De-crowing Options

[DerFlufflesandPrincess]

Aloha! I have a silky rooster who is 2 years old. We are moving from Hawaii to Las Vegas. There is a law against crowing roosters over there and I am looking for options to make him stop crowing. I do not want to rehome him because he is like a child to my son and we are all very attached to him. I am open to the decrowing surgery or having him caponized; which I heard will help him to stop crowing (although I don't know if it's feasible for his age of 2 years). We already are using a Crow Collar but it does not reduce the volume very much; he is still extremely loud. I also read online about some kind of hormone therapy that they give to hens but can also give to roosters to make them stop crowing. I would rather go with the least invasive option but we need one of these options nevertheless. Does anyone know of a veterinarian in the Las Vegas or surrounding area that offers any of these services? I don't want to hear any backlash about how it is a rooster's job to Crow. I realize this but he is like our family and we do not want to have to rehome him due to the city laws. If anyone has any advice for me or references on who to call please help! We are desperate!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Far too late to caponize, as the testes are up in the body cavity and swell in size with age. Also most caponizing nowadays is done at home by the owner.

Do you already have a house lined up? If not, I'd look to see if there's neighborhoods/cities where roosters might be legal.

 

[DerFlufflesandPrincess]

Far too late to caponize, as the testes are up in the body cavity and swell in size with age. Also most caponizing nowadays is done at home by the owner.

Do you already have a house lined up? If not, I'd look to see if there's neighborhoods/cities where roosters might be legal.

Yes we are currently in escrow for our house, it's in North Las Vegas. The market is crazy right now and options were limited so we couldn't be picky about location but I believe the whole city and suburbs outlaw crowing roosters.
Thank you so much for letting me know about the caponizing, it narrows our options. Ideally I'd prefer the hormone therapy but don't know how effective it is. I also don't know if any vets over there service chickens. I'm hoping that since there will be no local roosters in our new neighborhood (our neighborhood here in Hawaii has TONS of feral chickens and roosters) that Fluffy won't be hearing anyone else crowing; thus reducing his need to have a "crow competition" but he still crows pretty loud several times throughout the day on his own and sometimes in the middle of the night so I'm worried we will get complaints!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Only option I could think of offhand is to keep him indoors or in the garage most of the time, as he's a Silkie. I wouldn't want a chicken indoors, but it should help muffle crowing.

 

[LaFleche]

For your situation I would consider the hormonal implant to be appropriate, just call the vets near your future home and ask for the prodedure's costs etc.

They do the implants all the time for dogs and cats, so ....

 

[The Moonshiner]

This thread has me SMH.
If this rooster is like a child to your family why in the world would you buy a house where one of your children wouldn't be allowed?
I don't see an option that would work.

 

[rayrose]

The implants don't last long and have to be repeated
on a regular basis.

 

[InterestingChickens]

Most vets do not perform de - crowing surgery these days.

You could keep him inside a garage (if you have one) and build and run inside it making it as natural as possible with plenty of light and dirt to dust bathe in.

 

[DerFlufflesandPrincess]

Only option I could think of offhand is to keep him indoors or in the garage most of the time, as he's a Silkie. I wouldn't want a chicken indoors, but it should help muffle crowing.

That's exactly what we do now! Our landlord does not allow any pets where we currently live. we used to have some cages in the yard for them but they told us to take it down, so currently peeps and fluffy are indoor chickens! Welet them out with diapers on. So they kind of just roam my son's room and the house. Then we take them to the park or the beach on a daily basis to get their outdoor exercise. We were hoping to not have to do that when we moved but I think that before we get him any kind of decrow options we will do exactly that. I wanted to keep him in the garage during the summer anyway with an AC because it's really hot in Vegas

 

[Chicalina]

Not the point of the thread, but why on earth would you move from beautiful tropical island Hawaii to dirty dusty deserty Vegas?