missing nails-inbreeding???

[klf73]

ok, I have 2 chicks that just hatched, both missing at least one toenail. Why is this? Is it because there was too much inbreeding? The reason I say that is it is a breed I only found one person on here and only saw eggs from a different person on ebay. It isn't a common breed but I definitely don't want to keep a trio if they are already too inbred. What else causes missing toenails??

thanks for any info

Krista

 

[speckledhen]

I really dont know what causes them. I have a RIR who has never had nails on either of her middle toes. And I hatched some from McMurray stock parentage that were missing a nail or two. I think it's just a fluke, not necessarily inbreeding.

 

[klf73]

i noticed some of my silkies have the missing nails. And I first thought fluke when the first one(of this batch,not silkies) hatched, but when the second one hatched I was wondering if it was more than coincidence.

Thank you for replying
Krista

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi! No toe nails is an anomaly for sure. It could be a weird result from line breeding / inbreeding or just a 'thing'.
I've never seen that here, but considering the bunch Ive been moving every evening, NO TOE-NAILS would be a good thing.
What breed is showing up with nail-less chicks?

Lisa

 

[Shaffer]

Krista,
Since you are working on something that is rare. How many good chicks do you have available for breeding?
It sounds like a recessive gene and they all could be hiding this trait but since you don't have or seen the breeding flock, it could also be a dominate gene.
I would keep the best birds and breed them if they are that scarce. If you put all perfect birds together and you still get some chicks like that you will have to test mate them. I'd keep the toeless chicks you have now if you have room so you have them to test mate the good birds to see who are the carriers of this gene.
If you breed the best birds and don't get any chicks like that you may be good as long as you hatch enough chicks to verify it is not recessive.
Good luck, HS

 

[chick2good4u]

I ordered 11 RIR chicks this past May and two did not have middle toe nails either.

 

[speckledhen]

Here is a picture of Rosemary and you can see both middle toes are just toes with no nails. She was a runt to boot, a sorry example of the breed, I must say, but her eggs were never hatched. An entirely different breed I hatched last year had two chicks missing nails.

 

[tiki244]

That happens in Feather footed breeds sometimes .

 

[seminolewind]

I think over the years it takes alot of line breeding to make and keep good purebreds. I think one of the results is missing toenails.
My mom's nonsense have underbites. I think that would be along those lines as well.

 

[MaransGuy]

Foot and toe deformities are common if incubation temps are too high. I have two birds with clubbed outer toes that hatched from an incubator running too high. I have hatched a lot of chicks from them and have never had a repeat, all of their offspring have perfect feet.