Grey / black tongue

[Sylvan]

I would like to have some opinions on the following:

How do birds get grey/black tongue?

In your experience do certain families of birds breed more grey/black tongues than others?

Is it treatable?

Have you raced any champions that exhibited the grey/black tongue?

[Guest]

black tongue? most pigeons got red tongue, Sylvan

[hooky]

to be honest i have never saw a bird with any dark inside it's beak at all..just a nice rosy  pink

[Guest Silverwings]

sylvan.. heard of this many years ago ,not sure of the outcome ,think it may have been down to a particular vitamin , either not enough of or lack of ? can not remember vitamin C rings a bell ,it could be just pigment or flesh colour ...ray

[Guest Hjaltland]

Sylvan,

 

I had a prominent Norwegian fancier visit me last summer, he was adamant that a dark tip to the tongue was a 'bad sign' he reckoned it showed that the bird had something wrong internally, he disposes of any which appear in his loft. (Couldn't give me any satisfactory reasoning behind this)

 

I had a couple which showed this amongst my birds but they seem OK to me, raced well as yb's.

 

I'm sure i posted this black tongue thing some time ago under health topics, must have been in the old forum.

 

I guess if your tongue turned black you'd be a little concerned... LOL

 

All the best for 2006

[bewted]

grey/black tongue could possibly be POLYNUERITIS,,,,the treatmant,if it is that,is POLYVENE from the OLD HAND range of products,,,hope this info helps,but,i cannot be 100% sure until i actualy see bird,,,bewted

[snowy]

put a picture on

[schouwman71]

i used to use johnsons pigeon tonic years ago on a sunday and monday when they came back from racing and found that gave them the black patchy toung or grey look, by the end of the week i found out there tounges returned back a nice pink,so could it be due to an iron intake, even so i didnt affect the birds performance.

[ch pied]

hi  sylvan , never seen gray/black  tongue......but have seen them dark blue wright at the tip

[MsPigeon]

A healthy pigeons tongue is usually pink, but a dark tip can indicate a respiratory problem due to the blood not containing enough oxygen. Some birds do however have a naturally pigmented tongue, so it is a matter of knowing your birds.