# sour crop



## piegonsrock (Aug 14, 2009)

just incase my pouters or norwich croppers get sour crop how do i treat it


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## piegonsrock (Aug 14, 2009)

*cross breeding*

i am going to get mulitpul breeds at a time and put them in a loft do i have to be worried that they will cross breed the breeds i'm getting are english pouters norwitch croppers holle cropper saddel backs and german owls i will be getting a male and female of each breed.


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

piegonsrock said:


> i am going to get mulitpul breeds at a time and put them in a loft do i have to be worried that they will cross breed the breeds i'm getting are english pouters norwitch croppers holle cropper saddel backs and german owls i will be getting a male and female of each breed.


*Hi PIGEONSROCK,Yes you will need to make sure that these pairs are mated correctly. The birds that you will be getting are show type birds and if they cross breed they will not be showable.It looks like you are getting 5breeds of birds as I see it you would be better off starting with 5 pair of one breed. I WISH YOU LUCK with your birds *GEORGE


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## piegonsrock (Aug 14, 2009)

thanks


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## Ed (Sep 18, 2008)

The way I treat the birds is to flush out the crop with a Turkey baster full of slightly warm water with probiotics in it. I will fill the crop a couple of times and squeeze it empty till all the material is out of the crop and the crop is nice and clean. if your bird has bound it's crop with larger grains you might as well forget it, because those are almost impossible to get out. If you have trouble with sour crop, I would highly recommend feeding only pellets to your birds because pellets turn to mush in the crop and are easily squeezed out. If not pellets feed only very small grains. But even with very small grains it's very difficult to flush them out. But it is easy to flush out pellets.


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

*Hi PIGEONSROCK,The show season will be starting in a few months you might be intrested in seeing the breeds that you have intrest in at shows.Most all the shows have junors competing. If you let us know what state you live in I will post the shows in your area.*GEORGE


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## plamenh (Aug 11, 2006)

Prevention is better than treatment! Sour crop is result of bad food or infection.
Keep the seeds dry and clean. Give birds fresh water, vitamins, minerals and probiotics and you wont have any bird with sour crop.


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## piegonsrock (Aug 14, 2009)

i live in MN but for cross breeding what if i put the same species in a pen for about a week would they still cross breed


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## piegonsrock (Aug 14, 2009)

what if i don't have any of that stuff on hand at the moment


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## piegonsrock (Aug 14, 2009)

*how easy to care for*

out of English pouters norwtich croppers holle croppers witch two are the easiest to care for


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

From what I understand these birds get crop issues easily, and every one should come with a set of instructions before they leave the owner.

You have to make sure they always have food infront of them, unlike the homing pigeons, because if they go without and then gorge themselves, it will cause crop status, it is best to feed these birds pellets, not seed. 

I would not get this breed if you are inexperienced with pigeons, and if you do not have a good avian rehabber and/or avian vet nearby.

Have all your preventives/medicines BEFORE you get birds.


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## plamenh (Aug 11, 2006)

Then lets take step by step:
1. You don’t have good and dry seeds – I can’t imagine why, but then you took the ones you have and spread them on the sun. Sunrays will destroy most of the fungi and bacteria and dry them up.
2. Don’t have fresh water??? Take the one you have and boil on the stove. Keep in closed clean containers. If more than couple of days, then boil again.
3. Don’t have vitamins – use green leaves of basil, dandelion, chicken weed etc. Sprouts have all vitamins and minerals your birds need. Sprout some seeds and give to your birds. Calcium you can get from eggshells. Make omlette for you, take the eggshells and bake them in microwave for 3 minutes. Crush them in mortar and give them to your pigeons (do you have chicken eggs??? ) Additionally use old clay bricks, crush them and give them to your birds. Apple cider vinegar, garlic, cinnamon I believe you can get too???
4. Probiotic you don’t have – not a problem, up to couple of decades ago nobody knew of probiotic. This is good gut bacteria (flora). You can skip this or if you really want to do something use live yogurt.


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## plamenh (Aug 11, 2006)

Croppers as Treesa said should never be allowed to take to much food or water at the time as this will result hanging crop, stasis and health problems. Easiest for beginners are dwarf croppers.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Sour crop is usually the result of fungi or wet (enternal) canker. Prevention is definitely best, since birds with crop stasis can be very tricky and messy to deal with.

I really want to stress the first thing Plamenh said. You MUST have dry seed/pellets at all times. If it is allowed to get wet and sit, all sorts of bacteria and fungi can grow, 'souring' the seed. This in turn, can 'sour' the crop as well. The majority of all diseases in the loft, is spread through the flock via contaminated food and water. So keeping fresh and clean food and water, everyday, will prevent a lot of problems


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## feralpigeon (Feb 14, 2005)

There are lots of reasons for crop stasis that range from temperature of food and housing to fungal, viral, bacterial, parasitic or organ complications. Being able to rule out some of the less complex causes is helpful in fine-tuning a treatment strategy. Housing temperature, storing food appropriately to ensure
it is safe to feed, temperature of formula if/when hand feeding...all enable one
to get to the root of the problem quicker if a bird develops problems.

Here's a good link to an informative article on crop stasis:

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww61ev.htm

fp


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