Big2bees

Thanks for all the replies! I learned a lot! Until next time, good luck for the race & God bless us all!

Do you start tossing young birds when they finished moulting? Or at a particular age like 3 or 4 months old? ...OR should I start as soon as the birds begin routing (ranging)more than half an hour, regardless of their age? You see, I have a team of 15 YBs of different ages. The older ones are 8 to 14 weeks while the younger ones are 5 to 7 weeks old. Most of them are on the moulting process while the the others still have their downy feathers intact and are still squeaking. Nevertheless, they're ranging for 20 to 45 minutes (or more) in the morning (the older ones often go out of sight for 30 mins to an hour). They also fly 15 to 30 minutes in the afternoon (sometimes) and evening. Now, should I start road training soon or should I wait until a few weeks before the actual race? I think the race here in my country doesn't start yet until about 3 to 5 months from now -August or Oct... (I'm new the sport, still no ideas about clubs' race schedules yet) Need some sound advice, thanks

What I do is I put the prospective cock and hen side by side in a cage (separated by a wire mesh) so that they can only see each other. It's better if they can see no other birds so that their attention is drawn only to each other. More often than not, they will begin to show interest with each other within 2 to 4 days, (strutting and nodding with each other). If put together in a single cage (or box) they will show affection with each other, and by then you can be sure that they're already pair. If not, I'd isolate each bird in a cage without any visible contacts with any other birds for a few days then start all over again.

Dandruff-like substance are crusts from growing feathers. It's probably that your birds are experiencing too much stress because they're molting, hence the watery droppings. You can have one of your bird's droppings examined just to confirm if it's an infection or just stress-related symptoms, otherwise you could do more harm to your bird if you give them any medications especially antibiotics. You should also provide them with a high protein diet together with some vitamin supplements if you confirmed that they're molting. As far as I know, it's not good to race birds unless molting is finished. Hope this helps.

Give only the amount of feeds your birds can consume each time. Avoid leftovers laying around. (Unless they're feeding youngsters) Refrain from using antibiotics as much as possible. Be considerate with neighbors who don't like pigeons on their roof

Feed only AFTER flying instead of feed before flying, otherwise they will have no reason to go inside the loft as soon as they go down.

What I do is I keep them hungry when flying (short toss) in the morning. Once they drop on the roof, I call them in for feeding and don't let them out again once fed. I give them a very small amount of grains that they can easily digest this time. I do this every morning, then in the afternoon at around 4pm, I'd toss them out again and call them in for a meal once they drop down. I do this everyday, otherwise they will not learn the routine. Roofers are developed when birds are given too much freedom to roam outside the loft and mess about on their own instead of understanding that they're only given the opportunity to go outside during training and competition. It also occur when the owner keep the habit of throwing grains (feeding) outside the loft. This way, the birds will not get the idea that food is available only inside the loft, hence they'd roam outside in search of it.

Non-stop moulting? Could that be a vitamin deficiency?

Have you treated that poor bird for internal and external parasites? :-/

Nice birds, kabayan! Good luck!

Thanks for the warm welcome, guys. I really appreciate them all as much as the infos I get in this very helpful site. Godbless ya all!

Hello everyone! I'm from Philippines and just starting with pigeons once again -after twenty years or so . I used to keep variety of mixed pigeon breeds ("mongrels" ;D) when I was a kid but stopped when I became a teenager. Now, I want to get serious about this hobby, to learn about breed standards and proper care for the birds before I get started. I'm planning to acquire a pair of Oriental frill and Tipplers. I hope some of you can give me advice what to look for in a bird, I want to get into breeding and flying these birds. Thanks a lot in advance!