[viewfield]

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

[Dizzycow]

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!

[Fleecewife]

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.

[ellisr]

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.

[Dizzycow]

Hot potato?

[ellisr]

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

[Sylvia]

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

[ellisr]

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
www.usefulgardens.com

[Hopewell]

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.

[DJ_Chook]

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

[Sylvia]

Well, I'll be blowed! I'm going to try the hot potato trick today.

[viewfield]

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

[northfifeduckling]

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?  

[shearling]

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

[northfifeduckling]

well, if the potatoes don't work I'll ask my friend egglady if I can borrow the clippers....thanks for the advice