[MaryOfExeter]

Hatched this little guy out. Went to band him a couple days ago and found a strange sight. I'm thinking Little Foot or ET. ET is probably pretty accurate haha. His other foot is completely normal. He's missing one toe, as you can see, just a nub. The middle one especially is kind of mangled looking. Crooked. The hind toe is normal and also the only one on that foot with a toenail.

"ET phone home" LOL

 

[almondman]

Now that's different!!!! Can it use the foot okay?

 

[MaryOfExeter]

Seems like it but I won't know until he gets old enough to stand and walk. For now they are just chilling in the nest sleeping most of the day LOL. I'm sure he will adapt

 

[horseart4u]

one of ours has no toe nails on its left foot

 

[loonecho]

Is he a product of close inbreeding? Could that possibly result in this deformation or whatever you want to call it?

Jim

 

[Jay3]

That's interesting. Hope he can use it okay as he grows.

 

[MaryOfExeter]

Is he a product of close inbreeding? Could that possibly result in this deformation or whatever you want to call it?

Jim

Nope. Both parents are completely unrelated and even they themselves are not inbred. I've never paired them up before and it will be interesting to see how the other clutchs turn out. This might be a random freak bird or it may be that they are both coincidentally carrying the same mutant gene.

 

[piegonsrock]

You should try to mate the bird just to see if that effect is genetic

 

[spirit wings]

did'nt you have another young one without a toe that you sent off for the one loft race?...

 

[salenahaas]

I know more about parrots then pigeons, just new here, but do they overpreen their young once in a blue moon, and by this I mean, out of the egg, and it loses a toe or two? Happens infrequently with parrots, I know bc I own a blue and gold with no feet. Parents overpreened her in the nestbox. Not genetic, her sibling they pulled the egg so the parents couldn't do this to this baby. Just a thought. Also there is something in a certain breed of parrot that the one toe bends and if not fixed, it falls off... ? would like to know if it is genetic or not.

 

[MaryOfExeter]

did'nt you have another young one without a toe that you sent off for the one loft race?...

Yes that one had half a middle toe. I don't think that one was genetic though. I think it was injured and dried up and fell off.

 

[rudolph.est]

The only genetic abnormalities of skeleton structure I know of for pigeons have been related to the feet. And they pop up a lot in other birds too, polydactily and webbed toes are especially common in domesticated bird breeds like chickens. Pigeons also have genes that cause polydactily, webbed outer toes etc. I would guess this youngster to have a similar condition, probably recessive and genetic in nature, since skeletal abnormalities due to environmental influences are rare in birds, usually caused by diseases like paratyphoid picked up after hatching.

Probably a bad idea to mate this bird for racing enthusiasts (since the defect might influence other structures in the skeleton too), but for a student of classical genetics testing the gene causing such abrnormalities might be difficult to resist.

 

[MaryOfExeter]

If it survives and does anything in racing I'll breed it and see what happens.