# International Pigeon Care Tips



## jlover (Oct 9, 2011)

Hello to all pigeon lovers!

I am just a newbie pigeon pet taker for about 6 months now. I have racing and fancy pigeons for a total of 16 pigeons. I live in the Philippines.

I would like to share my 6 months experience of taking care of pigeons.

STRICT HYGIENE MAINTENANCE OF YOUR LOFT IS A MUST!

Before, I am generally a lazy person in cleaning my Colony Loft. It will take 2 weeks before I would clean it, forgetting the fact that tropical countries are haven to bacteria, viruses, fungus and protozoa since the climate are warm and so they can easily spread out rapidly.

Until a disaster happened. Various diseases inhabited my loft. In just 2 weeks, I got 6 fatalities like these diseases put time bombs on my pets in which I scrambled targeting these diseases in which I failed to surpass countdowns to death. I managed to bring one sick pet of mine to a veterinary but even the vet couldn't identify the bacteria/virus or disease. It also died. This has frustrated me very much in which I almost gave up with this hobby of mine.

In researching the Internet, I learned how to maintain my loft. Cleaning the loft must be done daily. First thing to do is to scrape-off the poops from top to bottom using a construction scraper. Second step is to spray the surfaces that you have scraped-off the poops with including the perches and bird nests/boxes using a cleaning and disinfectant solution as follows:

-1 Gallon of water
-Antibacterial Detergent Powder, enough to make a foam.
-Bleach with enough mixture of almost odorless so as not to affect your pigeons but fatal to bacteria, viruses, protozoa and fungus.
-White Vinegar enough mixture that you can smell it with the detergent powder.

I recommend that you also spray on your pigeons' feet, too. Because it's their feet which first makes direct contact with infected surfaces unless the bacteria/virus is airborne.

Lastly, scrub-off the floor from poops then sweep it off with pure tap water then scrub it off again with the remaining solution above and sweep-off any water so that your pigeons won't drink on it but do not rinse it, let the floor remain soaked with the cleaning/disinfectant solution to totally wipe-out illegal loft residents.

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN TREATMENT

Commonly, your pigeon will be silent or "sad" when there is something wrong with it. This is the starting point when you are going to race with Death. In my experience, it will just take three days until your pigeon will simply collapse to death. Time is very critical while how you can treat your pigeon when you can't "bull's-eye" the culprit? There will be instances that you will get your pigeon over-dozed because you gave it the wrong medication.

That is why Prevention is better than Treatment because since you can't identify the culprit then just don't gave it a chance to reside in your loft.

First rule is to disinfect your loft daily. Since some bacteria/viruses are airborne, this will suppress them from spreading in your loft.

Second rule is to give them preventive medications. I regularly give the following formula to my pigeons:

- 1 Liter of Purified/Boiled Drinking Water
- 1 Tablespoon of Multivitamins (Ref: Enervon Syrup)
- 1 Tablespoon of Ascorbic Acid 500mG (Ref: PedCee)
- 1 Grated Clover of Garlic (Soaked Overnight in 1 Liter of Purified Water)
- 1/4 teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon of Selectrogen (Eletrolytes with Vitamins)
- 2 Grams or 1/2 teaspoon (mL) of Amoxicillin Trihydrate (Ref: Premoxil FR)
- 2 Grams or 1/2 teaspoon (mL) of Cephalexin
- 2 Grams of Tylosin (Ref: Premoxil FR)
- 2 Grams of Tiamulin Hydrogen Fumarate (Ref: Vetracin Gold)
- 2 Grams of Doxycycline (Ref: Vetracin Gold)
- 2 Grams of Sulfadimethoxine Sodium (Ref: Baxidil SE)
- 2 Grams of Trimethoprim (Ref: Baxidil SE)
- 2 Grams of Cotrimazine (Ref: Trisullak)
- 2 Grams of Oxytetracycline (Ref: Terramycin)
- 20 Drops of Household Bleach (Use a Dropper or Injector Feeder to make accurate drops. Do not use Industry Standard Bleach because this is too strong and might created complications or worse, death)

2 friends of mine are Racing Pigeon Trainers and 1 friend of mine is a Fancy Pigeon Breeder. All of them uses 20 Drops of Household Bleach in 1 Liter of Drinking Water and they are my reference in also using bleach.)

Third rule is to personally bathe them once every two weeks with water, detergent powder enough to foam, odorless mixture of bleach, mild scent mixture of white vinegar then rinse them properly afterwards since the soap is sticky. Be careful to avoid them drinking the bath water.

Alternately, let them bathe themselves with pure tap water once every two weeks. Unattended bathing with 3 inches deep of pure tap water because they also drink on it. They love taking a bath but not frequently, commonly every 9 days.

Fourth rule is to isolate newly adopted pigeons into a separate isolation cage far away from your loft because there are probabilities that they are disease carriers and might contaminate your colony. Bathe them at once with the same bath soap solution as I said above and regularly give them the same preventive medications as I also said above. Isolate the new birds for 10 days before you join them to your colony.

OPEN UP YOUR MIND TO OTHER FEEDING POSSIBILITIES

It's quite difficult to ratio the amount of various seeds in mixture to condition your pigeons' health. However, there are commercial researchers who made this available to cockfighting roosters since formula used in these chickens are not for food consumption, they focused more on how could a rooster successfully win a fight.

I regularly give my pigeons with Battlecock Muscle Enhancer Concentrate Feeds specially designed for cockfighting roosters. The result, my pigeons have these "cockfighting" impressive builts.

http://dcockhouse.com/store.asp?sort=id&Category=FEEDS&page=2

IF YOU LOVE YOUR PIGEONS, SET THEM FREE

Freedom is what these birds will ultimately make them happy. Since they will be very happy, you will be very happy too.

In order to have a reciprocal relationship between the pets and the master, you need to train them first before setting them free. That is, to develop their homing instincts.

Flight feathers of pigeons takes 1 and 1/2 months to fully recover when you pull them off. Specifically, the first 4 to 5 Flight Feathers from the tip of each of their wings. Do not cut the wings for it will be permanent. Pull them off.

If you want to set them free on December 15, you need to pull-off their flight feathers on November 30. This will give them enough time to develop their homing instincts. First, by simply walking like chickens through and fro and gradually, learning the fun of flight then airborne homing instincts or learning the skills of setting reference points in aerial view.

On their freedom day, just open the doors of your loft and don't do anything further like rushing them to fly or they might misinterpret this as you are shooing them away so of course, they will seek other colonies nearby to stay with permanently and leave you alone. Let them instead discover their new world from an open loft, walking outside the loft then back to the loft, walking farther the loft then back to the loft until they explored enough. This usually will take several days to develop so do not rush them. Do not disturb the peacefulness and tranquility of their new world or they will get confused. Let them develop their homing instincts first on their feet because it's their feet they use to land from one point to another and second only is their wings. Scatter some small sticks for them to have play activities. If they like it, they will bring it with them to their favorite nest boxes.

You might probably have a neighborhood pigeon colony so it is strictly important to develop first their homing instinct before they fly-off the skies or you might disturb your neighborhood colony which will result in these other pigeons fetching your pigeons to live with them there in the other colony and so, your pigeons will surely leave you behind.

SKY IS THE LIMIT

Unless you are a Racing Pigeon Trainer, you do not need to put your pigeons into a moderated/training diet. It is an advantage for fancy pigeons to have a weight heavy enough for them not to fly too far away since they can't carry their own weight. So let them eat and drink as much as they want, they know anyway when to stop.

Giving them Vitamin C will erase their stress hours during the late PM hours of the day so no need to alternately give them pure drinking water unless you like them to drink fresh water.

I hope this will help fellow newbie like me.


----------

