Hi, I was encouraged to start a thread on my story. I ended up with two roos from my daughters Kindergarden class last year. By the time we found out they were roos we were in love with them. We began a long search of how to stop the crowing. Only one (Pip) was crowing. We live in town with a no roo law. Pip also began to get quite aggressive. He would bite the adults and kids and draw blood. We tried to re-home him to someone who wouldn't eat him. It was a loooooong search with no success. We read a lot on de-crowing which ultimately we decided against for many reasons. We read a lot about caponizing roos. Many post of people who were going to do it never followed up with how it turned out. With so much talk about how risky it was we were nervous to even try. As the crowing got worse and the aggression grew we decided we didn't have a choice but to try to find someone to caponize them. It was their only hope of survival. We called every bird clinic, exotic clinics and even reached out the the vet teaching hospital UCDavis. No one and I mean no one did it, heard of it nor would attempt it. We got a lot of "It's too invasive, too risky." My hope was going fast. I was devastated when we had to have our personal vet out to put our beloved cat down. While talking with her I asked her if she would home our roos. She said she couldn't but told me she had successfully neutered one of her clients roos and it was successful. She had watched a you tube video on how to do it and tried. That clients rooster was still alive and well after a year. We made an appointment. My vet was very nervous about this. She does not see exotics or farm animals. She cancelled the appointment twice just to make sure she did all her study. She watched videos, talked with her mentor, researched anesthesia etc prior to attempting this. I am happy to say we are now 6 days post surgery and they are both doing great. Questions you may have...cost $145 per bird. I'd pay it for my dog or cat to be fixed so this was okay. They couldn't have food or water prior to surgery. Our vet said the longer they went the better they do so they went 21 hours prior. The vet went in under both wings with a tiny incision. She had to gently spread the ribs to access and remove the testes. She then sutured and glued both incisions. Neither bird messed with the incision site post surgery. As soon as we got them home our one roo Faith instantly began to eat and drink. He never looked back. It's as if nothing happened to him. Pip on the other hand drank very little that night. We did force some water down him the next day but not much. Both birds stayed in small crates for the first 24 hours. At the end of this period Faith was so good we put him in an enclosed run out back. Pip we moved into a larger crate with his pal the duck and left him there for 24 more hours. After that he was drinking and eating and back to himself. He went outside to forage on the third day. By the fourth day you couldn't see where the vet had cut. You could only see the bald areas where she plucked them to make the cut. We kept them on pain meds for two days although not entirely sure they needed it. We also gave them 5 days of antibiotics to make sure no infection would occur. Five days post surgery which was just yesterday we decided to allow them both out in the yard together. Prior to the procedure they couldn't because they would fight badly. They got into it 3 times through early day with our intervention to stop and after that foraged and left each other alone. They still are fine today. The vet said it will take about 4 weeks for all the testosterone to leave their systems but the changes thus far makes it all worth it. We are back to holding Pip who was the aggressive one. My kids no longer hop on things when he comes their way. We can hold and carry him around again. He did crow once, the second morning but it was a half hearted try. Since he will try to crow but if you aren't right next to him you'd never hear it. It's not even a full crow. It's hard to explain. It starts muffled and low and quickly dies out. He never tries to crow durning the day. He had crowed ALL the time prior. I miss his crow...a lot but my neighbors don't and now we aren't at risk of a complaint and have to get rid of him. I also like the fact that we don't have to worry about fertilized eggs. That is something I never wanted. I hope I covered everything. I am happy to answer any questions about this. I know it's a risky procedure and you really have to find a vet who is willing to put in the extra hard work to be prepared and willing to try. I'm glad I did it. I was scared to death that day but I am thankful they are both healthy and happy. I would have given anything to have seen a post like this when I was trying to decide to do this or not so that is why I have spent the time to write this, so others who have and love a roo, who need options for crowing or aggression can see that caponizing can be successful and to not rule out a typical cat and dog vet 
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do they seem to be less flighty than most chickens?
