# fantail



## aswinragh (Nov 19, 2010)

my friend gave me a pair of fantail. it has a problem, one of it,s fingers are covered with its droppings, it is very hard, pigeon has difficulty to walk. Then I tried to remove, it is very painful for pigeon. Is there any chemicals or medicines for removing the dried droppings.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

you may have to soak his feet and try again.. why does he have poop stuck to his feet? is he sick?


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## jeff houghton (Jul 17, 2010)

spirit wings said:


> you may have to soak his feet and try again.. why does he have poop stuck to his feet? is he sick?


Probably came from a very unclean loft .Seen this many times .I once saw a pigeon with a round ball of poop the size of a marble attached to one of his toes.


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## Keith C. (Jan 25, 2005)

I suggest putting a towel in the bottom of a bucket with about 1 inch of warm water covering it. The towel will provide good footing and friction against the ball.
Put the pigeon in, cover the top of the bucket with another, dry towel to keep the pigeon calm in the dark and to prevent it from hurting itself, if it trys to get out and leave the pigeon in for about an hour. The poop ball will soften up and fall off.
Some pigeons will drag their toes when they walk and accumulate poop even in a clean loft.
A few weeks ago I switched over one of my lofts and had 1 bird out of around 80 that had very dirty toes. It's health was good.
Pulling on the poop, without softening it, is dangerous because you may break a toe or pull the toenail off.


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## sreeshs (Aug 16, 2009)

This may be gross but is something I have done  if its too hard, you can bite it slightly, until you feel a slight crumble, which is the hard deposit getting sheared, after which it can be pulled out easily. Be careful with the nails and do wash your mouth after this


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## Keith C. (Jan 25, 2005)

Sreeshs, it does sounds pretty gross.
Speaking of gross, I have two friends that put pigeon feed in their mouths, chew it up, moisten it with saliva and then feed baby pigeons from their mouths.
I mentioned this to my girlfriend, the last time I bought out a loft that had babies that would be left to die if I didn't take them.
I walked in on her mouth feeding them. I requested that she brush her teeth before kissing me.


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## sreeshs (Aug 16, 2009)

Keith C. said:


> Sreeshs, it does sounds pretty gross.
> Speaking of gross, I have two friends that put pigeon feed in their mouths, chew it up, moisten it with saliva and then feed baby pigeons from their mouths.
> I mentioned this to my girlfriend, the last time I bought out a loft that had babies that would be left to die if I didn't take them.
> I walked in on her mouth feeding them. I requested that she brush her teeth before kissing me.


 Breeders here still do it, they moisten red millet, grind it up, take a cheek full and feed the babies from the mouth


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## Big T (Mar 25, 2008)

sreeshs said:


> This may be gross but is something I have done  if its too hard, you can bite it slightly, until you feel a slight crumble, which is the hard deposit getting sheared, after which it can be pulled out easily. Be careful with the nails and do wash your mouth after this


Pinch the edge of it with plyers instead of teeth. It will break it up also. Just break off a little at a time without pinching the bird until it breaks up and falls off. 

Tony


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## conditionfreak (Jan 11, 2008)

sreeshs said:


> This may be gross but is something I have done  if its too hard, you can bite it slightly, until you feel a slight crumble, which is the hard deposit getting sheared, after which it can be pulled out easily. Be careful with the nails and do wash your mouth after this


This reminds me of a guy in our combine, that puts the baby birds foot in his mouth to moisten it in order to be able to put the band on easier.

Yuck! There must be twenty or fifty other ways to do both, without using your mouth.


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## rackerman (Jul 29, 2009)

conditionfreak said:


> This reminds me of a guy in our combine, that puts the baby birds foot in his mouth to moisten it in order to be able to put the band on easier.
> 
> Yuck! There must be twenty or fifty other ways to do both, without using your mouth.


*Gross..........*


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Just soak the foot under warm water for a couple of minutes. The poop will soften, and it comes off easily. Works every time. No need to put the whole bird in the water. And not necessary to soak it for an hour. A couple of minutes will soften it enough to get it off.


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## sreeshs (Aug 16, 2009)

conditionfreak said:


> This reminds me of a guy in our combine, that puts the baby birds foot in his mouth to moisten it in order to be able to put the band on easier.
> 
> Yuck! There must be twenty or fifty other ways to do both, without using your mouth.


I am sure the usage of plyers as Tony mentioned is the better way 

Soaking the foot in water for the muffed birds is a pain, it spoils the feathers and gets dirty. If its a hard deposit, even simply soaking won't do, you have to soak and rub the deposit off with the fingers, which again makes the water more dirty and so the foot feathers.

The best way is to keep the loft clean, especially the nest boxes and bowls and treating the birds for cocci and e-coli which are the main reasons responsible for the slurry type which later hardens on the nails.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

sreeshs said:


> I am sure the usage of plyers as Tony mentioned is the better way
> 
> *Soaking the foot in water for the muffed birds is a pain, it spoils the feathers and gets dirty. If its a hard deposit, even simply soaking won't do, you have to soak and rub the deposit off with the fingers, which again makes the water more dirty and so the foot feathers.
> *
> The best way is to keep the loft clean, especially the nest boxes and bowls and treating the birds for cocci and e-coli which are the main reasons responsible for the slurry type which later hardens on the nails.




If you hold the foot under warm running water from the faucet, for a minute, then try to break it up with your nails, and rinse again under the running water, the feathers don't get dirty, and this does work. You may, depending on the size of it have to remove a bit, then put under the water again to soften more, but it will come off this way. Or if you used a large enough pan of warm water, like for a bath, the feathers wouldn't get dirty either.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

why would people put their mouth on poop?... yikes... anyway.. I have used dog nail trimmers to.. to cut through it.. the scissor kind..


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## sreeshs (Aug 16, 2009)

It was not as gross as it seems here, at least when I did it


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

I just use my nails.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

sreeshs said:


> It was not as gross as it seems here, at least when I did it


we are in modern times now...lol.. poop is not good near your mouth..or in it... we learned that a long time ago.. it is a good way to get sick..and it is gross..that is just a fact of life...lol... it makes good fertilzer though..


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

I guess poop removal is not for the faint of heart. LOL.


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## Big T (Mar 25, 2008)

spirit wings said:


> we are in modern times now...lol.. poop is not good near your mouth..or in it... we learned that a long time ago.. it is a good way to get sick..and it is gross..that is just a fact of life...lol... it makes good fertilzer though..


POOP, We all have it. Most are full of it. All want to share it and get rid of it. But no matter how much you spead it around, you still find yourself deep in it.

Tony


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## Lynnwood Lofts (Apr 12, 2010)

Keith C. said:


> Sreeshs, it does sounds pretty gross.
> Speaking of gross, I have two friends that put pigeon feed in their mouths, chew it up, moisten it with saliva and then feed baby pigeons from their mouths.
> I mentioned this to my girlfriend, the last time I bought out a loft that had babies that would be left to die if I didn't take them.
> I walked in on her mouth feeding them. I requested that she brush her teeth before kissing me.


HA HA HA!!! I was wondering if people actually did this because I've gotten quite a few beaks in the mouth and nostrils and couldn't help but think how much easier it would be to feed them that way  I'm sticking with the syringe and balloon method though


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