Silkie Genetics, Skull opening

[HippieChick2009]

Hello, I saw something online about Silkies being the only breed that is hatched with an opening in the top of their skull. It had photos of the actual skull showing how it was formed. Part of the brain is exposed and the comb is usually located over this area. The area is vulnerable to injury from other chickens if attacked on the head. It said this usually results in paralysis of some sort, usually a twisted neck. Has anyone ever heard of this or can you verify it?
Thanks!

 

[laughingllama75]

yes, silkies have a Vaulted Skull.....there for you need to be carefull not to put them in with aggressive chickens. If you look up vaulted skull, you will find all sorts of info on it.

 

[therealsilkiechick]

yes that is true, showgirls and polish also have the same thing. the vault should be behind the comb. sometimes it is hard to even hatch them cause the vault is so big they get stuck in the shells preventing them from excapeing at hatch. the bigger the vault the more chances r for the bird to have problems.

here is a link to check out- http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/l/a/lah161/research.html

if u click on the photo page link on there it shows polish and silkie skulls, warning graphic actual photos.
hope that helps,
silkie

 

[racuda]

Quote:
Some Silkies, not all, have the vault. Of my 6, 4 do and 2 don't.

 

[LilPeeps]

Any crested breed can have a vault, although not all individuals within a breed will. Nikki of HatTrick wrote a nice article on the subject. http://www.hattricksilkies.net/articles_vaulted_skull.html

 

[Dustin Biery]

Thank you Julie for that. As I have never researched vaulted skulls, that provided insight that I can see being beneficial.

 

[LilPeeps]

Anytime Dustin.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

The standard requires the vault for polish. Technically it is called a cerebral hernia. Sometimes the skull grows to completely cover the protrusion; other times holes remain.

 

[dlhunicorn]

Glad to see how her research is coming along and that she has had some response to her request for skulls a few years ago
Here in Holland you get points taken off for breeding for vaults.
Vault or "no" vault (I have found here that the norm lies somewhere inbetween what in U.S.A. are called "flat" heads and a "normal" vault (I personally have not had any true "flat" heads with completely closed skulls)
I like it that my silkies can see and that their poofs dont completely obscure their vision and while the american silkies (bred for extreme vaults) are kind of pretty I do note that we have far less "crook neck" cases here and if only for that reason I prefer our european version .