Dong Tao: monster chickens with monster legs (7 photos)

Asians are proud of them and call them dragon chickens. One such bird can cost 2 thousand dollars





Dear girls, don’t worry about the volume of your hips! You're not fat, you just live in the wrong country! Go to Vietnam - they really value chicks with delicious legs! And literally: one thick-legged bird can cost up to 2 thousand dollars! You can buy a whole horse with this money, but what is so special about these birds?



These are the volumes!

Elephant chickens, dragon chickens, or Dong Tao are one of the most extravagant breeds of poultry. They are distinguished from all other chickens by their truly huge legs - as if the evil doctor Aibolit sewed the paws of some lizard onto the poor birds. One such dragon stilt can be thicker in girth than the forearm of an adult! And the largest legs weigh over a kilogram. Each! For comparison: the feet of broiler chickens weigh only 25-45 grams.



Well, Slavik, how do you like my nails?

At the same time, adult Dong Tao roosters gain only 5-7 kilograms of live weight. Simple math: almost 1/3 of their total weight comes from giant limbs. Chickens of this breed are slightly smaller, but their paws are exactly the same. Even newly hatched chickens look like little elephants!



Who let the baby elephants into the chicken coop?!

It is for this feature that the Vietnamese idolize their Dong Tao so much. They say that owning purebred birds can bring happiness, prosperity and wealth to a person. Of course - 200,000 per head! But these birds are bred not only for dubious aesthetics. The sources universally write that these roosters used to be warriors. They fought in the arena, which is why they got elephant-like legs. But think for yourself: how to fight with such giant paws? The chickens can barely walk, but here you still have to fight!



What kind of fights? What battles? I'm a +size model!

In fact, the interest of Asians is more than prosaic. Tough bird meat and these huge dragon paws are considered a special delicacy in Vietnam. It is given as an expensive gift - especially during Chinese New Year. Since around the 1600s, elephant chickens have been served to royalty and dignitaries in the country. Dishes made from these birds have always been a luxury item, but today no one knows exactly how dragon chickens appeared in the first place. According to assumptions, the mutation of leg gigantism one day arose on its own, after which farmers from the village of Dong To simply selected birds for a new trait.



It's scary to imagine if such legs were sold at KFC...

It was not so easy to do this, because even now, with modern equipment, breeding elephant chickens is a very big problem. In the literal sense of the word: laying hens are so clumsy that they often step on eggs and crush them. In addition, birds lay only 60-120 eggs per year, but even in the best scenario, not all of them will be fertilized. And all because copulation itself can present certain difficulties - try to hit on a chick with such paws!



Hey, pretty girl, doesn't your mom need a son-in-law?

Young Dong Tao grow slowly and are very sensitive to environmental conditions: temperature, humidity, lighting, feeding. To raise the “right” chicken, you will have to try very hard - unlike early-ripening broilers, elephant chickens are ready for sale only at 8-10 months. Birds are also prone to various leg diseases: although the mutation was natural, further selection made the birds’ giant paws overly sensitive and vulnerable.