6 Toes???

[bacres]

I have a silkie that has 5 toes on one foot and 6 toes on the other foot? What should I do? Breed it to a 4 toed bird? Any other suggestions?

 

[LadyinRed]

Hehe, That would be an interesting way to get a five toed bird!!!

But sadly it does not work like that. If you want five toes in the future breed to other silkies who who have five toes on both feet. The first gen of offspring may still have six on one or both feet but it can be bred out. If your lucky your silkie's egg was just shaken a little too much and caused a minor deformity and its not on the genetic level but thats not so likely.

Alot of people do not recommend breeding those with problems, and if you want to take that approach you can always have her be your broody hen to hatch out silkies from other pairings. I have two hatchery hens, one with fused toes and they are WONDERFUL mothers. By doing that you can keep your good hens and still have your better hens laying!

Good luck!

 

[chick4chicks]

I have a baby silkie like that 5 toes on one foot and 6 toes on the other.

 

[Elite Silkies]

Quote:
If it's what I am thinking it is, the two will fuse together but have 2 toenails. Most Silkie breeders would cull (no not kill, just sell or re-home). They would not use that bird for breeding.

But, even though they can still throw offspring with correct toes, it can still show up through out your line of birds.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Quote:
If it's what I am thinking it is, the two will fuse together but have 2 toenails. Most Silkie breeders would cull (no not kill, just sell or re-home). They would not use that bird for breeding.

But, even though they can still throw offspring with correct toes, it can still show up through out your line of birds.

 

[bacres]

Yeah the toes are fused and they have 2 toenails. So I need to cull them??

 

[Elite Silkies]

Quote:
It just depends on what your plans for your birds are.

If your only wanting them to be pets, then keep them. If your wanting to sell your birds then I would cull. But, you can still keep them and sell the offspring as Pet Quality.

If your working towards Show Quality or Breeder Quality stock then you need to cull hard.

 

[bacres]

Guess that means I need to cull hard!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Polydactyly toe expression can be somewhat variable. I would not cull from breeding based only upon an extra toe if other features were very good. However, it would be one of the considerations in determining which birds to keep and which need new homes. A bird with 6 toes has the correct genes, they just expressed too much. For breeding purposes, it's better than a 4-toed bird, which does NOT have the correct genes.

I did cull to a pet home a bird who had almost an entire extra foot atop one of her feet. That extreme polydactyly was nore than I wanted to deal with.

http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page3.html & http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi...m=frameset;view=image;seq=58;page=root;size=s

 

[Elite Silkies]

Quote:
My bad, I thought if the 4 toed bird would be the same as the 6 toed bird. Thanks for clarifying Sonoran. That's really good to know, so that we do not cull a very nice bird.