Help! My new chicken has extra toes!!! =(?

Question

I've just bought a point of lay cream legbar chicken, and on closer investigation, she looks a bit raggedy - but also has extra toes!!! Instead of one toe around the back of her toe, she has two one one leg and three on the other!

What should I do? Is there anything I should do?

Answer 1

Aha....mine has an extra three toes!

I bought a lovely little Rhodey all glossy feathered, fat and fluffy and yes...when I checked out her feet she had an extra three toes growing on top of three existing toes on one of her feet.

Doesn't bother her at all....it looks a bit odd but as long as she is scratching about and looking healthy then you needn't do anything.

My hen does occasionally "catch" one of her spare ones when scratching about and it causes it to bleed a little but I just keep a good eye on her and make sure I disinfect her tootsie if she injures it.

Hmm....there's a big market for fish fingers....wonder if there's a market for chicken toes LOL we could make a fortune!

By the way...before I get flamed for suggesting we eat our pets mine are egg layers only and not meat eating birds!

Answer 2

well, thers nothing you can do, as long as she's eating and walking proerly you souldnt worry,its nothing wrong, well it is but ur chicken is just UNIQUE

Answer 3

You shouldn't do anything as long as the bird is not having a problem because of the extra toes. Problems with toes, extra/missing/misshapen is a common birth defect in birds when they are bred too closely within a "family" (ie. siblings bred with each other or a parent bred with one of it's own offspring).