What is this?

[theoldchick]

Awesome how dedicated people are to preserving this breed. I can imagine brooding eggs and raising chicks naturally would be difficult with those gigantic legs.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Lol, and thanks, ShayBaby. I wonder what causes the legs to be so thick. Given that on the site they said a good specimen is selected as a chick for its legs and feet being 'as red as the neck of a fighting cock' I would theorize it is an inflammation of some sort that's heritable. Amazing that they manage to get around.

Once again, the Asians have amazed me in what they will manage to develop into a viable breed. I was already a little in awe that they could take an animal with extra toes and utterly abnormal feathers and crest and develop that into a decent breed, but I guess that just shows my ignorance. And genetic prejudice, I tend to heavily favor what I consider to be more natural and steer away from obvious freaks. But with long enough and careful breeding even such bizarre birds may become a sound breed. Learn something new every day!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

http://www.ganoi.com/gaho.html Here is some info on them.

Wow...another case of truth stranger than fiction.

What a bizarre looking bird. That's definitely twisting gene pools to their limits.
Lady of McCamley

 

[varidgerunner]

I did not fail to notice that the breeder called them "Hos". Presumably named after the Ho in Ho-Chi-Mihn. Thick legged ones no less. But if you want to skip that whole amusing sidebar and refer to them as Ga Dong Tao, I will understand.