# Rollers Still Lazy



## Psion (Mar 1, 2002)

Well now that I have 9 rollers they are still all lazy. I have been changing feed and everything. I flag and throw tennis balls and everything else and still can't get them to fly for over 1 or 2 minutes (I'm not lying this is the honest truth). I am thinking about getting a pair of tipplers or homers just to loft fly with the rollers to see if I can get them flying longer. What breed is better? Would this work? They are starting to try and land on the ground now too and I can't control them, they land in other people's yards and on their houses. What can I do?

Please help,
Nick


----------



## turkey (May 19, 2002)

Nick,

I'm new at this, but I have a few questions. Do they do a lot of flying in their loft? Do you have an aviary that they go in? I hear that if they have a lot of room to fly around in thier loft, then when they are out of the loft they will not do a lot of flying. 

Julie


----------



## Psion (Mar 1, 2002)

No, they do not have much room to fly around inside the loft. I don't know about aviary, but I do have a small fly pen the can just perch in to see the surroundings.

Nick


----------



## Nancy (Nov 7, 2001)

We have 10 rollers. They are allowed out to fly free at 2:00 every day and called into the loft at 5:00. They seem to love flying and rolling. I do not feed them anything special other than a good racing pigeon mix, fresh water, grit with plenty of Oyster shell and lots of skin time. For their evening feeding they get all they can eat in 15 minutes. The morning feeding is to complete what they didn't eat for the evenings before meal plus a bit more. Morning meal I leave them just a bit hungry. That way when I ring the dinner bell they are right there without a hitch. I guess they fly and roll because they want to. We don't enter them in any contests. Maybe you give them too much release/air time? Don't know.
Nancy


----------



## indie backroll (Aug 3, 2001)

Nick, if these are young birds they will not fly for a long period of time until they get comfortable with their surroundings, mine actually took a few months to get up and stay up. And I still have a few that are a little leary and just hang out on top of my loft, but in time they should kit up nicely for you.

~Brian


----------



## bigbird (Aug 19, 2000)

When I raised Birmingham rollers, most of my birds needed training, which I never gave them because the hawks came and so I stopped flying. A friend of mine has 2 or 3 full kits (15-17 birds) and flies in competition in a Tacoma Roller club. He works and works on his kits, he takes away any bird that flies to a tree or roof, any bird that drops to the ground, any bird that does not do exactly what he wants, he gives away to kids in the surrounding area. This kind of training and culling seems to be necessary for a good kit of competition fliers.

The problem with thoes birds that want to sit on a roof is that they are targets for cooper hawks in this area. 

If you want a good flying kit without strays and roll-downers, you really have to work at it. It was more that I wanted to do, especially since the hawks are such a problem in my area.

If you want to fly for fun, your goal should be to get a few good performaing birds, remove the confused birds so that they do not tempt the good fliers. If you cull, please find a good home for them.

Regards,
Carl


----------



## crazyroller (Nov 4, 2001)

Nick, your birds are lazzy because you are over feeding them. my young spinners were becoming very lazy to and i was starting to have no control over them; so what i did was let them out first thing in the morning to fly and dont feed them until they all come back in the loft, if you feed them before you let them out they will be lazzy. Also here is another tip: if there is food left over when they are done eating, you are over feeding them. Just cut back on the food a bit, until they eat all of it.


----------



## Psion (Mar 1, 2002)

Wayne, I don't think I'm over feeding them because they are done eating in like a minute. They leave nothing. They are always hungry, no matter how much I feed them. If I cut down on the food they just go and land on the ground, a good place for a dog or cat to get them... I can't control them at all. I got so mad chasing them and flagging and whatnot the other day I just let them sit on the ground and walk around the yard. They hate flying, and for some reason the yard and grass is just amazing to them. Oh, Wayne, mom said you called and left a message a few weeks back I think. Sorry I didn't call back. I didn't get to listen to the message either, mom deleted it by accident. Um, maybe when that baby is ready, if you bring it down you can take a look at the birds and see how they're acting...

Nick
P.S. That little whiote bird isn't flying yet, it will just fly to the roof of the house once in awhile. It doesn't stick with the other birds. It not a strong flyer at all. When should she be flying?


----------



## crazyroller (Nov 4, 2001)

Nick that baby white spinner is still young it will take time for him to fly and get better. Also remember you have some older birds with some younger birds. It does make a difference in flying them. For a example my young spinners are doing well now that i got rid of the older birds that i was flying with my young ones. The older birds that i was using for foster parents, and flying with my young ones would only fly for a little bit then they would come in for landing bringing all the young down with them.Now that i got rid the older birds, my young spinners are flying awesome they are finally flying longer and also working like a kit finally, today they were all flying together as a kit and they are spinning about 15 to 20 feet. It is awesome to see these young spinners work together, when one spins 20 feet backwards and comes out of the spin, it races back up to join the kit and do it all over again.today it was asesome i had two spinners that spun 20 to 25 feet backwards at the same time and side by side just awesome. Nick that baby is ready and i think you should get rid of the older birds that i gave you and start over with about 6 to 10 young ones this way they will fly together because they are young. you do have some young that i gave you. plus i can get you some young to start all over. Sorry so long i will talk to you shortly.


----------



## crazyroller (Nov 4, 2001)

Bumping this post up


----------



## Psion (Mar 1, 2002)

Wayne!!!! I went to feed them and White Lightning was dead! The little white spinner!!! She was my favourite too, I couldn't wait to see a spinner in action... So I'm down to 8. Too bad I don't have enough money or I'd buy a couple baby spinners off of you. I don't know about getting rid of some. I want to keep Fireball for sure and the hen you gave me the first time we met. The male I got with her is driving me nuts, he rolls every other second and won't fly, brings the others down on the neighbor's houses. That one that Steve guy gave me I'm willing to get rid of maybe, and there's a blue check I got from you that is really...uh... not too bright. I don't know, I'll have to look them all over. I'm impressed with that brown check, he's rolling 5 - 10 feet when he does. Um... I will call you on Friday and maybe we can work something out. Like I said, I'm really disappointed that little white one died. I couldn't wait for it to start flying, I thought it might be the only one I'd get flying good since it was so young. Oh well, not much you can do, poor little guy. 

Anyways, I'll call sometime this week. 
Nick


----------



## Psion (Mar 1, 2002)

All my birds are dying, HELP

Nick


----------



## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Nick,

I am sorry for the loss of your birds.

We need more info .. something to go on here. What are the symptoms, if any, prior to death. How many have died? 

Are you very, very sure it isn't the heat and perhaps lack of fresh water that is getting them right now? It has been unusually hot where I am, and this will take a toll on birds and animals if you don't intervene.

Let us know what's going on.

Terry Whatley


----------



## Psion (Mar 1, 2002)

They're clean and always have water. They have no symtoms... I go out to check them or feed them and they're dead. I've lost 2 so far... the best two I had







I noticed last night two more weren't looking good (first time I've seen symptoms) and their wings were drooping. What can this be? It cleaning my whole loft out of birds...

Nick


----------



## fred2344 (Jan 9, 2002)

Nick,
There isn't enough information to know what is happening right now but it seems to me that if you are saying none of the birds want to fly, they may all have whatever is killing the birds. They aren't feeling well.
Is there a way of isolating these birds from each other so you can observe each individual especially the droppings? 
That has to be step 1 in order to try to pin down symptoms. What would be the best way is to put each bird in a separate cage, put towelling on the bottom and see what these droppings look like.
Do you have an avian vet and can you take just one of these birds to him/her for a diagnosis?


----------



## Psion (Mar 1, 2002)

Well Wayne (crazyroller) just left and he brought me two young birds and I gave him 3 of mine that aren't getting with the program... I am down to 5 pigeons now. It turns out its the food thats making them not fly and killing them... It just goes right through them he says. Thats why they are always hungry too. So I went and got some feed he told me about and I'm hoping it will bring the three that I have here back into good health. Serenity, my favourite hen, is really sick today and going light so hopefully this helps in time. I have my 2 new babies in a cage of their own so they don't get sick as well. Once my other birds get better (or die, whatever happens first) I'll put them in the loft. Hopefully I get some eggs out of them soon so I can get up my number again... 5 seems like nothing. 
Anyways, just letting you know whats up and I hope this feed works out ok. I got twice as much as the actual bag of pigeon food I bought and it was half the price. Looks like a lot better feed too, lots of cracked corn and stuff in it. The other stuff crazyroller said was the same as budgie TREATS. Think everything is straightened out now though... I hope. I'll let you know how everything is in a day or two.

Nick
P.S. So far in the past 3 days I have lost 3 birds. All really good ones. 2 of the 3 were the best birds I'll probably ever get my hands on.


----------



## fred2344 (Jan 9, 2002)

Nick,
How can it be the food unless it's contaminated by something and if it is and the food is changed, they birds are still sick from what they ate?
I think this is something other than food.
We can guess from today to tomorrow. One bird has to be taken to a vet for a diagnosis.


----------



## Psion (Mar 1, 2002)

I had been feeding that food for a long time, so it has had time to wear them down. They are already looking better so I am thinking there was something wrong with the food. Only time will tell. If I lose more within the next few days I'll know it might not be just the food.

Nick


----------



## Psion (Mar 1, 2002)

WOW!!! That new feed is amazing!!!!! My birds' feathers are so smooth and they are all so alert. My hen that was dying yesterday looks better than she ever has!!!

Nick


----------



## crazyroller (Nov 4, 2001)

HEY NICK GLAD YOUR BIRDS ARE FEELING BETTER,I KNEW THEY WOULD ONCE THEY GOT A LITTLE MORE BETTER FOOD IN THERE BELLIES.WELL I AM REALLY GLAD THAT THEY ARE DOING WELL IF YOU NEED ANYTHING JUST CALL.


----------



## Psion (Mar 1, 2002)

Will do Wayne. You should see that almond hen! She's great!

Nick


----------



## indie backroll (Aug 3, 2001)

Interesting....

What were you feeding them (brand, name of feed)?

What are you feeding them now (brand, name of feed)?

~Brian


----------



## crazyroller (Nov 4, 2001)

hey Brian nick was feeding them roller mix,but it sure did't look like roller mix,I think it was pigeon treat,it had alot of small seeds that looked bugie seed. what i told nick to buy was lay mash. It is used to icrease egg production in chickens, works real good on pigeons it has wheat, corn barley,and some medicated stuff in it.pigeons love it


----------



## Psion (Mar 1, 2002)

Yeah, my birds look way better than they ever have (other than after just getting them). Serenity (almond hen) is full of life now and her feathers are so smooth and soft. I'm going to get them flying again soon, they've built up lots of meat now, lol. She's just ripping to go too, everytime I go to the loft she runs over to me and starts hovering above the floor. Oh and Wayne, I have those babies in the loft now and they're doing great! Real little livewires. That spinner is awesome, always on the move. And Firefly, the little weird red check almost, is just buzzing. She's always running around and if you pet her she sits up so tall she just about falls over, just loves attention.

Nick


----------

