I got these baby cochins 3 weeks ago, at 1 week of age. I carefully selected the ones with longer wings and tails to assure females. They will be a month old this weekend, and one of them has lots of fur on its feet and the other absolutely no fur. I have only found one website that says no fur means male, but all the others signs point to these guys being female. What does everyone think?? Jagger at 1 week Jagger 4 weeks Jagger 4 weeks. Very small pale crest This is the 2nd little guy we got, and his feet look very different from the first one. Fargo at 1 week. Small tail and longer wings. Hoping a female?? Fargo 4 weeks. Long tail. very furry feet compared to Jagger. What does that mean? Did I miss something?? Thanks in advance for all help!!! Mandy
Cochins are not sexed by whether they have feathers on their shanks and feet. The feathering on feet will depend on how true the breeding to type has been. IMO they both look like Males due to their stance. At 7 weeks they should give you a better guess. It helps if you have more than two to compare as they grow, our Cochins by 7-8 weeks are pretty obvious which is which.
I have never heard of no feathers on the feet of males. All my Cochin mix hens had/have feathered feet. So, as coorusu said they could be mixes.
They're too young to say for sure. There's no connection between feathering on the legs and gender. Leg feathering is a dominant trait. The first bird does have leg feathering, it's just much lighter than the second bird. This makes me think it's probably a mixed breed, especially when combined with the body shape. See how the second bird is more rounded and fluffy looking? That's how a cochin should look, and with the more heavily feathered legs. First bird has a pointier tail, not as rounded, not fluffy. That plus the light leg feathering indicates only one cochin parent.
My bantam cochin cockerals started growing wattles and pinking up comb around 5 weeks. They both had heavily feathered legs and feet.
