HELP!! Baby chick hatched MISSING TOES??!?!

[hannahsocal]

I had a very successful hatch so far but one of my chicks (the last one to pip) was having trouble and making no progress so I stepped in to help (gently, carefully with all precautions taken of course). When he was almost out of the shell, I noticed one of the feet had all of the toes shorter than the other foot. I’ve heard that brachydactally (sp?) can cause short toes but only on the 4th digit. Does anyone know what might have caused this? Will it “grow in”? Photos attached of the shorter toe-d foot and a healthy chick foot from the same hatch!

Decided to add a photo of some of the successful hatchers and the last egg (this baby with the short toes) when it started to pip.

 

[Paz]

Cuties
Hope it will do ok

 

[artbykarenehaley]

I don't think toes will develop at this point but do hope your chick is otherwise happy and healthy

 

[hannahsocal]

I don't think toes will develop at this point but do hope your chick is otherwise happy and healthy

I’m unfortunately inclined to agree with you… I’m just really curious about what could have caused this since none of the other ones have it. I hope someone might reply to this thread in the future with some similar experience. If it was something environmental like being squished up against the side of the egg during development, then breeding the chick would result in normal offspring right? Makes me wonder

 

[artbykarenehaley]

I’m unfortunately inclined to agree with you… I’m just really curious about what could have caused this since none of the other ones have it. I hope someone might reply to this thread in the future with some similar experience. If it was something environmental like being squished up against the side of the egg during development, then breeding the chick would result in normal offspring right? Makes me wonder

In regards to whether it's inheritable or not, the only way to really know would be if you were to hatch it's offspring and even then it would likely not show up unless the other parent also had a gene like this. Personally if this grows up to be a hen I would avoid using her eggs in a hatching group.

Were these shipped eggs or locally sourced? I've encountered shipped eggs with birth defects, in that case I have no way of knowing who the parents are, whether they were very closely related, what their nutrition was like, and whether the jostling of shipping may have come in to play. There are many variables when it comes to developing babies of any species.

 

[hannahsocal]

In regards to whether it's inheritable or not, the only way to really know would be if you were to hatch it's offspring and even then it would likely not show up unless the other parent also had a gene like this. Personally if this grows up to be a hen I would avoid using her eggs in a hatching group.

Were these shipped eggs or locally sourced? I've encountered shipped eggs with birth defects, in that case I have no way of knowing who the parents are, whether they were very closely related, what their nutrition was like, and whether the jostling of shipping may have come in to play. There are many variables when it comes to developing babies of any species.

Yeah they are very expensive rare eggs so I really want to use as many as possible to breed to get my lines going. :/ unfortunate this one turned out with a weird defect but I guess we’ll see how it goes. I’ll update every month with pics of the foot to show progress in case this happens to anyone else.

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Yeah they are very expensive rare eggs so I really want to use as many as possible to breed to get my lines going. :/ unfortunate this one turned out with a weird defect but I guess we’ll see how it goes. I’ll update every month with pics of the foot to show progress in case this happens to anyone else.

That is fair. How far were the eggs shipped from? Mine were WFBS from Virginia, and I am in Oregon. I also had humidity issues with my incubator during the incubation process.

I had one dead in shell with no eyes and weird stumpy feet.

One was dead in shell with no apparent issues except the air cell in it's egg was misshapen. That's usually a shipping related issue.

I had one that hatched alive but with an exposed spinal column and balance issues

and one that grew to have a deformed comb and a real nasty attitude.

The others turned out to be beautiful. These are the ones my sister is using in a breeding program.

 

[hannahsocal]

That is fair. How far were the eggs shipped from? Mine were WFBS from Virginia, and I am in Oregon. I also had humidity issues with my incubator during the incubation process.

I had one dead in shell with no eyes and weird stumpy feet.

One was dead in shell with no apparent issues except the air cell in it's egg was misshapen. That's usually a shipping related issue.

I had one that hatched alive but with an exposed spinal column and balance issues

and one that grew to have a deformed comb and a real nasty attitude.

The others turned out to be beautiful. These are the ones my sister is using in a breeding program.

Oh wow how many did you incubate and how many healthy hatched?

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Yeah they are very expensive rare eggs so I really want to use as many as possible to breed to get my lines going. :/ unfortunate this one turned out with a weird defect but I guess we’ll see how it goes. I’ll update every month with pics of the foot to show progress in case this happens to anyone else.

What breed were the parents? My guess would be inbreeding issues. Often with the actual rare breeds (not the hatchery definition of rare) the gene pool is very limited making it hard to source non-related birds of the same breed. To combat this it's not uncommon for quite a bit of inbreeding to occur that in turn can lead to genetic defects.

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Oh wow how many did you incubate and how many healthy hatched?

I set 12 eggs. Eight hatched, one with the exposed spine, one with the comb deformity (his comb issue wasn't evident until he was mature), and six normal. White Faced Black Spanish. I won't keep this breed again where I'm at because I'm not set up for their needs, but they were fun to raise nonetheless.

I'm no stranger to random genetic flukes, I've had two early trimester miscarriages that were both attributed to random genetic anomalies. My husband and I are not related in any way. It just happens sometimes. It's more common than one might think.