Thanks.
He's a yr old in that pic. The "proto" is a big misnomer that I myself fell into when I started out. That was until I became friends with the man who coined the term, Marc King. He never intended for it to describe present day birds. "Proto" is a Latin prefix that means, "that which gave rise to" - a past tense term. It only refers to the birds in Japan prior to 1920. The non-molters we have here in the US are heterozygous partial Onagadori descendants. A long term, but more fitting.
Phoenix do molt every yr. That's the way the breed was designed. Despite its asiatic classification, the Phoenix was developed in Germany from leghorn, modern game, and small traces of Onagadori blood.
I keep them 100% tradition Japanese style as best as I know how based on help from my pen pals in Kochi. Males have to be carefully house in tomebako ("stop boxes") with 49" high perches for their own protection. Daily supervised walk and exercise time is a must. Any "normal" chicken would go nuts in one. These go nuts out of one if unsupervised by a handler. LOL
They can be kept in larger stalls on high perches (as high as you want to make them [6-15 + Ft], they can fly like the wind), one bird per stall, but there is a risk of getting the tail caught on anything and bleeding out.
They are 100% tropical and have to be heated to at least 50*F in the winter.
They are touchy about everything. Touchy is an understatement. Any little stress; sight of a female, sudden change in temps, diet, etc. can induce a molt in the males. They receive fresh cabbage with their ration daily for decreased thyroid function to lower hormones. Forget feeding a commercially available ration. The wrong grain with the wrong form of glutenin, or maybe even gliadin, proves fatal. Animal protein is a must. Soy won't cut it. These birds' ancestors were hunters of small fish in tidal pools, enormous insects, etc.
It's a lot of work and a basic understanding of the genetics is necessary when choosing pairs. That's why a lot of people choose Phoenix over non-molters, but I enjoy a challenge.
>Really I would love to see someone wearing platform black leather shoes studded with metal and buckles over every inch cleaning out a chicken pen>
I'm willing to try it as long as I don't have to clean the boots afterwards. LOL
In my searches for wide shoes, did you know that Nike makes an "Air Native N7" especially for the Native American foot? I'm not native, but I sure have the wide foot that angles out at the toes and high instep. Nike apparently fails to realize that small segments of other ethnicities have the same problem. They only sell these to NA's! Isn't that ridiculous? It's like foot racism. LOL