Hamster Girl

Welly well well.. It's been a long road {almost a year!!}, but Marge has finally gotten defensive over the box I put in her pen for a nest. There has been hay present, and Homer has been strutting his stuff. At first I thought she was just hanging out in it, but when I reached past her to access the food dish, she struck out at me with both of her wings. To say the least I am excited over hoping she may actually give me some babies (at last?). Either way, I'll keep you all posted on what goes on.

Who are too lazy to do anything and just usurp someone else's work. ;p It doesn't cease to amaze me how well it fools it's surrogate parents, especially when the true young is shoved from the nest. On the floor, my cage is taller than it is wide with random width perches criss-crossing it. There was a nest I'd nailed to it, but the heat dried it out and it's breaking off. So the current shoebox nestbox is on the floor, next to a shallow pie-plate filled with water. If eggs appear, I will bring my feeder I used when I had a clutch of ducklings, also floor level and easily accessed by anyone.

Hooray! ;p My fingers will be permanently crossed until I see proof of babies.... D: Jajaja!

I've noticed since I bought him, my cock tends to carry a feather either he or his hen shed. He'll walk about the pen and just tote along a feather, sometimes trading it for another one he can find. Occaisionally I see him put it down, pick it up, move a few inches, put it down and pick it up again, and he'll do this repetitively for several minutes. I've not seen him do this recently.. Can I attribute this to a "nest-building" compulsion? I've seen sparrows and swallows, crows, starlings and the occaisionaly robin do this sort of behavior.. Is it the same thing {roughly}? {Apologies if this is the wrong forum, I wasn't quite sure where to put it.} Thanks all.

The fellow I bought them from assured I had a cock and a hen, and had them both with a marked ring to show who was with who. I.e. mine are both a red ring, number 9. the fellow also had a huge, within a hundred+, flock of multi birds. @jimmy white - Were she barren, wouldn't she still let the cock tread her? @IB - She's letting him get close, and then last second will scuttle out of his reach or fly to a perch. @Shadow - I believe I will put her in with my Domestic Flight hen for a week, see what happens. when they were at fair, they were all in seperate cages, but mine were all in a row. I assume they need to be further apart than that? ;p @Peckedhen - I'll cut back the food as well. Thanks all for the suggestions, definitely will try all of them. :]

Hey all, I've been away for a while. My pair of Homing pigeons, when I bought them, were 7 months old. That was last October. As of now, in July, they are a year and four months old. One male, one female and yet no eggs. They have vast amounts of water, and always have a dish of feed. The cage they are in is 3' wide x 3' long x 6' tall. There is a shoebox I have converted to a temporary next box, complete with hay and 3 1/2 walls, until I get my hands on some wood and nails. Can I get some possible suggestions as to why they have yet to breed? I always hear the male talking and I can see him dance several times a day - easily. Should I just wait on them? Get a new female? ...I'm going wonky trying to figure it out - my friend who also raises birds has no idea why they wouldn't mate. :/

Or you could be cheesy like me.. I take an emory board nail file and just rub down on the claws a tiny bit. Generally enough to dull the point and to negate extreme growth - that way I don't cut them to the quick - especially since I have no styptic powder at the moment. D: They seem to do all right with me filing away, never though, have I had to clip beaks.. I did file my old norwhich cropper's once.. right after he pecked my eye. He never did it again for the rest of the time I had him.

Brilliant. Either way, job well done. Will be looking forward to the pics of the insides. :]

Just out of curiosity - what are the dimensions...? It looks (as a guesstimate) at about twelve feet by six at the max, and possibly nine by six at a minimum? Very well constructed, and the birds look quite content. :]

Thanks Merlin, will see how she improves with barley. She isn't old as of yet - barely over a year. I think exactly a year and one month.

When I got home today, I went to look at my birds and noted one perched on the "ground" of her cage, which has three perches within. I poked my hand in and expected her to flutter to one of them, the most she did was shuffle over. When I grabbed ahold of her, she didn't struggle (and granted I got her used to handling for fair - but I thought a bird in the dark would struggle if something touched/grabbed it?) So I brought her into the house for better lighting and found she had a wad of droppings that had compacted into the fluffy feathers right before the bottom of her vent. So I got some scissors and did a quick series of cuts to free her vent, and then submerged her rear in lukewarm water and rubbed until 95% of the crusties left on the outlying feathers was gone. Now aside from a (probably) irritated (red) bum, do any of you recognize your birds ever having gotten droppings so bound up in the feathers that they blocked off the vent? My mom said she'd noted it the day before, but I had no idea of it until this evening... As of now, she perked up, and gifted us with a fresh dropping once we released her into a temporary cage. Do any of you think she'll be okay now that she's been "cleaned" up around her vent?

Indeed. Well, I'm off.. Have to get ready for work and such. Have a good day all!

Not as of yet, I am waiting for the Homers to nest before I begin letting them out.. I am worried they would go back to their previous home if I let them out before then.. So.. I am however planning on getting three more birds.. A Parlour Roller and a pair of Magpies. Even then, though, I would be afraid to let them out with the number of hawks we have - what with being in the desert it isn't uncommon to spot up to three in one day.. Mostly Red-tailed but a few Peregrine falcons as well. D:

Currently I have three as I sold the Figurita at the fair. What is left are..is..?: Two solid white Homing Pigeons, and then a black teager Domestic Show Flight.

Hehehe... It was a bummer, there were nto nearly as many pigeons this year.. If I could take the time off I would go to the state fair and get some shots there - I know for sure they have like, half a barn dedicated to pigeons. Unfortunately College will get in the way. D:

The two WoE's, the bar is the hen and the cheq is the cock. Both are the parent's of my previous bird and th ethird is a Modena x American Show Racer. Gorgeous head (-very-ASR looking, with a hint of Modena) when looked at directly.. Otherwise the bird looks like a Modena. D: It's mother is the Red Grizzle. in my previoust post.

Unfortunately they are not mine, but their owner is my friend. She does not fly them or any of her birds.. She has a flock of maybe forty birds, mostly Frillbacks and WoE's. -Different shot of the Indian Fantail.

Thanks, I rather like the two runts right above it. Of the pair, the hen is the grizzle and the cock is the blue bar. Once I figure it out, I'll upload a video of him dancing. It's amusing enough.

First with the pigeons, then perhaps the remaining poultry if it comes down to it. Mind, I apologize for some of the cruddy shots, I had to settle for sticking the lens bit as near to /through/ the gaps in the cages, some of which were tiny... Ergo there might be some funny vinnetting for both light and dark around the photo edges. Enjoy! (I do have several more if you all want. :3)

Right on. Keep me posted on where you are at. Hopefully I'll have a small flock of white Homers by then... I'm also looking to have a pair of Magpies and a parlor roller.. :3 We'll see how that works out. I'm loading up the photos from my memory card right now. =D @ Chrisss: No loft as of yet. I'm looking into paying rent per month at a friends house whom I occaisionally house/animal-sit for her and she has land, maybe she will let me put up an eight-five loft in the corner of her yard.

Fairweek is finally ended and I got to come home with several marks of achievement, and one less bird which was auctioned off. - One blue ribbon : the bird had mite-holes in a few of the primary-flights (Which I couldn't do anything about, as when I found them it was too close to deadline to pluck them and have them grow back in. D:) - Five purple ribbons (Three for the other birds, then two for the two call backs) - Grand Overall (Breed) Champion with the Figurita. I auctioned the bird off and got $225.00 for it - which is a nice sum, and would have been better had the gas prices not gotten raised recently. Either way I was proud of it. And to top it all off, look forward to a bunch of photographs of all the birds I could get clear shots of. Post again soon, I swear I will.

Well, my bird has laid again, and this time thankfully there are two eggs.. So I have some questions - if they make it through this time. 1. How long until I can tell if an egg is fertilized? A week? 2. Can a Figurita successfully give pigeon milk, or is their beak too short? Thanks in advance!

Hah, I wish. No, he's adamant about it being done right. Since we live in the desert though - I couldn't dream of having enclosing walls on more than two sides because of the heat.. It gets upwards of 110 degrees in the summer. A box would simply roast my birds alive.. So in this I use small-square chicken fencing for the walls. So Ventilation isn't a big worry for me, mostly it's size.. So for eight - ten birds, 10x5 or even 8x5 is acceptable?

Ugh.. I don't want to go to class.. I have to type an essay and turn it in.. But I don't want to, it's a bogus topic anyway - whether or not we believe a character in the story is sane o rnot.. and then must defend it against the opposing view.. The bogus part is that the teacher wants the students to lable the pages in Arabic Numerals. >.o

Perhaps perhaps. Thanks Chrisss! I'll see what my mom and I can dig up - because, fortunately she is with me on this. Just isn't willing to oppose the 'king' of the home. She agree's they need more space - especially if in addition to my releaser-types I want to get a pair of Magpies to have just for kicks. So, th etwo of us will put our heads together and figure this one.