and it works fine

 

[silkiechicken]

Yeah, the scaly leg mites sounds like what is making the feet look really bad. If the bird has 6 nails total on each foot, it's got the right number of toes. Often the back toe and 5th toe are joined together in pet quality birds.

I say take care of the mites first, then worry about the nails. Best of luck!

 

[Tutter]

If you do decide to clip the nails, there are things which will do, but the best thing is still a product called, Quik Stop. It can be found at pet stores, and is a styptic powder. It's worth having in the house.

 

[daisyd]

Hi,
I have one silkie rooster that has 6 toes. Is it save to use this rooster for breeding or is it likely to run in the genes? Can anyone give me some more information on this?
Thank you.

 

[cgoodloe]

I have RIR bantams and EE bantams. My RIR have 4 toes (1 on back, 3 in front). Is this correct? All the EEers have 3 toes, nothing on the back. Do EEer get spurs too? Pretty sure RIR get spurs if they are roosters. What age do they get the spur?

 

[silkiechicken]

The average chicken, your RIR's and EE's should have 3 toes in front that are long with a nail, one toe in back that is short and acts like a kickstand with a nail. All will have a spur bud patch, all roosters will start growing one at about 6 months, but the rate varies. Some hens will also grow spurs, but it also varies.