The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: viewfield on May 19, 2011, 10:00:17 am
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Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I am a relatively newbie to cockerals, do you have to have their spurs trimmed??????
Our cockeral is a light sussex with large spurs and wondered if you had to trim them in anyway?
They do not seem to becausing him any pain he is very healthy and he is very friendly and doesn,t attack
but with 2 younger kids who love him to bits would hate to think what damage they could cause if he was grumpy someday.
Thanks for any advise :)
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We had to cull our light sussex cockerel last week because of his aggression. He took chunks of flesh out of the backs of my legs over a period of time, his spurs had nothing to do with it. I don't think it's worth touching the spurs, but if you have a dangerous cockerel then get rid of it quickly before it hurts the kids. My daughter tried to prove me wrong by picking ours up when I told her that ours was vicious and had to go, she ended up with a bleeding nose and very frightened. I don't know how likely they are to turn nasty, maybe you'll be luckier than us!
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I had wondered about trimming spurs too, not because of aggression as our Scots Greys are not aggressive, but because of the damage they might do to the hens. Those spurs are long and sharp. I will be interested to read other peoples experience.
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My LS cockeral was aggresive in the first year of maturity but I just kept chasing him down and pinning him to the ground. In the second year it was so different he was sweet and kind and only got flustered if I picked up one of his hens but rarely attacked.
I heard that you can take the spurs down with a hot potato but don't know how much that is true.
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Hot potato?
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Sorry can't remember all the details but you put a hot potato on the spur then twisted and it took the spur off cleanly but as I say I have never tried it and can't remember the full details
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I imagine you would have to do it when they were tiny, like dew-clawing puppies, but better with surgical scissors surely than a hot spud :-\
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I found the quote here it is............
Eureka! Success! Amazing!
I came onto the forum about a month ago because I had a little banty rooster whose spurs desperately needed to be either removed or cut back. They were long and had curled around until they were almost piercing his thigh. I was terrified about cutting the spur for fear of bleeding and trauma (to him and to me).
I read a couple of posts on the forum about removing the spurs with microwaved potatoes. The instructions were to microwave whole potatoes (one per spur) and, when fully hot, to stick the potato onto a spur and hold for five minutes. After removing the potato, quickly grab the spur with pliers and twist firmly.
Well, I tried it about an hour ago.... and......IT WORKED!!! It not only worked, I don't even thing we would have needed the pliers. The spurs slipped right off, leaving a small spur behind that was whole and sharp and that (according to the posts I read) will continuing growing a replacement, longer spur as time goes on.
Mr. Chicken, held firmly by my next door neighbor, Kristi, never looked stressed or indicated that having the hot potato on his spur gave him any pain at all. We were careful to make sure the hot potato didn't touch any other part of his foot or toes.
In the past, one of our shared roosters actually impaled himself jumping down off a perch with huge upward spurs - enough of an abdominal injury that infection set in and we had to euthanize him. We were determined to try whatever was needed not to have that happen again.
Bless whomever it was that put this ridiculous but EFFECTIVE method up on the forum!!!
Last edited by vbgarden (11/08/2009 8:02 pm)
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Sybil
www.usefulgardens.blogspot.com (http://www.usefulgardens.blogspot.com)
www.usefulgardens.com (http://www.usefulgardens.com)
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I have sometimes used a decent strong pair of nail clippers generally sold for dog's nails and taken the ends of the spurs off, which is of course no worse than cutting my own toe nails.
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I've got a boy with some spurs that need trimming due to the damage he's doing to his girls. I've been to YouTube and seen a few gruesome videos. If you remove the spur you are still left with a spur, albeit a small but still sharp spur. After much thought I'm going to go with the trimming down idea.
Not sure if it's ok to post YouTube links here so here is just the code. Just put it into YouTube cmW5jaOIdKg
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Well, I'll be blowed! I'm going to try the hot potato trick today.
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Thank you for you reply, not sure I can try the potatoe, he is such a friendly boy , so it wasnt because he was aggressive, but incase they would cause him any discomfort.....
Don,t think i'm brave enought to try the potatoe.....but will keep it in mind
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Back to this one - our boy needs the hot potatoes as he is damaging the girls! How long does it take for the spur to fall off once you apply the hot tattie? :chook: :&>
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We use the clippers that we use for trimming the sheeps feet - cleaned of course. Cuts really easily and cleanly. Could always use a metal file/rasp to blunt the end if needed
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well, if the potatoes don't work I'll ask my friend egglady if I can borrow the clippers....thanks for the advice :&>
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it sadly didn't work, I probably should have done it when he was younger. It obviously hurt him, too, although I wasn't touching his foot. :( :&>
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hich or both - pots or clippers? We did a full grown bird that we bought a couple of weeks ago with the clippers no problems and di not bother him at all - maybe you should go a bit at a time, until you both feel ok about it?
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it was the potato...he didn't like the heat from it and cried under my arm, poor soul. In the end his girls ate the potato ;). Will have to find a kind person to lend me some clippers now! :chook: :&>
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I keep reading this potato thing and all i can think is that it kills the nerves etc (eventually!) with the heat. I'm sure it must hurt!
I use clippers, bit at a time, like you'd do dog claws or similar.
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I keep reading this potato thing I'm sure it must hurt!
I quite agree.
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ditto Jaykay. NFD ask someone who has dealt with big dog claws or hooves/sheep - think you said Egglady had some clippers you could use -why not try together. No reason he should be distressed at all
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Someone showed me how to do this, and though I didn't want to be shown :o I am glad I know how to do it now, as they can seriously damage the hens otherwise.
It 100 percent did not hurt his bird when he did it, and I didn't hurt mine, though I did cut one spur (tell you in a minute) a bit too short and it did bleed, though actually caused no problem and the cockerel was back in top form with his girls in an hour, but this was when I was on my third one and was probably getting over confident
How he did it was this way
Get someone to hold the bird so it is calm. The next bit sounds dreadful, but I assure you it does work, and the bird doesn't struggle or show any sign of distress.
Grasp the spur in the jaws of normal strong pliers, and make sure you are holding about half way up and not too close to the actual leg.
Don't hold it hard, but hard enough that you will be able to rotate the coating of the spur without the jaws of the pliers slipping round the spur.
Now - begin veeerrrry slowly to rotate the spur cover, just a tiny fraction - at first clockwise then anticlockwise.
You MUST proceed very slowly at first - just to begin to loosen the cover. You will be surprised that eventually the cover will just slip off. Just take care that all actions are slow.
The inner spur core will now be revealed, and WILL NOT bleed.
You can leave this if you like, and the spur will harden and be the same but smaller than when you started or - and again this is where you should take care not to cut too far back - you can take off the tip - probably back about one quarter to one third, leaving the remaining part to regrow. Doing it this way the regrown spur will be blunt rather than pointed.
I have some special sharp dog toenail clippers which I used to cut it, but any strong nail nippers or sharp cutters would do the job
Give it a spray with some antiseptic and put the bird in a clean cage for a few hours until it is set . Probably unnecessary, but I thought it best. The chap who showed me just let his bird go when the job was finished, and it ran off looking totally unperturbed.
As I say - I was amazed when shown how to do this, and though it is not one of my favourite jobs I am truly glad I have discovered such a painless way to do the job (I hate cutting my dogs toenails :-\ )
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As to friendly cockrels I had one that was often picked up from young, he was beautiful and knew it, went into school with me for an art lesson a couple of times.....and then Ive had an agressive one that got me whenever my back was turned but he hadnt been touched much . therefore I think if they have always been handled it seems they think you realy are boss and are OK.
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I had no idea that they can bleed to death from having them clipped, so I'm not too :chook: :&> keen on that now! I wish someone could show me what you described DBE! This morning the spur I worked on does not look quite as sharp any more, so something happened. I will probably apply one of the larger metal files from OH's workshop in a few days and see how that goes ::)
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Hi there - I suspect you are too far from me to visit, but I thought "there must be something on U-tube" and sure enough, slightly different to my way, but perhaps his fingers are stronger
Removing a rooster's spurs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgRmPuAEr6A#)
At least it might give you some confidence. As I said when the person who showed me how it was done suggested showing me, I would have liked to have gone home, but he insisted it was OK, and guess what - It was ;D
All the best
Sue
PS there are probably loads more video clips about this if you search around
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Thanks for the video, DBE! I have now seen 5 different methods and I think will go for just clipping and blunting the sharp end. Will let you know how we got on in a few days... :chook: :&>