Ringneck pheasant with multiple spurs

[GoldenFlight]

Today I realized one of the pheasant roosters has four spurs. Has anyone else ever seen or heard of this in ringnecks?

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Are those actual spurs, or just buds like you sometimes see on a hen?
I am interested to see what someone more knowledgeable has to say. Very interesting, I wonder if this is common on a pheasant, or any other birds.

 

[GoldenFlight]

Looks like the spurs on a Sumatra to me. https://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sumatra/SumSpurs7mos.JPEG

 

[007Sean]

It's not all that rare. In a hunting situation you may run into quite a few cocks that have double spurs....a genetic trait that can be passed on to the next generation.
If you breed him this next season, you'll probably get male chicks with the same trait.

 

[GoldenFlight]

It's not all that rare. In a hunting situation you may run into quite a few cocks that have double spurs....a genetic trait that can be passed on to the next generation.
If you breed him this next season, you'll probably get male chicks with the same trait.

You think it’s a dominant gene then?

 

[Woofless]

I used to raise ringneck pheasants for a big SD preserve and I also cleaned wild (mostly) pheasants for hunters during hunting season.

Double spurs were not that uncommon in the pen raised birds....we raised 6-8,000 per year and I'd say 1 out of every 300 mature roosters that I handled, I would find double spurs.

I saw it less often in harvested wild birds but I do have a couple feet from one big old wild rooster with 2-3 year length spurs and he had two of them on each foot. I've still got the feet preserved somewhere lol.

 

[007Sean]

You think it’s a dominant gene then?

Not necessarily dominant but that particular cockbird may pass that gene on to his offspring.
I have a Reeves cockbird that passes a clubbed right foot on to the male only chicks....so, I also think it's a 'sex linked' genetical defect....not every male chick but maybe 1 out of 4. At first I thought it was due to incubation issues but after several male chicks having a clubbed right foot, and never the left foot, nor did any female chick have the deformity, it became abundantly clear it was genetics and not incubation processes. I stopped using him as a breeder when it became clear it was a genetical deformity.