Are Malaysian Bantams (and similar) healthy/ethical?

[Fritzen]

I've been curious about chicken breeds lately, as I adore fancy pigeons and hope to own a flock one day! I noticed a particular breed that lots of sites are claiming are the 'smallest and lightest' breed of chicken.

If the sites I'm looking at are correct, this is the Malaysian Bantam? (Or Serama?)

Image sourced from this article!

I was immediately a bit worried about the quality of life for the chicken... it doesn't look comfortable, and I can't imagine it's able to function well with a body structured like that. It reminds me of the short muzzles of pugs and the lower hind legs of German shepards...
Are breeds of chickens like these healthy? Are they even ethical?

TLDR: The appearance of this chicken concerns me, is it healthy? Are breeds like this ethical?

 

[JustAChickenLoverOverHere]

You are looking at a serama. There are Malaysian seramas and American seramas. American seramas tend to not have such a puffy or held up chest. Malaysian seramas do. (Not sure if traditional is one, as it is considered one when showing)
Seramas are rather healthy, but they do need more precautions, as they are tiny. If taken care of properly, they will live a long and healthy chicken life. That is a show quality rooster. He was bred to be like that. Most seramas aren't THAT inclined.

 

[snood dude]

They live a healthy life. They position them selves like when they want to.

 

[Fritzen]

You are looking at a serama. There are Malaysian seramas and American seramas. American seramas tend to not have such a puffy or held up chest. Malaysian seramas do. (Not sure if traditional is one, as it is considered one when showing)
Seramas are rather healthy, but they do need more precautions, as they are tiny. If taken care of properly, they will live a long and healthy chicken life. That is a show quality rooster. He was bred to be like that. Most seramas aren't THAT inclined.

They live a healthy life. They position them selves like when they want to.

That's great to hear!! I was concerned that the image the site provided was standard for the breed. I'm happy to hear they can live healthy happy lives!

 

[JustAChickenLoverOverHere]

That's great to hear!! I was concerned that the image the site provided was standard for the breed. I'm happy to hear they can live healthy happy lives!

They live 7 years on average, which should be expected from such a small bird, but can live up to 11 years.

 

[NatJ]

That's great to hear!! I was concerned that the image the site provided was standard for the breed. I'm happy to hear they can live healthy happy lives!

If you search for Serama hatching eggs on ebay, the listings often have pictures of the breeding stock. They tend to have a more normal chicken shape than the one you found in the article.

Edit to add: you can also look at youtube videos of Seramas, if you want to see them moving around and acting like chickens--to me, it looks like they function just fine.

 

[RosemaryDuck]

I have a few Serama girls. They usually have 'classes' of how tiny and compact they are. You can get ones even smaller and smaller. Some definitely don't look healthy. My girls look pretty normal, though they are microscopic .
I haven't gone that much into it but I believe there's Class 'A' & 'B' and so on.