# Grooming fantails



## natrlhorse (Sep 21, 2002)

Are there any tricks to keeping an american fantail's tail nice and neat? Two of my birds get the tips of their tail feathers all ruffled. And is there some way to clean them, other than their usual bath. They seem to be poop targets for all the other birds. I watched one friend straighten up his pigeon's tail and it totally eluded me as to what the order of the feathers should be. I guess I have a pair of really nice American fantails but I'm not yet sure what I am looking for in a good show fantail. 

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Tori
Fantails, Komorner Tumblers and Hungarian Giant House Pigeons


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## Pigeons R loved (Dec 20, 2001)

Well good too hear that I'm not the only person that dosen't know what I'm looking for in show fantails. Keep in touch. I might want too trade some of my Fantails for yours. 
Nick Tull


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## Wild Dove (Apr 9, 2002)

Hi! Here's a website that may answer some of your questions about what judges are looking for in show Fantails...these standards are the National Pigeon Association's I think:
http://members.aol.com/duiven/standards/fantail/npafan.htm 

As for the tail feathers, I have no idea...Bailey keeps hers clean, but they are raggedy in places. Is it possible some fantails are more nervous and overpreen?
Wild Dove


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## natrlhorse (Sep 21, 2002)

Well, my fantails are not really preening their tail feathers. My old cock stays real clean and his tail feathers are nice and neat. His mate has what I like to call a "helicopter-looking" tail and it gets very ruffled (she is supposed to be a very nice bird). Her offspring also gets ruffled, and I wish I knew how to groom them because they start to look pretty bedraggled. 
I have the standards and have an idea of what is good but I don't have a trained eye yet as far as picking out faults. 

I gathered most of the information on my birds listening to various conversations. There was a fellow at the show who supposedly could get $1000 each for some of his fantails. As I was chatting with one of the judges about this, and he asked me if I wanted some fantails. His wife bred them and had some that were origionally from the same line as the $1000 pigeon guy but had developed into a different, equally good line. (One of those deals where the $1000 pigeon guy would probably give his eye teeth for one of her birds now, *chuckle, chuckle*.) So what I gathered was that the judges wife gave me her second best hen and her fifth best cock in the loft. They were wanting me to bring the birds and offspring back to the show of course. Being judges they couldn't really show their birds anymore. 
I'm sort of hoarding my birds right now until I get a few more








The first offspring from the pair is the mysterious black cock and he thinks that I am his mate. We're pretty attached to eachother. The second offspring is black check and just hopped out of the nest this morning for his/her first bath. 

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Tori
Fantails, Komorner Tumblers and Hungarian Giant House Pigeons


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## Wild Dove (Apr 9, 2002)

Yes, I saw the pictures of your two babies...and they are gorgeous! As are your adult birds.
I mentioned the overpreening because, in the pictures, I noticed the similar "bedraggledness" that Bailey has in her tail, and Bailey preens A LOT. I am also going to Ivomec her because she has new tail feathers that are coming in that have black, charcoal-looking stuff in the middle, and I am concerned that she might have mites of some sort.
Your little black guy is a charmer, by the way








Wild Dove


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## natrlhorse (Sep 21, 2002)

I'm trying to handle my babies a lot because I don't like to see them get too stressed when being groomed, etc. And the ones who don't color are then tame enough to make nice pets for someone. As I have been handling this latest round of babies the little black cock will stick his head over the edge of the nestbox to see what I am up to, then get frustrated and fly onto my shoulder and start grooming my ear for attention. He could probably sit quietly to have his head scratched indefinately, lol! They are so much fun to have around. 

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Tori
Fantails, Komorner Tumblers and Hungarian Giant House Pigeons


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