METHODS

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Methods

Hand Feeding

The other night a friend called and

was complaining about losing day

old babies after they hatched. I

asked him if he had tried hand

feeding to get them started and his

reply was that he had not gotten

around to learning how to do that

yet. He mentioned too that some of

his birds fed fine and some would let

the newly hatched young starve to

death. This is something we have

bred into our Show Rollers and now

we either have to try to breed it out

of them or hand feed young like

some of the other pigeon breeders

have to do with their breed. Hand

feeding babies is something that

most Show Roller breeders have

just incorporated into their breeding

program. This is something the

short-faced pigeon breeders have

been doing for a long time. Now that

I have gotten into the Muff Tumblers,

this is something I have to do with

them also. We have not only bred

birds with poor parenting skills, but

we have bred babies that don.t beg

real hard after hatching to be fed.

The newly hatched young could

possibly be weak or maybe our

Show Rollers are too inbred. Bottom

line is if we want to raise more Show

Rollers each year, then hand feeding

will be a necessity. Some Muff

Tumbler breeders even hand feed

some of their young muffs up until

they begin eating on their own.

Breeders will also check nests

and young muffs crop each night to

ensure they have plenty of grain; and

if they don.t, then a ketchup bottle

with a 50/50 mixture of water and

exact is used to feed the baby

until full.

Feeding syringe & Exact brand food formula

Newborn being hand fed

Seven day old

Two week old

Empty syringe after feeding

Three weeks old being fed from ketchup

3 1/2 week old muff being fed from ketchup bottle

30 day old Show Roller being fed from ketchup bottle

Breeding & Conditioning

I have been asked by several different people in the hobby to write an article on what works for me. I certainly don’t profess to have all the answers, but I’ll explain what I do. Last year, I ended up with three years worth of George Petro’s calendars. These calendars told what he did in the water each day of the entire year. With my current practices and the information I gained from him, I put together a pretty good game plan last year for conditioning birds, and this year for breeding them. It must have helped me last year with the show record I had! I know it helped me in the breeding season this year because I banded 200 birds and had almost all pairs broken up in June! I want to share the following information with the hobby.

After show season is over, I select the pairs I want to put together. I then put them on Dacoxine for about 7-10 days to prevent any paratyphoid and e-coli. I always use this drug first because it hurts the fertility of the cocks for a while. I then put them back on my regular vitamin program for about a week. This consists of Vita Preen on Monday, Biotin Stress Pack on Tuesday, Probiotics on Wednesday, electrolytes and amino acid on Thursday, Global Bounty and Global Lugols on Friday and clear water on Saturday and back on Probiotics on Sunday. I also give them tamed iodine twice a week in the water to help fertility and hatch ability. The next week, I put them on Baytril. I buy this from Global Pigeon Supplies. It treats respiratory disease, e-coli and paratyphoid. Then I’m back on my vitamin program for about a week. The last thing I do is worm the birds with either Ivomec or Wormmix.

I increase the amount of daylight hours I give the birds by way of electric timers. I wrote about this in an earlier article. This seems to put the birds in a breeding mode. I think the two main things to help produce young birds are 911 Plus, Probac, and iodine. I also mentioned in the earlier article my concern about our modern Show Rollers not feeding the young well anymore. My opinion is that we bred this problem into our birds over the years and this is why I have to use a lot of feeders and also have to switch eggs around.

I never expect much out of my breeders for the first round or two. I do, however, let them sit the first round full-term whether the eggs are fertile or not. This always seems to help the second round. Some pairs may have to sit unfertile eggs full term the second round before they finally fertile. If they don’t fertile the first round, I cut about 1 inch off their tail to assist in copulation. I don’t seem to have much trouble with the young getting out of the egg. I think the iodine twice a week helps.

I am still working on the problem of the parents not feeding the young and letting them die. I sometimes watch the young coming out of the egg for a day or two. I feed them some Exact or pigeon pellets that I grind in a blender. The parents seem to feed them after that.

As far as conditioning my birds, I repeat the same steps as I did at the beginning of breeding season after breaking them up. I cut the amount of light down by about three hours. This puts them into a hard molt. I then put them on my vitamin program. I increase the amount of protein I give them to help put them through a good molt. When the molt is about over, I increase the amount of hemp, safflower and pigeon candy I give them. Right before show season starts, I begin giving them raw Spanish peanuts to add extra weight. These are very expensive, but you will see a difference that will be worth the extra expense. Also, don’t forget to give your birds a bath twice a week. I use bath salts and 20 Mule Team Borax in the bath water to get rid of any feather mites and lice.

I usually don’t mix the two products. Some breeders use Ivomec in the bath water. This is very costly, but it does work. Be careful to use a very small amount as not to harm the birds.

All nine of my conditioning pens are about three feet off the ground and have wire floors. I have openings at the bottom and also at floor level for good ventilation. I have two ventilation fans at the top of my loft to help pull air and dust out. This is not only healthier for the birds, but also much healthier for me. Water for the birds is about three foot up and on the outside of each pen. This makes it much easier to water them and keeps the water much cleaner. I clean my water containers about once a week with Clorox. However, I never put Clorox in their drinking water.

I know after most of you read this article, you will feel I do go a bit overboard! I’ve often thought maybe if I didn’t do so much, the birds might even get in better condition. I do feel that Petro and Emerson did a lot of the same things to condition their birds. This is why I think people would buy birds from them and the birds would fall apart a week or two later. The birds were treated with all the little extras and then they had to adjust to someone else’s conditioning methods. Some birds even died. Please remember after reading this article that this is what works for me and is only my opinion. What works for me might not work for you.