Help! my mom is allergic!

[Pigeons247]

My mother and I have been sharing this hobby for what seems like, forever. Recently, her lung condition has worsened, and her doctor has practically BEGGED her to eliminate all contact with birds and their dander.( She has a rare condition where the dander from a birds feathers causes a allergic reaction, and protien fibers clog up her lungs so she is unable to breathe.) Now I have a loft bursting with our hand raised flyers, and they have nowhere to go. I've posted ads in the papers and on craigslist, but it seems like the only people who look there are hunters, and people who train their dogs with them! These are my babies! They all have names! I couldn't ever sell them to someone who wanted to eat them, or use them as bait for their dogs! If anyone knows a place or is willing to take a few off my hands... im willing to ship if necessary. All I want is a good, loving home for them where they can fly and be appreciated for the beautys they are.

[maryjane]

Hi, and welcome to the site. I'm sorry your mom is sick, and you have to find homes for your birds. It's so hard to part with them. Can you give us your general location? There is not a lot of shipping going on right now because of the weather but there will be opportunities coming up, I'm sure. The best thing is if we could find someone near you to take them. How many do you have? If you can, post some pictures of them and tell us a bit more about them, their personalities if you want, so we can see better where they would fit in. Good luck!!!

[Pigeons247]

Hi and thanks for the reply!
I live about 40 minutes away from San Francisco, CA, in a little city called Mountain View. Where I am, noone keeps pigeons. City ordenance forbids the flying of them, so my modest flock of around 30 birds stays in our loft. The are, I guess what you would call, "Flights". They have interesting coloration, and when they do on ocassion sneak out, they just sorta hover around the loft... don't do much flying around. I started catching the wild pigeons that came into our yard and took seed from our hands, after my first pige, PingWing smashed into our window and knocked herself out!

So, pretty much all of our birds are from "wild stock", but they are second or third generation cage bred. Since my mother got sick, I have't had the time to spend with them, so they aren't as tame as they could be.

How would i upload pictures?

[maryjane]

The good news is we have some members in your area who rescue (I'm an hour north of SF myself), the bad news is most of us are either full or trying to downsize. I don't mean to sound discouraging at all, just kind of thinking out loud here. Are any of the former ferals releasable? Do you think they would do okay if integrated back into a feral flock slowly? Have you tried a good air filter in the house? I know a lot of people use those, as well as the cotton masks when visiting or cleaning the aviary. It just seems difficult right now to find homes for them, especially with the rising costs of (everything) pigeon seed. Keep checking back and hopefully someone near you will be able to take some. I am a bit over my limit (only allowed 25 in my neighborhood) right now or I would take some. I am trying to find some people to adopt, so if I hear of anyone in your area, I'll let you know and let them know about you if you want.

[Charis]

Are your pigeons in a loft outside of your house?

[cyro51]

From your description it sounds as if your mother has extrinsic allergic alveolitis. This is a condition that as suffer from as do a couple of other members.

The British Pigeon Fanciers Medical Research team is dedicated to carrying out research into this disease and its effects.

You will find a lot of helpful information in the FAQ's and other sections of this site:

http://www.pigeon-lung.co.uk/main.html

Cynthia

[Pigeons247]

Yea, after paroozing through the forums I've noticed that a lot of us are being forced to downsize... and finding homes is becoming increasingly more difficult.

I would try to retrain them to be a feral flock, but we would get fined if someone reported lots of birds hanging around...since it is illegal to fly them in my neighborhood. Also, most of them have been cage raised and haven't flown more than 30-40 feet at a time for their entire lives... so, although not out of the question, it would be difficult to rehabilitate them. Any one have experience with this?

And did I mention, we have a coopers hawk that loiters in our Redwood tree. ><

and, the loft is outside. sorry for the confusion there.

[fantail_lover]

are your willing to ship to michagan if so i would like some if you are willing to ship to me i own not as many as you but i have a lot of room left with the others

[Pigeons247]

Originally Posted by fantail_lover

are your willing to ship to michagan if so i would like some if you are willing to ship to me i own not as many as you but i have a lot of room left with the others

Fantail_lover,I have never actually shipped birds. Although I did say I was OK with shipping the birds, recent threads on this site have made me think twice. During the hot summer months, that would be a very very long journey to make, and Imagine the horror at opening up a box of dehydrated, stressed birds... or worse. Do you have any expierence with shipping? like the best times to do it, the best carriers, ect?

[chriss80]

I am sorry to hear your mom is allergic to pigeons. My husband turned out to be allergic to pigeons too. We had to move our 2 pigeons in an aviary outside in our the garden. I heard that some HEPA or ceramic air filters/ sterilizers can help with allergies.

[Lovebirds]

Originally Posted by Pigeons247

Fantail_lover,I have never actually shipped birds. Although I did say I was OK with shipping the birds, recent threads on this site have made me think twice. During the hot summer months, that would be a very very long journey to make, and Imagine the horror at opening up a box of dehydrated, stressed birds... or worse. Do you have any expierence with shipping? like the best times to do it, the best carriers, ect?

Now is NOT a good time to ship birds. The weather is WAY too hot in most of the country. I know that there a few horror stories on here about shipping birds, but if someone could find ALL the accounts of shipping birds, the good outways the bad by a long shot. Shipping is pretty safe, although there's ALWAYS the chance that things could go wrong. Here is a sticky on shipping birds.
http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=23515

[Pigeons247]

Thanks for the advice! I don't think ill be shipping till the weather cools off.

As for the hepa filters, we have two in our house they do help.

[Pigeons247]

Hey everyone!
Just thought I would post a happy update.
Over the past few months, I have been locating homes for my birds, and 9 of them have found new, loving homes with other fanciers, complete with flight cages and everything!

I'm so happy for them. As much as I hate to let any of them go, I am glad i found good homes for them.

[TAWhatley]

Thank you for this good news update! I'm so glad things have been and are working out for you and the birds!

Please keep us posted.

Terry