DJ

it seemed as cold inside my loft this morning as it was outside but my drinkers were,nt frozen up my birds seem to be taking the recent cold weather in their stride but they are eating more now so i just make sure their feeders are full until about 1 hr b4 i switch the loft light out debbie

well now im really confused but also relieved my 2 pigeons that had weeping eyes hav now completely recovered and their eyes are back to normal? the pigeon with green/loose droppings now also has normal droppings? the affected pigeons were kept overnight in my other (warmer) shed in a basket but no treatment was given as i was still waiting for an avian vet to call me back re the terramycin my other loft has deep litter-maybe that wasnt helping? anyway panic over for the moment but i will keep a close eye on all my birds thanx to everybody for your help/advice you,ve all been great and its much appreciated debbie

its possible they could have been fighting but ive since noticed that one of the affected birds has loose/green droppings as well maybe the course of chevicet-t used for the respiratory has upset them? will one eyed cold clear up on its own if left untreated or will it just get worse? i dont really want to keep using meds on my birds but if i need to what would be best? theyve had gemthepax on the corn for last 2 days as i was told that it tops up the good bacteria lost during treatment its also got very cold here with frosty mornings over the last 2 days so i dont suppose that has helped there,s plenty of fresh air getting into my loft so i cant see it being down to ventilation debbie :-/

ive just finished treating my pigeons with chevicet-t as a few of them were wheezing but after treatment they all seemed fine however ive now noticed that 2 old birds have both got one eye watering and the eye is also partly closed up the affected birds are eating ok and acting as normal but ive separated them from the others any advice on what is wrong/what treatment to give would be much appreciated :-/ debbie

hi ben sorry to hear of your problem with perigrines > sparrowhawks cause me problems now and again but i dread to think of what its like when u have peregrines harrasing/taking your birds saying that the way raptors are breeding in this country it probably wont be long b4 percy is in my area ive only just started keeping pigeons but if the raptor problem continues to get worse then i will just pack it in debbie

sorry to hear of your hawk attack > i had one of mine come back a while ago with a gash on its front but it wasnt as bad as your bird and i was able to patch it up using savlon cream isnt there any fanciers local to u who can take a look and advise on treatment? sorry i cant be of more help debbie

thax again 4 the advice its much appreciated fanciers say dont train in a east wind but why is an east wind any different to a north ,west or south wind? debbie

thanx 4 all your replies as most of u know the majority of my birds are strays apart from the yb,s that ive bred which are aged between 6-1 months old, hopefully i will be racing next year so i just thought that i would send the old birds further then the 30 miles as they seemed to do that no problem and i would like to see how they go as the distance increases? when i first started training at only 5 miles it was a disaster with most of the birds going missing for days on end and a few never did make it home but then they just seemed to get the hang of it so i went up in stages of 5 miles til i got to the 30 mile stage most are thru the moult so it would have been nice to carry on training over the winter but as most of u think its a bad idea i will wait until april/may when the weather improves thanx again 4 the advice debbie ps how do u train-on the line of flight as i do or from different directions?

hi as most of u will know i have only just started keeping racing pigeons this year but havnt yet started racing them, most of my pigeons have only been trained up to 30 miles but a friend has now offered to take them further over nov/dec/jan while traveling to work, is it ok to train pigeons over the winter period? im asking because i know that pigeon racing stops for winter and dont want to be sending my pigeons training if the winter weather can affect their homing ability :-/ this is probably a stupid question to a seasoned fancier but as a very green novice i would rather be safe then sorry any advice would be appreciated debbie

hi all after treating with chevicet-t ive noticed that the affected pigeons are now breathing easier and the marking on their wattles have become smaller so hopefully they are on the mend? i thought that my loft was ventilated ok as i have vents all the way along the bottom of my loft at the front and all the way along the back at the top apart from this there is other ares on the front of my loft that are open and only covered by wire mesh can somebody put me right if u think my ventilation is at fault :-/ debbie

hi bruno thanks 4 the reply the affected pigeon which is now croaking like a frog did go out for a while yesterday but wasnt his usual energetic self and stopped flying after 15-20 mins he normally climbs all over me at feeding time but yesterday didnt show much interest in his food even though the corn is the same as he normally eats without any problems? he,s eaten some corn today which had the chevicet -t added to it so im hoping that i will see some improvement soon? ive treated all my birds as another one is also looking suspect i cant seem to find out wether u need to remove the grits/minerals while treating with chevicet-t as u do with some meds? if anyone can advise on this it would be much appreciated many thanks debbie

hi redcheqhen thanks for the reply but ive already looked on the site and know that its added to the corn but it doesnt say wether it (chevicet-t) can be used if there are yb,s in the nest or wether i have to remove the grit/minerals for the duration of treatment? unfortunately ive got a yb hatched just 2-3 days ago ( i was sure i had swapped all their eggs for plastic ones :-/) basically i just want to know if i can use it with a yb in the nest and wether i need to remove the grit/minerals as u need to with some meds ? thanks for your help debbie

hi all, 2 of my pigeons have developed greasy wattles but only 1 of them (a yb that i bred ) has developed a gurgle/croak the yb went out for excercise as usual today but when called in for feeding he barely eat anything ive been given a 300ml bottle of chevicet-t by a friend that was never used but the only instructions given are written on the bottle in a foreign language? im assuming that the chevicet-t came with instructions written in english but has been mislaid by my friend and need to know what doses to use and also wether i need to do anything like removing the grits/salts for the duration of treatment ? also can it be given if yb,s in nest? i would be really gratefull if any fanciers could advise me on this as would like to start treating asap many thanks debbie :-/

well said roland i especially liked no,s 5,6 and 10 debbie

yeh thanx 4 that bruno im waiting for a friend to put a wire partition in the centre of the loft so the cocks/hens can be seperated debbie

hi redcheq i originally had my 8x6ft garden shed when i got my first stray in but since then ive had another 8x6ft shed joined onto it so its now 16ftx6ft ive also had box and v perches put in and also some nestboxes so all the birds at least have their own perch or nestboxes im replacing their eggs with plastic ones to keep the numbers down as ive ended up with way more birds then i ever expected but i wouldnt be without a single one of them luckily my neighbours are great but then they always come straight in from excercise when i shake the corn tin and they dont hang around on the rooftops all day its been a learning curve but ive enjoyed every minute since the first stray arrived apart from the attacks that im now getting from the hawks anyway thanks again for all the help/info from fanciers on pb take care debbie

hi all,thanx 4 all your replies, as redcheqhen says i did start with strays when one decided to make my garden shed his new home,he then dissappeared for a few days before coming back and has been here ever since with other strays that have since arrived, only two fanciers wanted their birds back out of approx 20 and with them breeding ive now got some 50 odd birds that are rung with my own rpra rings debbie

hi, ive not treated my birds for anything this year and after looking them over i havnt found anything more sinister then the odd lice and some of their droppings are a bit loose but apart from that they are all looking and eating well im treating as ive had more then my fair share of strays this year and one stray actually died overnight? im going to de-lice them all and also treat for worms,cocci and canker but dont know what to treat for first? any advice would be appreciated debbie :-/

well done ted for taking the time and effort to collect the pigeon and then caring for him/her debbie

even though i didnt know bertie personally, as stated on p.b. he would do all he could to make sure that any strays got home safe and sound he sounds like a great guy and fancier and im sure his friends and the fancy will miss him debbie

im only a newbie but have bred some yb,s this year and cant believe that anybody would try to train a 5 week old squeeker ? at that age mine were only just finding their way around the loft/garden so surely 5 week old squeekers are nowhere near ready for training debbie

i really enjoyed reading all the posts but it doesnt suprise me what some pigeons will do and the distances they will cover to get back to their lofts (or adopted lofts) ive had strays that have been with me for months and been transfered over to me only for them to decide to go back to their old lofts after 6 months or so (especially the foreign strays) but then i still have some strays with me that came here last year and are hopefully here to stay as some are now paired up with my own pigeons one things for sure and that is that pigeons take some working out but thats all part of keeping pigeons as i see it and i wouldnt want it any other way, i only stumbled into keeping pigeons after a stray racer adopted my garden shed but i wouldnt be without them now debbie

hi all im only a novice and have only kept racing pigeons for the last year or so my pigeons were attacked by sparrowhawks in jan - march this year and now the sparrowhawks are back just when i thought that maybe i may be safe until jan - march next year i havnt started racing yet and dread to think of what my pigeons may have to endure from the hawks when trying to get home from a race in the future? everyone on pigeonbasics has been great helping me out with advice when i needed it especially when i first got started but when i think of my pigeons being hawked on their way home from a race it makes me wonder whether i would want to put my pigeons through that ordeal i probably sound soft to some seasoned fanciers but at the end of the day my pigeons safety/welfare comes first as im sure it does with the majority of fanciers debbie

brilliant story roland i loved it maybe there are some street pigeons out there that could suprise us if trained and raced? i remember reading in one of the pigeon weeklys about a fancier that tried out a street pigeon after it was brought to him as a baby by his neighbours children apparently it did quite well and if i remember his words correctly he said that the street pigeon didnt disgrace itself and got some way through the yb race programme before he lost it when you think that some racing pigeons are lost as yb,s in training before even seeing a race it makes you think debbie

hi can anyone tell me where i can get plastic telephone no rings from but not the coiled ones as i have had some problems with these, i am looking for the clip on type that has the tel no etched onto the ring ( not the ones that has your tel no printed onto small stickers on the rings as ive found that these fade after a while) sorry to be so picky but i thought i would ask anyway any help would be appreciated debbie