What typically causes crooked toes in chickens?

[Airyaman]

Assuming it is not a result of genetics, in your experience what causes crooked toes in chickens?

I have a few birds with crooked toes. All of my chickens were raised from hatched eggs, and I typically keep them on pet pads and paper towels for their first week. I had not seen crooked toes on any of them before I switched to shavings, and I suppose I missed them going crooked while they were in the brooder in shavings. Once noticed, they were typically too old to correct the problem.

This time I am going to be much more diligent. I currently have 14 chicks in a brooder and I have extended the time on pads and paper towels to 11 days so far. Not a single crooked toe in sight, so I plan on switching over to shavings soon. But I will try to check toes daily.

I feed a non-GMO starter feed from Tucker Milling. I have not in the past supplemented their diets with anything additional unless there was an issue. Could it be they are not getting enough of the right vitamins? If so, I do have supplements for the water, but I don't plan on using them unless there are problems.

That said, if I see any toes going crooked, my plan is to wrap them in self adhesive tape to try to correct it.

Advice?

Thanks!

 

[AMURPHY227]

What kind of roosts do you have?

It can happen on chickens if their roosts aren’t big enough, and they have to use one of their toes to help balance while sleeping.

If it starts developing like that as a chick then yes I’d say it’s some kind of vitamin deficiency.

 

[Airyaman]

What kind of roosts do you have?

It can happen on chickens if their roosts aren’t big enough, and they have to use one of their toes to help balance while sleeping.

If it starts developing like that as a chick then yes I’d say it’s some kind of vitamin deficiency.

In the brooder my roosts are elevated 2x4s laid flat (because I had alot of scrap lumber). Should I change that to a much smaller type like a rod? I know you said too small but maybe too big could be a problem as well?

 

[RubelliteRose]

We have 2 birds with bent toes. One from Hoover Hatchery and one that we hatched ourselves. Both developed bent toes around 2-3 weeks old( I had to go back and look at photos with both because I didn't notice until too late to correct for either of them). When I was originally researching bent toes, I found that one cause is temperature issues during incubation. I can't say why Pidgey from HH has 2 bent toes and we don't breed her in case it is genetic. We did have an incubation issue when hatching Artemis - the room the incubator was in became too hot for a couple of hours causing the incubator to slightly overheat. Fortunately, there don't seem to be any effects other than her single bent toe. I will add that Pidgey is 5 years old and her bent toes have never caused her any difficulties.