Spurs?!?!?

[ZepChick]

Today our rooster attacked a member of our family. We don't know if he felt threatened, or just did it spur of the moment, but we need some advice. He is a pet so we cannot cull him. He is about 8 and a half months old. I was wondering if we should twist his spurs off? I think he might be too young, but am not sure. Any advice is helpful!

 

[the simple life]

I have heard of filing them down but not twisting off.

 

[DTchickens]

twisting off has major bleeding.. and can HURT during the process. does have a chance of never growing back though... you can file them down so they dont have points.. i myself use a small saw and cut through the spur, Some people use a (cant spell today so...) Dremmle... tool and cut through it.. but this is kinda dangerous for you and the chicken. saw is what i would suggest.

-Daniel

 

[kellim]

My 2 year old rooster decided a few days ago that he doesn't care for me. He flew at me and tried spur me and my DH called the livestock store we got him from and the man there who I trust completely told us we could take his spurs off by twisting them off. We couldn't get them to twist off so we trimmed to sharp point off of them. I say you try either twisting them off or trimming them before getting rid of him.

 

[ZepChick]

I will try to file them down. Hope it works. I would really prefer to keep him. Thanks for the advice!

 

[nerfy]

I agree with the filing, Had to do file my lil bantam rooster's all the time. Or just carefully trim the sharp point with a sharp pair of wire snips. A good dog nail clipper would be good also. They have the same concept of trimming a dog's nail, look for the quick. I put a penlight flashlight against his spur to see where to cut it. He never tried to spur us, but did not like strangers.
Best "watch dog" I ever had.

 

[Attack Chicken]

I have heard of twisting them off. I have only seen it done once at the County fair.What they did was soften the spot up with vasoline and than take a pair of pliers and pop the 2 in spurr came off!. I didn't think there would be any spurr left but under the old spurr there was a mini spurr. A little less than an in long. It bled some but not as much as I would have thought. I seen him just a few weeks ago and the spurr is almost 1 1/2 inches. I guess every year his owners pop off his old spurrs.

 

[Chickenaddict]

I trim my roos spurs with a dog nail clipper. I just take a little bit off so its not so sharp.

 

[Jenski]

Whoa! Twisting a spur off? Ouch!! Seems to me the spur is not the main issue, but the behavior itself; even without spurs (again, ouch!), a rooster still has a nice sharp beak and claws.

There are several great links on this forum related to rooster "behavior modification" that have received lots of good comments from folks. You might do a quick search on that. Simply establishing yourself (and family members who work with the chickens) as head rooster(s) is the key to maintaining peace and order.

If the recipient of the attack was a child, I would probably be reluctant to allow a child around a grown rooster. I am sure the rooster folks will chime in with opinions either way on that.


**********Edited to add gritsar's Rooster Reform School link ~

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=4810

 

[Brahmadarma]

Jenski - you could be the first Rooster Whisperer!
I have no experience at all - but twisting anything off sounds brutal to me.
Please do it the kind way - dog nail clippers.