Abandoned Fancy Pigeons

[Birdmom4ever]

I hadn't checked the adoption forum for awhile. Tori, I'm so glad you got those pigeons! You said just a few were left, so I guess they found homes for the others. I hope so. After we took three, there were nine left.

Here's the story on the ones we adopted: My husband wanted a pair of archangels. The Wildlife Center isn't in the business of adopting animals out and the volunteers, though wonderful, know little about pigeon breeds. I asked them to try and give me a pair (they can't allow the public in the back) and they boxed them up before I got there. I didn't think to look in the box, and when I got home, much to my surprise, I had a red fantail cock and an archangel hen! I didn't mind, but my husband really wanted an archangel pair, so we went back for what we hoped would be a male archangel. The bird they gave us was turned out to be a cock, so we got our pair. The amazing thing is, I suspect they were already a pair because they acted like mates immediately, with none of the usual preliminary courtship rituals. If so, they were very fortunate to be reunited. We named them Narcissus and Echo.

The red fan is a lovely little bird, nice quality, I believe. Ironically, he has turned out to be my favorite of the three. He has an NPA band and was hatched in 2000. He had some stress bars in his tailfeathers so he apparently wasn't getting adequate nutrition, but all three were otherwise healthy.

The happiest part of this story concerns Jasmine, one of my favorite hens, a beautiful yellow bald-headed roller. She suffered prolapses twice while laying eggs this spring. The vet advised me to separate her from her mate for good, which I did. I put her in the small aviary on our patio with a female companion. She's on a very expensive prescription calcium supplement that goes in her drinking water, which is another reason she has to be away from the flock. But she became very depressed and lost weight. In the meantime, Rufous (the red fantail) was getting picked on by the archangel cock while they were in quarantine. Jazzy's had all her shots, so I went ahead and put Rufous in the small aviary with her. They fell madly in love. He is a gracious and gentle lover and she's delighted with him. On good food and probiotics his new feathers are coming in beautifully and he's really a gorgeous bird. And my Jasmine is happy again and has gained lots of weight. She hasn't laid any eggs since her last prolapse at the end of July, so I'm hoping perhaps she has stopped laying for good.

Anyway, everyone is happy and we are delighted with the three pigeons we adopted. I still wish we could have taken more of them, but we had too many babies this year and just didn't have room. I'm so glad someone else took some of these special birds.

[This message has been edited by Birdmom4ever (edited October 01, 2003).]

[Trees Gray]

Hi Birdmom4ever!

I enjoyed reading your update on your adopted birds. Can you give me a description of what "stress bars in his tail feathers" looks like? I'm always interested in learning more about how feathering displays a birds past. Thank you.. Treesa

[Birdmom4ever]

I learned this several years ago when I took a young scrub jay to the Wildlife Center. He'd been fostered by humans for a couple weeks and wasn't yet weaned. They fed him Kaytee's baby bird formula which probably didn't have sufficient protein for jays, which are omnivorous. Either that or they didn't feed him often enough. Anyway, I noticed his feathers were thin looking and his primaries and tail feathers had bars across them that looked a like blank spaces in the feathers--you could see light through them. The intake person at the Wildlife Center called these "stress bars" and said they resulted from inadequate nutrition.

I didn't see that again until I got this fantail and he had the same kind of bars on his flights and tail feathers. It looks kind of like a tiny bar code, but you can see through it. His new feathers are perfect, though.

I'm curious about their past, too. Since the feathers are from last year's molt, I assume he wasn't getting everything he needed for at least that long. But the archangels didn't have that problem. Also the fantail had a lot of poop on his feathers, but the archangels didn't. So I'm guessing they were kept in crowded conditions and because fans are poor flyers, they got the worst roosting spots and were low in the pecking order. I'm also guessing that because my fan had a permanent band and the archangels didn't, he was purchased by whoever abandoned him but the others were bred by the owner. Another clue: The archangels were banded with plastic tie-wraps with the ends cut. The hen had two bands, one on each leg, and the cock had one. I'm guessing this designated male or female. A friend of mine knows some people from a certain part of the world (I won't say where 'cause I don't want to offend or accuse anyone) who use that system. So it's a lot of guessing, but I was able to deduce a little about my new birds' past.

It's easy to judge someone harshly for abandoning these fancy pigeons in a park, but who knows what the rest of the story is. Perhaps the owner died, or was disabled, or lost his job...could be a lot of things. We all know it isn't easy to find homes for pigeons. At least he or she didn't just kill them. And some of us have been blessed with beautiful new birds.

[This message has been edited by Birdmom4ever (edited October 01, 2003).]

[natrlhorse]

Those stress bars could be bald spots in the feathers caused by lice. I don't know if you dusted your birds with sevin dust (you can do it like shake and bake in a bag) before you introduced them. I dusted my three in the box they came in. But poor feather quality can be from lack of nutrition. They were a little lean on just the wild bird feed provided at the wildlife center. I would be a little stressed if I was a pijj hanging out back there with the birds of prey and other critters in rehab!

The vet at the center let me come in the back to see the birds. I bet your fantail cock was the mate to my "pink" hen, perhaps the young ones are their offspring? No need to worry as my hen with the 2000 band has been spending time with a single blue bar cock in my loft. I think that the two youngsters (one pink, one red and smaller) are boys, they were having a regular wrestling match in the box together

------------------
Tori
Fantails, Komorner Tumblers and Hungarian Giant House Pigeons

[Birdmom4ever]

Hi, Tori. I was thinking the same thing--that your pink fantail hen was probably Rufous' mate! I was so happy to see your post because I had guessed, since he was three years old, that he probably had a mate and I felt sorry for her being left behind. It warms my heart to know she has a happy home and a new hubby. I love happy endings.

I dusted the new birds thoroughly because they had a lot of mite damage to their feathers; it looked like tiny holes had been punched in their tail feathers and flights. But it looks different than the bars.

So much for hoping Jasmine would stop laying. She laid an egg today. But she didn't prolapse this time, so I'm hoping she'll be okay as long as she stays on her special calcium supplement. I don't know why she has this problem. I give all my pigeons lots of grit with oyster shell and vitamins and minerals in their water. She's the only one with this problem.

If you're up this way again, let me know and you can come visit our flock.

[gogo45]

hello i will tke the birds just ship them to me please for information contact me my email naemehjbarah@yahoo.com

[LokotaLoft]

again this is an old post from 2003 the dates are listed up on the top in the left corner if you want to know how old they are