# Feathered Feet - What Strain?



## Scuiry (Jul 11, 2001)

Sometimes I see feather footed pigeons in the wild and wonder if they are related to some fancy strain. Is this a naturally occuring recessive trait or does it indicate a fancy strain? If you just see a pigeon with feathered feet and no other unusual markings or features is there a way to identify it from the feathering?

Many thanks,

Daniel


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## patspigeons (Jul 14, 2002)

hello Daniel,

I think usually if a feral pigeon has feathers on their feet it probably crossed with a domesticated, or fancy type of pigeon. Usually cross`s are groused, not full muffed. And is rare in feral pigeons. As far as what breed it is would be hard to say. There`s alot out there. Unless it was a pure fancy breed. Hope this help`s some. Pat


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## Scuiry (Jul 11, 2001)

> Originally posted by patspigeons:
> *hello Daniel,
> 
> I think usually if a feral pigeon has feathers on their feet it probably crossed with a domesticated, or fancy type of pigeon. Usually cross`s are groused, not full muffed. And is rare in feral pigeons. As far as what breed it is would be hard to say. There`s alot out there. Unless it was a pure fancy breed. Hope this help`s some. Pat*


I've seen one in the park that is much more "groused" than I've ever seen in a feral pigeon. That's its only distinctive feature. It's not fully groused but the feathers easily cover the feet and ground beneath it. I think it's solid gray.

Daniel


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## LustStarrr (Mar 4, 2020)

Hi Daniel,

Your question sparked my curiosity, & reminded me that one of the new fledglings in my feral flock had feathery feet, which I’d been meaning to try to work out the origin of, so I got Googling... while this article doesn’t actually answer your question, it’s related, so you may find it interesting nonetheless - I certainly did!

The new little bird in question here just fledged, & is now a part of my feral flock - s/he’s got the most amazing feathery feet! They look a bit like the pouter pigeon’s, in the image in the above article, with the 4 birds in quadrants showing the various amounts of foot-feathers. It’s so weird - no-one else in the flock has feet that are even remotely floofy, although several of them have floofy legs - some in the form of floofy capri pants, others floofy trousers - & a few of them have the odd toe or ankle feather/s.

BTW, the little bubba in question is slate grey in colour, not uniformly-so, s/he’s got kinda watermarked patterning all over, too... s/he’s a pretty little bird. I’ve christened them ‘Muppet-Feet’, because there’s just something so Jim Henson about the feet, the way they’re currently feathered... I’ll try to snap a pic when they visit next. 

Cheers,

Fern


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## notoriousqueenpigeon (Apr 15, 2011)

Ahh, the Muffed Feed. A beautiful feature. I have your answer. I had a Pomeranian Pouter, she crossed with a Racer. They had one daughter, an "oops" squeeker, which I called my MUFFED racer. The Racing clubs call her a mut. Due to the Accipiter raptors in my area, I let my birds breed from time to time. All of the females from "Muffy" and her mate, (White Thai Laugher/racer mix) are also muffed. The muffs are a recessive gene, and come out every second generation seemingly. This is just from my experience. In short, the answer is, a domesticated "show bird", of the muffed variety sometimes gets into the mix with the ferals, and POOF! oops, all of the sudden they are all running around with little pants. It is beautiful.


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