Feathers on Serama Feet????

[HenThymes]

O.K., being really new to the serama breed in general and having my first hatch I have a question for someone with more experience. I have three new chicks that I have posted pics of on the serama thread that just turned two weeks old yesterday. Well upon their daily inspections today I noticed that one of them has feathers starting to appear on its feet, is this normal?? I don't hear feathered feet or legs being talked about in seramas and have never personally seen any so this is totally new to me. Is it a good thing/bad thing, will they stay or just fade away as it fully feathers??

 

[Schultz]

No, that is definetly not normal. We have hatch lots of those little guys and never had that to happen. Maybe a mix?

 

[Ady Road Chicks]

How many breeds have feathers on their legs? I have 11 chicks that were hatched on July 3 and 2 of them have feathers on their legs. They are all unknown breeds. They all came from large blue or brown eggs. Any ideas? (I can't figure out how to post pics but I will continue to try.)

 

[HenThymes]

Quote:
No, definitely full serama, I have both of the parents and they are in a pen completely by themselves. I don't even own anything feather footed or legged..

 

[Akane]

Actually I've had several purebred japanese bantams and seramas get a tiny strip of feathers down their legs. It goes away when they are adults.

These aren't the best pics but you can see the line of feathers:

I emailed these back to the breeder the first time I got chicks with feathers and she assured me they were purebred and there was no way they could have mixed. Like I said the feathers went away as they got older and none have them as adults. Every now and then the feather strips reappear in my flock.

 

[apc]

There is a 'booted' serama as well. Im not too familiar with them however.

Its hard to say with seramas since they are a hodge podge of breeds, and one never knows what will pop up genetic-wise.

 

[catwalk]

Some Seramas have little stubs on their legs, which go away with age, but some are definately booted. I hatched one in November, from clean legged parents, but I didn't notice the anomoly until he was on his way to a new home. I'll get to see him at a county fair coming up to check if he stayed booted. The trait can be cultivated, but it seems to pop up out of nowhere on occasion. HenThymes, does your chick have feathers all the way down its leg, or just on the feet?

 

[HenThymes]

Quote:
Hey Liz, this is one of Leo & Lugh's chicks.. Is the one you hatched last fall out of one of the two of them?? He only has them coming out of his feet, so is that considered booted??

 

[catwalk]

Leo himself hatched in November, so it wasn't his. I think it was from a pair I bought from Jessi. I have a few more from that pairing, all clean legged. I hear that it pops up sometimes....

 

[MalayStyle]

After watching a lot of videos of Seramas in Malaysia I do not recall seeing any with feather feet as well. I could be wrong but I will definitely be paying more attention to it. I just notice a picture on eBay selling seramas and they had feather feet too. Though I am new to Seramas and chicken in general. I suspect that many of the Seramas in the USA are no longer pure breds, Though some may have such a small of non serama gene it may not show up for several generations.

My hypothesis would be
New breed
lack of new genetics
Lack of supply
High price
Breeding to new standard outside of Malaysia, which might encourage experiments with mixing breeds to achieve new standard.



Just my suspicion thinking it out logically as I mention, I am not an expert.