UNUSUAL CHICKEN FEET!?!?!

Eramos97 · Nov 30, 2015

I have been on this website a few times but kinda new at posting things. Today i decided to post a picture of one of my new baby chick. I was incubating and and 2 of them made it. The reason i started was because my adorable silkie rooster which i love so much died. But anyways when they hatched I was very curious to see how they would come out. The mother is a Rhode Island Red and The father is a Silkie Bantam. After examining them I noticed that their feet were different. Their right foot has 4 toes like their mother and their left foot has 5 toes like their father!!! Does anyone know if this is even possible? Has this happened before? I'm very curious because i have yet to find a thread or article about a chicken having to different kind of feet.

ChickenCanoe · Dec 1, 2015

Yes it is possible and even likely with crossing a breed with 4 toes and one with 5.

If there's a bird with 5 toes way back in ancestry, the occasional 5 toed foot can crop up.

Stranger things happen. I hatched a chick with 3 legs.

firedragon1982 · Dec 1, 2015

Because curiosity is killing me @ChickenCanoe , What happened with the chick? Did you put it down, or try to amputate the spare leg? Also: did it have any mobility in the leg? Because morbid curiosity lol.

ChickenCanoe · Dec 1, 2015

I put it down at about day 2, froze it and asked the state vet school if they wanted it. They said no because they see that stuff all the time.
Certainly didn't want those genes perpetuating themselves in the flock.
If memory serves, it couldn't walk. I believe the left foot didn't work well and the middle leg had 5 or 6 toes that didn't seem to function at all.

Good question though.

UNUSUAL CHICKEN FEET!?!?!

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