# Some questions



## Hillybean (Oct 30, 2005)

Hello,
ok, I keep pigeons as pets. The loft, will allow me to get more birds..
I am going to divide my loft in three sections, a part for Satinettes, another for Mookees, and then the variety area (adoptees).

One of questions is, is it good to breed pets??
I don't plan on showing...at least not for _several_ years. I would like to have nice looking pigeons hatched...I hope that sounds right.

Not a ton of breeding would be allowed, but eventually a clutch or two would be neat.


When you start breeding, is ok to breed a pigeon that is lacking a bit in quality, to one of better quality?

Example: Junebug, a Satinettte, well its feet are NOT ...is it called muffed (no feathers at its feet).Would breeding it to one that has awsome muffed feet improve the offsprings feet???


Color/Marking:
My Satinettes, are laced. To get some nice looking laced sats, would I want to breed lace to lace, or lace to a solid/self?


Thanks,
Hilly


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

I found out with my hand raised pets, they are incapable of hatching eggs, as they give up on the eggs soon. I am not sure if this is because they had a bad start in life, ( as mom abandoned them, and they have emtoional issues), or if they just don't want to. I have also had several members mention the same thing that their hand raised pets gave up on their babies, and fought over the kids (that might also have been due to space). I think my humanely interferrence of raising them, didn't help, as they don't have the same fears or instincts of my other homers.

If they were raised by pigeon parents, they may make good parents, if you don't know their history, you can try it and see if they abandon the eggs, or not. Just make sure you have another set of birds with dummy eggs about the same incubation time on their dummy eggs.

IF you don't plan to "show" your bird, and you don't care how they look-and you don't plan to sell them, there is no issue of the bird being "good", or "bad" just make sure they are healthy.


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## bluecheck (Aug 17, 2006)

I've never had a problem with hand reared young raising their own young. All pigeons occasionally have a problem with the first round if they're both young birds. The trick is to ignore them while they're breeding. Don't spend a lot of time playing with them because they begin to want more time with you and/or want to defend their young from you -- as another "pigeon" near the nest you could be a threat. Remember too that they're going to go to nest again at about 14 days so make sure they have a second nest bowl/box for that round and the dad will continue to rear the young.

As to your first questions - if you just want pets, raise what you please. However, if you also want to show them later and you don't want to have to rebuild your stud, then I'd suggest breeding to whatever standard your breed has. Show quality birds make just as good pets as feral or poor quality pigeons (in a show sense). It takes just as much time and feed to raise a good quality youngster as it does to take care of a poor quality one.

It's a GREAT idea to separate the breeds as you're doing. You could also use the "adoptees" to raise the mookees and the Satinettes if you want. There's no need for them to rear their own young. You just have to make sure that the eggs are laid within one or two days of each other. Toss the adoptees eggs and pop the mookees or frill eggs under them and let them do the work, especially since frills usually can't raise their own young anyway. 

ALL breeding is a bit of this and a bit of that. We all take a bird that is lacking a bit in one quality and pair it to one that's better in that quality and strive for better young. That's the way the hundreds of breeds have been created. You just don't want to use a bird that is absolutely rotten to one that's fantastic. Then you just tend to get to the mediocre middle. It's sort of like crossing a mookee and frill and expecting to get better of both. 

As for the color - from what some of the top frill guys have told me over the years, lace to lace to lace often tends to lighten the birds too much. Occasionally, you want to go to a darker bird. Don't think you're helping by crossing a Blondinette to a Satinette though because then you bump into the foul feathering all over the birds. Remember too that no matter how much we now know about the pigeon's genetics there is still LOTS more to learn. Breeding for show, perfect color, body type, flight ability etc., is still very much an art -- probably still lots more than the science.

Frank


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