Spiral Leg Bands?

tulie13

Songster
10 Years
Feb 12, 2009
641
12
143
NW Florida
My friend and I were thinking about getting some spiral leg bands from Cutler supply. We were going to split an order of multiple colors to track generations of chickens (we have small flocks, so we won't have to track from chicks to adults, just "this year's chicks" vs. "last year's chicks").

We wanted to get the spirals for ease of use, and re-usability.

Problem - some of my hens of the SAME BREED have very different sized legs. I was thinking we could just get the larger ones, Size 12, which is 3/4" circumference. These are supposed to be good for Orpingtons and RIR's, which are the larger hens out of our flocks. But these would be loose on the smaller chickens (we have some Easter Eggers, too).

Any problem with having the spiral leg band somewhat loose, and sort of sitting on top of their foot like a bangle bracelet?
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Any help/advice you could give me would be appreciated,
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THANKS,
Julie
 
Just watch out for them being too tight. I had some on my chicks and they were all loose and I was good with it. Then in just a matter of days I noticed my little BO rooster was limping and sure enough, something had happened to his band and was super tight, cutting off the circulation in his leg and cutting into the back of it. None of the others were this way and I checked every band before putting the chick down.

Just watch them closely
 
I have spiral bands on all 9 of my hens, size 11, and they are adult black australorps. BOs are a bit bigger, u may want to use size 12 (the size suggested for roos of heavy breeds).
There has been no trouble about them having the band be too tight, or too loose. My girls have different sized legs, also. The ankle bracelet look has been pretty fetching, actually, and solves, forever, the question, "now, which one are u?"
Hope this works for you!
 
Thanks for the input - I think I'll go with a 12. We are only going to band adult birds, as we don't have enough chicks to concern ourselves with at any given time (not more than one batch, easy to keep track of). Since my Buffs are the largest we have, if I get 12's they should fit everyone without being tight, and just be loose on some. I was worried about the chickens pulling them off or something, I did not order red legbands...
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I have a good solution for all my birds except the Brahmas; those feathers on the legs are messing me up. I like the Cutler bands, but they don't mention sizes for Brahmas. Would it be the same as Cochins? My Brahmas are way bigger than either my Rocks or my Orps.
 
OK, because I'm a tightwad, I just buy those plastic zip tie wraps (used for wrapping wires together). They have them in the hardware department at Walmart and use them for leg bands. They aren't numbered but I don't need numbers anyway. The size is adjustable and they come in assorted colors. If I need to clip it off, no big deal.

This is a yellow zip tie that I used to mark my roosters. Yellow was a keeper, orange was my second choice guy.

Lisa

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I’ve used spiral leg bands for a while, but won’t be again after I had one of my ducks quite badly injured by one this week
i saw her limping and lame and as she is an older girl with hock issues I thought maybe she had slipped a tendon. I caught her and then I saw it, a spiral leg band that had somehow embedded itself into her leg almost right to the bone. The photos I have which I will have to upload separately are pretty graphic but don’t actually show how bad it is. I have attempted to glue it twice now and it isn’t staying closed so I am pretty sure when I check her tomorrow I will have to call the vet and take her there for stitches, which last time I had a duck with wound stitches was the best part of $300. The poor duck can’t put any weight on the leg at all. I had no idea they could cause this harm but now I look at them and I am like WTF, why is each end so sharp and pointed? Almost like a bloody needle? I can’t see any reason it needs to be that sharp to get the things on and off. And in fact getting them on the sharp bit almost always pokes the poor ducks leg.

i will attach a couple of photos of the actual band that ripped up my poor ducks leg. It’s a bit out of shape as when I discovered it embedded in her leg my only concern was to get the dam thing out ASAP. There are blood stains on it as well. But if you look at each end you have to wonder…why do they need to make it so pointy and sharp??

no idea why they make them so damn sharp
 

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I’ve used spiral leg bands for a while, but won’t be again after I had one of my ducks quite badly injured by one this week
i saw her limping and lame and as she is an older girl with hock issues I thought maybe she had slipped a tendon. I caught her and then I saw it, a spiral leg band that had somehow embedded itself into her leg almost right to the bone. The photos I have which I will have to upload separately are pretty graphic but don’t actually show how bad it is. I have attempted to glue it twice now and it isn’t staying closed so I am pretty sure when I check her tomorrow I will have to call the vet and take her there for stitches, which last time I had a duck with wound stitches was the best part of $300. The poor duck can’t put any weight on the leg at all. I had no idea they could cause this harm but now I look at them and I am like WTF, why is each end so sharp and pointed? Almost like a bloody needle? I can’t see any reason it needs to be that sharp to get the things on and off. And in fact getting them on the sharp bit almost always pokes the poor ducks leg.

i will attach a couple of photos of the actual band that ripped up my poor ducks leg. It’s a bit out of shape as when I discovered it embedded in her leg my only concern was to get the dam thing out ASAP. There are blood stains on it as well. But if you look at each end you have to wonder…why do they need to make it so pointy and sharp??

no idea why they make them so damn sharp
Had the same issue with spiral leg bands will never use them again.
 
Don’t touch these things with a 10 foot post! I am in the process of most likely having to have a bird euthanised due to one working its way into her leg,then winding around inside her leg and hitting the bone. One day she was fine, the next she not only had a horrible wound but a broken leg bone! I am right now in the process of trying to gp get the company that supply this disgraceful product in my country to take some responsibility for what it has done to my bird, and have since spoken to other people who have stopped using them after finding “countless” birds with the things penetrating the skin and working into their legs. Since my duck was injured I found one on another of my ducks and on one end the band had started to kind of fold inwards so it was going around underneath all the other spirals of the band and while it had not harmed him I could easily see looking at it, that an injury would have been the next step for that duck too, if I had not already been looking at all my birds and removing these things from them.
AVOID THESE THINGS LIKE THE PLAGUE. Due to ongoing negotiations with the supplier and hoping to get them to pay for the $3400 plus in vet bills I cannot publish any photos of the damage here but may be willing to share with anyone who has a genuine interest in this or has had their own birds injured, under the condition that you keep them to yourself. Pm me to discuss.
otherwise if this company won’t do the right thing, I have a number of journalist contacts and this will possibly end up in the national news in my country, if so I will try and remember to post the link back here .

if you must use them, some brands have a rounded end, which I would think is much less likely to cause the harm the ones with pointed ends have caused my bird. I’m probably going to have to euthanase one of the sweetest loveliest ducks I’ve ever had, because the cost to repair is so high, and it sucks. The duck is not ready to go, she’s still fighting and in good spirits but I have to end her life because the place that supplies this dangerous horrific leg band is too greedy and selfish to either change the design and make it safe, or fork out what is probably nothing for them to save the life of an animal their dangerous product has harmed.
 

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