# Training pigeons to return to the loft at the whistle



## Skye'sEcho (May 28, 2011)

I have two pigeons- both homers which I have had for almost two months now, both 8-10 weeks old, and 4 weeks old when I first got them. I let them out once, 4 weeks ago, after waiting for them to become accustomed to their new loft the right amount of time, and in the end we had to catch them to get them back into the loft. A few weeks later one of them escaped and was gone for a week before someone found her. I have tried to home them by placing them outside the loft a few times in a cage, but they don't know how to return correctly into the loft (I don't have a trap, but I wanted to leave the loft door open for them instead). Now, three weeks or more later, they both escaped and flew around my house. I gave them a good bath, and had not fed them in the mornings for two days, but they both escaped when I was feeding them (They both had about one handful each). My worry is that they seem to be oblivious to my whistle (which I faithfully do every time I give them food by hand in the aviary part of the loft since the day I brought them home) and now since they don't know how to return into the loft, they won't be able to (especially since they aren't hungry now). But I have done everything that the books say to do for teaching them to return to the whistle, and it is NOT that easy! I've tried almost everything and I need to know what I am doing wrong that my pigeons don't respond to my whistle, or return into the loft.


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## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

Are you letting them out in the evenings like 2 hours before sunset? There is another trick you can do and that is either tape there flight feathers together with tape or you take a bucket and fill it with soupy water and wave both wings around 20 times. Doing that takes the powder and down off the wings so they cant fly. In the end your birds need to stay around the loft for around 2 hours at least to settle in. Also when your letting your birds out just open the door. Do not take them out or go in there and scare them out . Let them come out on there own. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/drjohnlamberton#p/u/5/WPReyZgHzWY


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## ptras (Jun 29, 2010)

Skye'sEcho said:


> I have two pigeons- both homers which I have had for almost two months now, both 8-10 weeks old, and 4 weeks old when I first got them. I let them out once, 4 weeks ago, after waiting for them to become accustomed to their new loft the right amount of time, and in the end we had to catch them to get them back into the loft. A few weeks later one of them escaped and was gone for a week before someone found her. I have tried to home them by placing them outside the loft a few times in a cage, but they don't know how to return correctly into the loft (I don't have a trap, but I wanted to leave the loft door open for them instead). Now, three weeks or more later, they both escaped and flew around my house. I gave them a good bath, and had not fed them in the mornings for two days, but they both escaped when I was feeding them (They both had about one handful each). My worry is that they seem to be oblivious to my whistle (which I faithfully do every time I give them food by hand in the aviary part of the loft since the day I brought them home) and now since they don't know how to return into the loft, they won't be able to (especially since they aren't hungry now). But I have done everything that the books say to do for teaching them to return to the whistle, and it is NOT that easy! I've tried almost everything and I need to know what I am doing wrong that my pigeons don't respond to my whistle, or return into the loft.


Feed them less. Once a day is fine in the evening. Then, you need to put them out into an aviary and close your trap (they're cheap, or build a drop trap for even cheaper). Put the food down, whistle and let them come in through the trap to eat (you may have to help them through the trap the first couple times). Do that every day for a week or two, and they will learn not only that the whistle means food, but that they have to go through the trap to get food. Make sure there is no food in the loft other than at feeding time. Once I whistle my birds in, I remove the feed tray after fifteen minutes. In fifteen minutes, a bird can eat enough for the entire day.


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## Skye'sEcho (May 28, 2011)

How do you tape bird wings? Doesn't it pull out all the feathers when taking it off?


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## sky tx (Mar 1, 2005)

Skies--You have never heard of holding the feather with one hand and remove the tape with the other hand?


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

Skye'sEcho said:


> I have two pigeons- both homers which I have had for almost two months now, both 8-10 weeks old, and 4 weeks old when I first got them. I let them out once, 4 weeks ago, after waiting for them to become accustomed to their new loft the right amount of time, and in the end we had to catch them to get them back into the loft. A few weeks later one of them escaped and was gone for a week before someone found her. I have tried to home them by placing them outside the loft a few times in a cage, but they don't know how to return correctly into the loft (I don't have a trap, but I wanted to leave the loft door open for them instead). Now, three weeks or more later, they both escaped and flew around my house. I gave them a good bath, and had not fed them in the mornings for two days, but they both escaped when I was feeding them (They both had about one handful each). My worry is that they seem to be oblivious to my whistle (which I faithfully do every time I give them food by hand in the aviary part of the loft since the day I brought them home) and now since they don't know how to return into the loft, they won't be able to (especially since they aren't hungry now). But I have done everything that the books say to do for teaching them to return to the whistle, and it is NOT that easy! I've tried almost everything and I need to know what I am doing wrong that my pigeons don't respond to my whistle, or return into the loft.


when they get hungry enough they will be looking to get in the loft..just keep a watch out..if they are hanging close..call them in and leave the door open while your there.. then when you get them in.. you will have to back track and start over with the training.. they need to be trap trained to know how to get in.. but because your lacking that it is a problem. you don't want to leave your loft door open to preadators while your gone.


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## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

I've never done the tape But I know it works. You can teach birds to co,e into the door but it's a little harder. I had all my flyers in a smaller loft with my fancies with just a door and they were able to figure it out no training or anything just a feed call ( the first couple nights and had to catch them and put them in the loft). I moved them in to a larger loft and doubled my number of flyers and it hasn't been as easy now. I tried just feed call and thought that after a couple nights of putting them into the loft they would figure it out but didn't this time. I'm now starting to trap train them using a old large dog crate I had putting it a foot or two outside the door has worked and Im to keep increasing the distance.


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## Don Fischer (May 13, 2011)

I have never trained homers to re-enter the loft. But in the last 25 or so years I have trained thousands of ferals to get back in. Not only get back in but to push aside the bobs in the process, Actually that drop trap looks like the best thing since sliced bread to me, but, I don't have one yet.

As for training them, well, don't train them. Let them learn and they will. Just open the re-entry door and leave them alone. When you take them out, it's on your terms, not theirs! When they find the door to go out, it will be on their terms, not yours! They will not simply bail out the door and take off, they don't do that unless pushed. What they will do is go out the opening and stand on the landing platform and look around a bit. They might even go out, look around and go right back in. Ain't no big deal because when they are ready to fly off the platform, they will, on their terms! Next they need to find food and water and they don't have a clue what natural food looks like or where to find water other than the loft. They have learned that editable substances are found in the loft and only in the loft. They will be back in the loft looking for food, water,,,and home! Home is an important consideration, they do make themselves at home. Talking ferals here now speaking of home. But I suspect that homers that have never been out of the loft, in time will know the loft as home. If they've flown, I ain't saying.

Remember you have a bird in captiveity that has no idea how to find food or water and has never needed to find shelter. It will come back to it's eating and resting place. Just don't run it off. You scare it and it may take up residence in a tree and get awfully hungry before it figures out where to get food. But the up side of that is, I've had my birds chased out of their loft by a Copper Hawk on two occassion's. Once I removed the Hawk, they came home. Funny watching them come. They'd land and peek in ready to split in an instent if the hawk were in there, point is even though they got the poo scared out of them, they still came home. And these were just ferals.

My new homers have not been really loose yet. They are in a converted chicken house that has a ramp into a 16'x20' enclosed pen. I left the preditor door open for them and they found the way out and the way back in with no help from me other than leaving the preditor door open.

Often in our earerness to train an animal or bird what we want it to do, we forget that if we simply let it learn, it will do it better and faster.


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## RodSD (Oct 24, 2008)

Pigeons are one of the smartest animals in the planet and training them should be easier!

If they are not following your whistle you have to retrain them. Start in the beginning. Whistle when you give them food. If they are on the perch, they should come down. If they don't they either don't know the whistle call yet or they are not hungry. Obviously should make them hungry. Do that couple of times. I get to teach my birds whistle call in one week. You know when you got it right because they will go down from their perch when you whistle even without food! The whistle will act like an automatic response to them.

Second training will involve trap training. Put all your birds in the settling cage. Whistle. If they don't trap, then you have either have not trap train them yet or even food train them yet. Go back to the feeding whistle training to make sure they got it right. If you birds attempted to go in when you whistle, but can't figure it out how to trap, then you have trap training problem. They haven't learn to trap. Start trap training(on whatever the book you learned from).

Third training. Release them hungry or better yet starving! Let them out for 30 minutes or 60 max. Call them in. They should trap. In fact because they are starving, some will just trap without calling. Gauge their behavior and modify your training. 

Training them to come back maybe another story.

But without trap door you should also be able to train them. In the beginning I also don't have a trap. I practice the English style of just using the door as both entry and exit. My training was rather weird. Basically I hold a cup of their food while standing on the door. I whistle and throw some food on the ground in front of the door. Some curious birds will go down and pecked on the grains. I then put some grains inside the loft floor LURING them so to speak. Then I close the door when they are busy eating. The problem occurs when one dumb bird don't want to enter, so I switch to having a trap door. 

Another technique is to put your settling cage(with pigeons) in front of the door, whistle, open the settling cage door and let them come inside. Obviously there should be food already ready for them inside the loft.

I actually found training pigeons much easier than training a parakeet.


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