Broken feet feathers

[pupemergency]

I have a young sultan that is constantly breaking her feet feathers. Her nails and toes in general are weird. The toe nails grow a little spiraled because the nail beds are just ever so slightly crooked. It's weird, but the nails themselves don't ever give her problems. I clip the toe nails occasionally just to ensure that they don't ever get in her way and add to her problems. However, I am beginning to wonder if perhaps her weird feet are causing other problems because she is constantly breaking feathers on her feet. Once every 3-4 weeks I am dealing with 1-4 injured blood feathers. Sometimes I suspect it's from squabbles that she is having with the other girls (because the rate of injury increases when they have to stay confined in their run for whatever reason). But it happens when she is out in the yard too. It also has happened when she was all by herself. I am relatively new to chicken keeping, and looking for any advice. She is in pain enough that if this were "happy tail" on a dog I would be considering amputating the offending vestige. But to my knowledge you can't amputate a feather lol! I am stuck for ideas on how to (at the very least) decrease the rate of injury. Thank you in advance

 

[Shadowfire]

Add plenty of bedding, and try to reduce "scuffles". Good luck!

 

[coach723]

I had a brahma rooster that was often breaking feathers on his legs and feet. I used to wrap them with co wrap just firm enough to hold and protect the feathers, especially when there were new feathers coming in. It helped some. Just wrap lightly so the feathers are in their normal position, but that way they don't catch on things. I would wrap for a few weeks, and then he'd be good for a while. Next broken feather I would wrap again for a while. I've had others that never had a problem so I assumed it was genetic, weak shafts or something, in his case.

 

[pupemergency]

I had a brahma rooster that was often breaking feathers on his legs and feet. I used to wrap them with co wrap just firm enough to hold and protect the feathers, especially when there were new feathers coming in. It helped some. Just wrap lightly so the feathers are in their normal position, but that way they don't catch on things. I would wrap for a few weeks, and then he'd be good for a while. Next broken feather I would wrap again for a while. I've had others that never had a problem so I assumed it was genetic, weak shafts or something, in his case.

 

[pupemergency]

I had a brahma rooster that was often breaking feathers on his legs and feet. I used to wrap them with co wrap just firm enough to hold and protect the feathers, especially when there were new feathers coming in. It helped some. Just wrap lightly so the feathers are in their normal position, but that way they don't catch on things. I would wrap for a few weeks, and then he'd be good for a while. Next broken feather I would wrap again for a while. I've had others that never had a problem so I assumed it was genetic, weak shafts or something, in his case.

That's a good idea. Thank you for the advice. I have other birds with feathered feet too. She's the only one that ever has a problem

 

[sourland]

I personally am not big on feather footed birds because of the difficulties in maintaining their feet. The only thing that worked for me was maintaining them in a cooped situation with lots of bedding.

 

[Tylerblockbuster]

Check her feet for things such as bumbletoe because my silkie was ripping his out when he had it. Or check for scale mites that could be causing eratation also they are terrible at keeping there feet clean from poop so there might be poop on her feet she is trying to clean of or if it is to cold were you are they can get the same tingly feeling to you get when your fingers are frozen and warm up