young rooster with bent toe

[bookworm]

I have a young (just beginning to crow) Lakenvelder rooster whose center toe is bent at a right angle to the rest of the foot about half way back on the toe. He was raised on bedding but has been in a wire bottom cage for the last week. I didn't notice it until I let him out today on the ground. Any Ideas? Thanks

[MKG]

Crooked toes can be caused by a genetic propensity combined with other factors such as breeder diet, etc., so I would not use him as a breeder.

[D C T]

Unfortunately it is too late if he is old enough to be crowing.
A newly hatched chick can often benefit from my "orthopedics"

[goosedragon]

Unfortunately it is too late if he is old enough to be crowing.
A newly hatched chick can often benefit from my "orthopedics" With all due respect D C T, Is birth defect the only possible cause? I don't know what kind of stockman bookworm is but I suspect most would have noticed the problen sometime between hatch and crow if it were a birth defect. Is not injury another possible cause? I direct this to you because of your fowl orthopedics knowledge.

[poultrycrazy]

Yeah its crooked toe :( I had a rooster with that and I wanted to fix it but this guy said you have to break their toes and splint them. I didn't want to do that though, but he is still alive and has been for a year or so.
When they're babies you can tape the toes and they should straighten.
If the rooster only has one toe bent he should be fine :) He just can't be shown or he will be disqualified.

I used to have a big problem with my hatchlings getting that. I asked a judge why they got crooked toe and he said it was because they were in the egg to long, so he said to increase the temperature to 101-102 and I haven't had a problem since =)

Best of luck,
poultrycrazy

[poultrycrazy]

birth defect is not the only possible cause... the embryo stays in the egg to long resulting in the toes growing crooked because of limited space, inbreeding is another cause, and also vatamin E defeciency.

[Neil E. Grassbaugh]

I have a young (just beginning to crow) Lakenvelder rooster whose center toe is bent at a right angle to the rest of the foot about half way back on the toe. He was raised on bedding but has been in a wire bottom cage for the last week. I didn't notice it until I let him out today on the ground. Any Ideas? Thanks

Belive whatever you want to. Just don't breed from him unless you want more culls.