Roosters and the color red?

[peep this]

We have a foster rooster living in our garage at the moment. He's recovering from his injuries in isolation and the only dry place we have is the garage in a dog crate. He does get let out to roam the garage during the day, but I might have to put an end to that since he hurt his foot sometime today....

Any way, he likes to roam the house in the early evening before his bedtime and just hang out with the family (he's really sweet). EXCEPT - when my youngest daughter came downstairs wearing red pajama pants. He stopped preening and watching TV and CHASED her all the way up to her room!!! Does the color red bring out aggression in roosters like it does for bulls???

thanks!

 

[centrarchid]

I do not think bull behavior influenced by red coloration. Color vision most mammals excluding most primates not strongly developed. Movement is what gets bull going.

Chickens like most birds clearly react to color. Bright red of comb, wattles and head is associated with virility / health. Dominant chickens doing chasing most likely to exhibit most red, especially in males. Your specific situation might involve prior interactions between your rooster and youngest daughter. Which of them is top of pecking order? Have her change PJ colors and come back down. If attacks again, then pecking order issue. If no, then red alone gets him riled up or he takes her wearing red as sign of her being an upstart which goes back to pecking order.

 

[Tala]

Roos do sometimes react to color or clothing, especially new stuff. I have heard on here about roos attacking people only when they were wearing red.

Mine took a partular dislike to a new pair of shoes

but he just pecked them a lot, he didn't go full-on attacking ME.

 

[Amigatec]

I wear either BibOveralls or my work uniform, well I had training to do at work one day so I wore some nice dress up clothes and the poor chickens didn't recognize me.

 

[Mahonri]

My chickens think I'm someone new when I don't wear the usual.

 

[EELover]

You let chickens run around your house? Aren't their butts non-stop when it comes to pooping? I would hate that stuff on my carpet. Yuck!

 

[centrarchid]

My American games do not get aggressive when I wear red. I assume because I am top of pecking order.

This needs to be tested. Does someone have any kind stuffed chicken or chicken shaped pillow that can have red placed on it? If red promotes aggression, chicken should attack more often when red present.

 

[gryeyes]

I wear my work clothes every evening when I get home, so I can gather eggs and check on all the feeders and whatnot. My dominant rooster HATES my red Crocs and he HATES my long, red, black & purple skirt. He goes absolutely bug-stuff crazy and attacks my feet. Very, very intense focus on JUST the shoes - if I tap the side of his head and say, "Carl!" he looks up at me like "What?!!! What!! OH! It's YOU!"

I know it's just anecdotal information, but he does it every time to just those shoes, or that skirt. Sometimes I wear the red Crocs with jeans, and he still goes for those Crocs. The lowest panel of color on the skirt is red, too. It also has sparkly bits sewn to it, which the other chickens all try to peck to see if they're food, so I don't think the sparkly bits are the trigger. I think it's the mass of red.

 

[Nekhebet]

Ok, now I've got to hunt down some read clothing just to see what my rooster does...

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Is it agression or feeding behavior? A lot of tasty eats are red.


There maybe breed differences causing such varied observations.