Sexing your Pigjie.............

[alvin]

Ok. I'll give you a couple of seconds to get the title of the post out of your systems.
Stopped giggling yet? May we continue?
Good.

We have all had the problem, and we always will. Think about it. How many times have you find a bird that just screams a name at you. A large aggressive blue who struts around intimidating all of the other pigjies in the loft. So you give him a name like 'Butch', or 'Spike'.
And then a day or two later 'He' lays an egg and start's knitting babywear.......

Or you find this sweet little timid mouse of a bird with the prettiest feathers and the cutest eyes. You call 'Her' Honey.
And all goes well until you find 'Honey' in a quiet corner of the loft with your cellphone, credit card, and a copy of the Sears catalog opened at the tool section......

I swear, that sometimes they do this just to annoy.
So as you can see, we have a problem. But tha's Ok, - Just who is the Alpha organism on this floating piece of rock we call Earth anyway? Didn't God give us bloody Humongus brains and opposible thumbs? Surely we could come up with an answer, especially since the Pigjies seem to have no trouble in that department......

We can.
Option one; The Vet.
Yup, your vet can draw some blood, and run a couple of tests, and in jig time, you know if your pigj is 'Harry' or 'Harriette'.
Job done? Yes. Certainly. Without a doubt. No margin for error there. Very scientific. But there are a couple of drawbacks to this method.
The Vet is going to charge you, and if we know vets, the terms 'Arm' And 'Leg' spring to mind when describing the price.

Secondly, If your vet isn't an avian specialist, and you bring a sick Pij to them, the chances are you are going to be doing some teaching.
And nothing destroys any credibility you may have then to bring back that self same Pij the following week to figure out if it's carrier box should be 'Blue' or 'Pink'......

So that leaves us very few options.
Thankfully help is at hand. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I am about to publish the results of years of research into this subject. (Ok, a drunken15 minutes, but I wouldn't have come up with anything better no matter how long I spent. - So you should thank me for saving your tax money...... )

For a couple of Dollars, Euro, Pounds etc, you can easily find out the gender of your newest best bud.
All you need are two magizines;
1. Cosmopolitan
2. Sports illustrated (for quick results, use the swimsuit edition)

Simply put the bird down an equal distance between the magazines. If it Starts pecking at 'Cosmo', - You are looking a girl. If it pecks at sports illustrated, it's a male.

If it poops on Cosmo, - lock up your toolkit, and look forward to long afternoons in front of the TV watching sporting events, because you have 'Guy' on your hands.

[pigeonmama]

Gee, I don't know what to say. I always figured Pidgey was a guy.
Daryl

[Lady Tarheel]

Alvin, I sure enjoyed that. I may need to try it because I'm always wrong.

[Reti]

Never thought of that I will try it and let you know the results.

Reti

[alvin]

Originally Posted by Reti

Never thought of that I will try it and let you know the results.

Reti

Bet you get it right about 50% of the time.......

[alvin]

Originally Posted by Lady Tarheel

Alvin, I sure enjoyed that. I may need to try it because I'm always wrong.

You're telling me? - Gertrude is one step and a couple of days away from being a proud.....Father! I feel your pain.

[mr squeaks]

I suppose the "mirror" test is 50-50?

I don't know Pigeonmama, Pidgey probably doesn't like EITHER magazine! Now what??? Oops, forgot about the "swimsuit" addition! Never mind!

LOVED your post, Alvin! Anyone with the humor you have, has my vote - for whatever you want!

[feralpigeon]

Alvin, I enjoyed your post on sexing pijies, although I must confess, that they all seem to enjoy pooping on all magazines, whenever the umm, spirit, 'moves' them

fp

[Victor]

So, Alvin, you made some veeeerrrrie interesting points to us, especially those of us (I am raising my right arm) who have doubts about the sex of our pigeons. I have two that I am wondering about...well maybe three after reading your post.

I have 5 pigeons.

1. BEAKSLEY: Definately a male. Does the ritual dance in front of other pigeons and his reflection. Very much athletic...plays with his toys and uses a small stuffed owl for barbells. Very VERY VOCAL. Bites when he is having a bad day.

2. ROSCO: Absolutely a male...Likes to vocalize as well.Stands his ground and will peck if things are not well. Oh, he loves the girls in my house. (The human ones, and especially drawn to my blond one)Also a good dancer in front of others and his mirror.

3. CHIWA: My Indian fantail who was presented to me as a "female", but is very agressive to all the boy pigeons. Chiwa will chase them down and start a fight. This quiet, shy Indian fantail now has private flight time for everyones best interest! Also a very noisy bird...male or????

4. BARBIE Blue Bar:My fairly recent feral rescue, Absolutely the sweetest pigeon one could ever wish for. I sometimes call her my "little tweet tart"
Could I be wrong about her pretty ways and endearing sweet loveable persoanality??Noooo, she has to be a female, afterall, she is sooo calm and makes very little noise (hey why can't that be true of the other female species? ) She 's small for her size. She has got to be a girl, and I am sticking to it.

5. PARIS: My most recent adoptee, supposedly a female, but I dunno??? A very large and most powerful pigeon, in fact it is the largest piegon I have. Very intimidating looking pigeon as well. Recently, when it starting being more accepting of its new home and family, a personality began emerging. It loves showers, and will on occasion do the strut dance and go through it noise motions and stretch his long neck, otherwise he /she is quiet...so that confuses me. It is accepting food from my hand now, but will not peck or give me "attitude like a couple of my other boy piegons have....mention names, well ok since you asked, Beaksley and Rosco...anyway, where was I?

I was convinced that I did not need DNA testing...notice I said WAS , til I read your interesting post...thank you very much!

Well, I may be more confused now prior to reading what you said, but heck, I still love my pigeons, no matter what they are!

[mr squeaks]

Well, Victor, WHEN you FINALLY decide which are who...we'll be waiting for more adventures...

The Nosy Members Bunch (possibly down to a precious, but powerful, few) will be impatiently waiting...

DOES look like the males may outnumber the females - got MY vote! LOL

[B. Sommm]

Victor typed:

3. CHIWA: My Indian fantail who was presented to me as a "female", but is very agressive to all the boy pigeons. Chiwa will chase them down and start a fight.

Hmmm, a "Dyke" pidjie??? (You know the type, always has to prove herself to the "guys", that she's more "manly" than they are!)

Maybe you ought to introduce 'her' to jerseygeorge's "Homo Bros"! They could watch the Logo Channel on cable together...

Have a "Gay Pijie Pride" Parade once a year...

Learn to poop in rainbow colors...

Chiwa can build a San Fran style loft and contract with the Homo Bros to do the interior decorating...Hmmm, "Queer Eye for the Straight Pij"??!



FffffAAAAAb-U-lous!


B.

[Victor]

A couple of days ago I e-mailed my co-workers, mainly bus drivers,a link of this thread along with a picture of Barbie Bluebar perched on my shoulder posing for the camera .

I have a retiree who contacted me and said he would like to come over and have a glass of tea and listen to my story of how I got involved with pigeons and see them.

Last night I got an e-mail from one of the wives asking if they could come over and see them, and if her children could pet any of them!

And finally, yesterday afternoon before I went to work, one of my junior high students(from my partime school bus job) and her little brother (4th grade) came by to see my little flock in my back yard. They had a lot of questions.

It seems that a small interest is developing in the backyard of our humble home.

[TAWhatley]

Originally Posted by Victor

It seems that a small interest is developing in the backyard of our humble home.

That's great, Victor! You and your flock are goodwill ambassadors for pigeondom!

Terry

[Trees Gray]

Originally Posted by Victor

It seems that a small interest is developing in the backyard of our humble home.

Hi Victor,

I'm sure you are happy to share this wonderful hobby of pigeons, and the positive pigeon education you're spreading around is most important

[alvin]

Originally Posted by Victor

A couple of days ago I e-mailed my co-workers, mainly bus drivers,a link of this thread along with a picture of Barbie Bluebar perched on my shoulder posing for the camera .

I have a retiree who contacted me and said he would like to come over and have a glass of tea and listen to my story of how I got involved with pigeons and see them.

Last night I got an e-mail from one of the wives asking if they could come over and see them, and if her children could pet any of them!

And finally, yesterday afternoon before I went to work, one of my junior high students(from my partime school bus job) and her little brother (4th grade) came by to see my little flock in my back yard. They had a lot of questions.

It seems that a small interest is developing in the backyard of our humble home.

You remind me of my Dad.

- That's a complement.