Roosters and spurs

[jackhorn01]

Does anyone file down the spurs or anything like that? I am relatively new to roosters as far as owning my own and was just wandering.

 

[brahmabreeder]

You can, I've done it before. I haven't done this but have read you can take pliers and grab the spur and then twist and pull and then there's no spur.

 

[BunkyB]

The best way to trim down the spurs is to buy a good pair of nail cutters for dogs , plier shaped and with a wide enough blade to fit the spur. They are a few bucks but worth the investment. I personally never filed spurs before or used pliers.

If you are looking for the easiest way to trim the spurs without a fight from the roo...take his feet and gently turn him upside down and if the wings are flapping like nuts, don't panic. Just calmly run your hand along the wing to the shoulder and he will stop automatically unless he is really feisty. You can do this standing up or sitting down but I prefer to stand.

Putting the roosters legs between your fingers and stretched out and calm it is a pretty easy procedure. Chickens naturally give up flapping because it is exhausting to them. They calm down a lot faster as well. Now you have free access to his spurs and toenails. Just be careful not to cut the spurs or nails too far down. You can sometimes see the color difference as to where the safety zone is for a cut. Too close and it bleeds. Practice makes perfect... not to worry. Easy as pie.... Steve

 

[Spangled]

Does anyone file down the spurs or anything like that?

Sometimes.

One person holds the rooster under the arm, we use a towel wrapped around him loosely to calm him. It's in such a way that he gets air but the towel hanging down blocks our headlamps. (We do it after dark.)

The other person (usually me) uses the pliers and carefully grasp the spur and slowly twist it back and forth for a while. The cover of the spur will eventually come loose. It seems to only be attached right at the leg. It sort of like taking a dunce cap off of a conehead ... if you get my references.

What is left is a spur that is fairly soft-ish. We put the blood stop powder on it because it is usually oozing trace of blood. That residual spur wears partially away and becomes hard again and grows a new outer cover over the next few weeks.

None of our roosters have ever made a peep when we did this, which surprised me.

Why have I done this? Because we've had spurs that curve up, and I'm afraid the rooster will impale himself on his own spur or the spurs seem to be impeding the rooster's ability to walk.

 

[chfite]

I left the spurs on my rooster. He seems fine. It seems to me that the spurs should be left on if there are no problems so associated.

Chris

 

[jak2002003]

There are usually no problem with leaving spurs on the rooster.

But I have one Japanese Bantam rooster, with very long curled spurs that are sticking into his underside when he walks. He has to walk very slowly!

I tired to cut them off with dog nail clippers, but they are so hard and the clippers broke after only cutting off one spur! He make such a fuss like it was hurting him, now I am afraid to try again - and also spend the money on a second pair of clippers if they are going to break!!!