The Best Way to Trim Rooster Spurs

Roosters use their spurs to inflict serious injury to people, pets and other chickens.

Trimming rooster spurs is similar to cutting your finger or toe nails. A spur is a bony, conical projection found on the back of a rooster's leg about 1/2 inch above its upper rear toe. The spur is an outgrowth of the leg bone with a horny tip. Roosters use their spurs for fighting and if they are aggressive, the spurs can be dangerous. Spurs should be trimmed to prevent serious injury to people, pets and other chickens.

Things You'll Need

• Old towel
• Dremmel or other grinding instrument

Instructions

1. Throw a towel over the rooster and quickly put your hands around it, holding the wings next to its body. Leave the head on the outside of the towel and turn the rooster onto its back.

2. Hand the rooster to another person for holding while preventing the wings from flapping.

3. Grab one foot and hold it securely while grinding the spur tip with a dremmel equipped with a cutting blade. Grind the spur tip to just above the quick. Repeat the process on the other foot.

Tips & Warnings

• Ask a veterinarian to demonstrate the first trimming if you are unable to recognize the quick. Grinding too much of the spur tip injures the rooster and grinding too little is ineffective. Spur tips grow back after trimming, so the procedure will have to be repeated.

• Do not attempt to completely remove spurs. Complete removal requires surgery and should only be done by a veterinarian.

References

• The Ohio State University Extension; Medical Management of the Rooster Spur; Meredith Davis, Grasso Ebako, Teresa Morishita and John Mattoon