Would like fertile egg

[rallow]

Our pet pigeon has laid 23 eggs since reaching one year of age in April of this year. All of course were infertile since she has no mate, and had to be disposed of. Can anyone offer me a fertile egg or two so that she can know what it’s like to be a mother? As a pet she is treated very well, but this one thing is missing from her life. I already have two people who after seeing our pet are willing to provide good homes to the chicks.

[upcd]

There is one problem. 2 pigeons are needed raise a family. It is to much stress for 1 pigeon. You take a chance on lossing both mother and baby to illness. I hope you reconsider this idea. When your hen lays let her sit on her inferitle eggs as long as she wants. Good luck and God Bless.

[Trees Gray]

Originally Posted by rallow

Our pet pigeon has laid 23 eggs since reaching one year of age in April of this year. All of course were infertile since she has no mate, and had to be disposed of. Can anyone offer me a fertile egg or two so that she can know what it’s like to be a mother? As a pet she is treated very well, but this one thing is missing from her life. I already have two people who after seeing our pet are willing to provide good homes to the chicks.

Thank you for your care and concern over your pets happiness.

upcd brought up a very good point.

Your pet may become exhausted trying to feed two babies by herself, or even one, and even abandon them. Are you prepared to syringe feed the youngsters round the clock? It is exhausting and not in the best interest of your pet and babies.

Perhaps you would consider getting her a mate and then the two could raise a baby.

[rallow]

You are right about her raising two chicks, one would be much better. You are wrong however about her being alone. Like all pet birds without mates she has bonded with her best human friend, and I would help her raise her chick, just as I raised her. I am a disabled vet, so I have the time, and can think of nothing better I could do than help the pet who’s brought so many cheerful moments into my life be happier in her situation. I feel sorry for her because she shows such strong reproductive/maternal instincts that are going unfulfilled. As for leaving her sitting on dud eggs, somehow that seems cruel. I think it’s better to take them right away so that she forgets then as soon as possible. Since we live in a one bedroom apartment, getting her mate and keeping two pigeons as pets would be very difficult. This would not be a problem with a hand raised chick since my wife's sister would take it once it's grown, and give it a very good home.

Though I don't know if it's true, I have heard that a hen pigeon will not lay eggs if she doesn't have a mate to help raise her young. Since Lucy Liu has laid so many, I guess that she thinks she has one.

[Trees Gray]

Originally Posted by rallow

You are right about her raising two chicks, one would be much better. You are wrong however about her being alone. Like all pet birds without mates she has bonded with her best human friend, and I would help her raise her chick, just as I raised her. I am a disabled vet, so I have the time, and can think of nothing better I could do than help the pet who’s brought so many cheerful moments into my life be happier in her situation.

I'm very happy to hear about her giving you many hours of pleasure. Mine do the same for me.

I feel sorry for her because she shows such strong reproductive/maternal instincts that are going unfulfilled. As for leaving her sitting on dud eggs, somehow that seems cruel. I think it’s better to take them right away so that she forgets then as soon as possible.

I leave my hens dummy eggs to keep them from laying one egg after another. The calcium reserves get depleted quickly and at least 20 days on the dummy eggs give them a much needed break. I also use it as birth control, as my pigeons would be misserably overcrowded if I allowed them to hatch every egg they layed.

Since we live in a one bedroom apartment, getting her mate and keeping two pigeons as pets would be very difficult. This would not be a problem with a hand raised chick since my wife's sister would take it once it's grown, and give it a very good home.

I appreciate the wonderful care you are bestowing on your pet, I'm glad you have thought ahead about all the consequences.

Though I don't know if it's true, I have heard that a hen pigeon will not lay eggs if she doesn't have a mate to help raise her young. Since Lucy Liu has laid so many, I guess that she thinks she has one.

We have many members here who have only a hen pigeon pet and they consider their human caregiver their mate, so they lay eggs endlessly. A famous avian vet said that a pigeon just needs to think about "love" and it sets the factory in motion. I have pretty much found that to be true, as well as some people here, who have hens with oviduct issues, and will die should they lay again. They have to isolate the hens from any male pigeons, as well as avoiding contact with them because of the possiblity they will ultimatelyconsider their human caregivers as their mate.

[rallow]

You know I’ve thought about how a bird must need a lot of calcium for it’s body to manufacture eggs, and why Lucy Liu doesn’t seem to have a problem with pumping out two almost every month. I believe it’s due to another thing that’s unusual about her, which is her preferred diet. When I found her I started out by force feeding her scrambled eggs. Soon I got the idea to add cheese to them in order to increase the protein content, and she thrived on the mix. When she got big and learned to eat for herself, I stopped the scrambled eggs but kept the cheese. What I do is buy a pound of white American cheese, dry it over night on a counter, and then wipe the excess oil from each slice with a paper towel. I keep one of these dried out slices in a container next to her cage to give to her as a snack, and freeze the rest. She absolutely loves it! It is in fact what I used as a reward to paper train her. She will do anything to get it and eats a full slice about every two days. Oddly enough she is so fussy and spoiled that this cheese along with her seed mix are all that she will eat. To show how fussy she truly is, she will not eat other kinds of cheese prepared in the same way, not even yellow American which tastes exactly the same! Though pigeons are suppose to be the ultimate omnivore, such things as bred crumbs, crushed potato chips, and even a pigeon’s all time favorite, peanuts, are to her nothing more than sand! Anyway every egg she’s produced so far has been large with a hard, perfect shell, which I attribute to all the cheese she consumes. Even though as I’ve said I remove much of the oil, I hope her cheese won’t also eventually clog her arteries.

I have 4 of those dummy eggs, but again I don’t like using them. I will try leaving one or two with her though the next time she lays, if it will slow down her egg laying, even if she hasn’t had any problems with that so far. I also understand that she will lay more eggs if she is treated with affection. But she is just such a sweet little girl that my wife and I cannot help but to heap it on her. Thank you for your input.

[Pidgey]

Yeah, I kinda' like cheese myself, although my favorite is a Jonge Kaas from Gouda, Holland. According to the "French Paradox", you're supposed to augment the intake of cheese with wine to keep from clogging the arteries. I'm not suggesting you also teach Lucy Liu to be a sommelier, however. I think you MAY have spoiled her enough already.

Personally, I think you and her could easily raise one chick at a time between the two of you with no problem other than the poor chick might have a wee species-identity problem. That chick could have a very tough time integrating into a wild flock and learning the necessary street-smarts to make it "out there." Just accidently getting outside could easily be a death sentence.

Also, understand that the desire to keep on raising chicks will virtually never go away so you might end up feeling it necessary to do it again from time to time.

Pidgey

[Larry_Cologne]

Rallow,

Very sorry to hear of your wife's illness. I hope and wish for her all the best. That goes for you and Lucy Liu and Dinkster too, whose story I have followed from the egg-wish times.

I myself would be delighted to take in all the pigeons I came across if health, wealth, space and circumstances permitted, the more the merrier, but my situation is much like yours, and I must participate in many things vicariously, from the sidelines.

It will probably be the saddest for Lucy Liu. I'm sure it takes the two of them to keep you awake, from the looks in the photo of them sitting on your side as you attempt to sleep.

Abraham Lincoln had his Gettysburg Address, and I thought the Dinkster might eventally have his also, since your aspirations for him tended in that direction, or at least a Cooper Union address in Brooklyn, NYC, but perhaps it is not to be. (I am nuts in more ways then one).

Victor seems to be a very active pigeon collector these days.

I also think it would be nice if the whole happy healthy family of yours could eventually be reunited, and all pigeon excursions only temporary.

Larry in Cologne

[Larry_Cologne]

I retrieved two newly-laid eggs from underneath papa Wieteke yesterday afternoon with my right hand as he fought my left hand and tugged with his beak, and replaced them with two ugly plastic eggs.

And I thought it would be nice if I could send them to you to raise -- silly thoughts (impossible because of U.S. customs, etc.).

I hated removing the eggs, since the pigeons put in so much effort to bring young chicks into this world. I leave for Texas next week and my wife follows a week later, and we will be gone during August. First pair of suurviving chicks now spending their first few nights ouside, and the second pair of surviving chicks (17-days-old) will be leaving the nest soon.

Larry

[Pidgey]

Incidentally, for those who might be slightly interested in getting The Dinkster as a pet, I'd just like to point out that The Dinkster is both Unie's Uncle and Unie's First Cousin, Once Removed (something like that).

Just thought I'd mention that.

Also, it has been brought to my attention that there may be another courier service for pets: www.flypets.com

Anyone know about this?

Pidgey

[Feather]

Rallow,

This must be a very hard time for you and your wife. I am so sorry for your wife's illness.

You have just put my favorite baby up for adoption. I want so bad to tell you that I would take him and give him a good home. The truth is I have too many pigeons to give "The Dinkster" the kind of attention that he is use to. Recently I inherited 8 orphand pigeons and two ring neck baby doves. My husband said that the problem with this is that I never find homes for them after they are weaned. He called me a pigeon hoarder. I promised him that I would free these as Maggie does, but these ferals are now tamer than my pets.

I fell in love with Dinkster since I saw his 1 day old picture. If you are in a bind and need some help, I will take him. But he would only get dog pound attention, when we all know that he is a poodle in the bird since. Who ever gets "The Dinkster" is a very lucky person. I wish you the best of luck in finding Dinkster a deserving home, and I will keep you wife in my prayers for a full recovery.

Feather

[rallow]

Thank you for your comments. You have a great heart and are doing plenty for the pigeon species. And yes, you're right, The Dinkster is to spoiled to be a part of a flock. He needs someone who has the time to hold him and pet him a few times each day, which he really likes. He is a pet in the purest sense.

[Larry_Cologne]

Rallow,

Nice to see contnuation of an old, mellow, familiar thread with a familiar title. Like a fine wine, it pleases. Like an old friend, it greets you when you log in. Even when the title is obsolete, out-dated. Would like fertile egg? Still? Again? Aaaah ... Rallow and the Dinkster. Can imagine the Dinkster, gray and sage with generations of offspring (or maybe just Rallow is there, musing) saying, "Grandpa, were you ever an egg?"

Earlier post topic caught my eye when I was scrolling.

I noticed from watching Wieteke and his feral mate Mamieke building six nests and successfully raising four chicks to where they left the nest, that there are probably several reasons why poops are offensive.

Smell. Perhaps not. When the chicks were bigger, really putting out larger quantities of poops, and there were a few flies buzzing around, no one seemed to be bothered. The chcks and the male parent walked over and through the poopy sticks. It got to the point hwere I removed all the sticks they had built the net with, and changed newspapers on a daily basis. Wieteke fought my hand daily, indignant that I would even dare do so much as clean up for them. At this point Mamieke was sitting on the next pair of eggs in a new nest, preferred to avoid the old nest with chicks, and Wieteke was pretty much feeding the chicks on his own. She quit feedng one pair of chicks so early in the game, preferring to sit on new eggs, that oe day he got so angry with her that he kept chasing her from the apartment the whole afternoon. She was finally beginning to panic, thinking she would ever be permitted near the new nest, when he quieted down and let her feed the chicks a bit while he watched from a distance, before she went to her egg-sitting. I am sure he was telling her that she should have more inerest and make more effort in feeding the chicks they had. Later the oldest and largest chick showed a lot of rebellion and resentment to the mother, by playing the role of Wieteke's mate for a few days (until the eggs hatched and Wieteke wanted the kds out of the apartment).

So perhaps the smell offended Mamieke, and the others not so much.

Bad smell usually indicates something dangerous which threatens the health of the offended animal. Wieteke didn't seem to mind the smell. I think he and Mamieke may have eaten the feces of the chicks the first few days, but I could not get close enough to verify with the webcam. I know that later on they did not like oral contact with feces. Perhaps if they did ingest feces of the baby chicks the first few days, it was to buy a few more days time of nest location secrecy, or build-up of germs. (This is pure speculation on my part. I do not know that it actually takes place).

Accumuation of droppings point out presence of a nest to predators. Cats eat the feces of their young to protect tem from predators (and the young males from older male tomcats). I think many or most species like to not have it obvios where their young are. Perhaps that is one reason humans build houses.

One major reason for birds to avoid poops: poops make feathers stick together and can hinder and/or prevent flight. A good reason for a bird to want the top roost. I saw Mamieke with asome poop on a tail feather lately from having a lower roost at a local stained glass medieval church window of our romanesque basilica. She had gotten most of it off, though.

On an irreverent note: Someone once described the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Catholic church as resembling stacked chicken coops: the ones on top get to poop on those lower down. Well, don' know, don't want to find out. Would rather maintain a naive view on the matter. Like to believe in the goodness of saints. Someone else once mentioned that the martyrs of old were perhaps not all that likeable. They may have been so aggravating that any normal person owuld gladly hold the cloak of someone who wanted to throw stones at the martyr, if not cast stones oneself. Makes you think. Maybe history at a comfortable distance of centuries is easier to digest. Cologne supposedly had 11,000 virgin martyrs. What did they do to provoke mass martyrdom?

(St. Ursula of Cornwall.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Ursula).

How did I digress to this? Too much supplementary oxygen intake, perhaps. Better go.

Larry

[Lin Hansen]

Larry,

I always enjoy your digressions.......

Anyway, here is another link for Saint Ursula and the 11,000.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Ursula

[rallow]

I don’t know what the matter is with The Dinkster lately. It seems that all he ever wants to is either hump someone’s hand or foot, watch someone use the bathroom, or roll around in the dirty landry basket! Has anyone else had any experience with such a “morally challenged” pet pigeon?