Pigeons care

     Hi friends! I am very glad to explain how to take care of Pigeons. I am rearing Pigeons right from my childhood. I love them a lot. Basically Pigeons are homing birds, they tend to fix a home for them, lay eggs, takes care of its own family. Pigeons are peace loving birds they don't disturb other animals. They eat grains. One of the unique characteristics of them is when a male bird and female bird once turns into a couple they will never leave one another. They stay together always. Pigeons are of different colors and they are adorable.

     There are many varieties of pigeons in India. Some are easy to take care and some need lot of care. Accordingly they require different size of Pen. Pigeons breeds like Fan Tail (laggu) needs big sized pen because of their big tail, also breeds like King requires large pen to live in and breed and breeds like Cakal Roller (Karna Pura) needs medium to small sized pen compared to other fancy variety pigeons. So, first of all before buying  pigeons you should be ready with all other necessary items... So let me list down the very necessary items that you should buy...

1. Pen (Cage)
2. Food
3. Water Tub and Feeder
4. Resting Pad
5. Cleaning Instruments

Before Buying Pigeons:

1.) Pen

     So lets start with building up the 'Pen'... Usually pigeons live in groups, so the Pen should be built with the capacity of holding 10 pairs of Pigeons. Even you can build it with smaller capacity. But my advice is don't go below 3 pairs. Because that won't be idle.. The Pen should be like this (see image below)

My Homer Pigeon's Pen

     The spacing should be like a pair should rotate inside its partition. The idle space for homing pigeons should be 1.5 X 1.5 feet..  Build the pen with wood and that is recommended too. Also make sure that no other predators enters pigeons pen at any cost.. Make it a protected , peaceful and calm heaven for them as they are peace loving birds. A very  important thing to be taken care of is each partitions should be maintained neatly, since the pigeon shits , the bottom of each partitions should be covered with sand or wooden scraps or card board sheet. So that it will be easier at the time of cleaning. We can replace the cardboard sheets and can ensure the bottom of each partitions are neat. My advice is better to use Cardboard sheets for the bottom.

     The gates of the pen can be designed in a way that we can let our hand in in order to do cleaning or catch the pigeon. Its a better idea to make a pigeon hole in the gate so that it can go out even if you are not there to take care, it will move out and have food. The advantage of this pigeon hole is that other predator like road side hawks, crows, cats etc., cannot get inside.

Pigeon Hole

2.) Food

     Pigeons are vegetarian. They eat almost all grains. Grains like Paddy, Bajra, Roasted Gram, Wheat, Thoor dhal, Green gram, Black gram, Chick peas/Channa are its favorite. They eat not only grains they also eat crushed egg shell as calcium supplementation, and small sand granules for supporting the digestion process. They also intakes burnt ashes. In order to give them a complete diet we need to supplement minerals and vitamins. We can get "Vimiral" in pet stores and dissolve a table spoon of it in its water tub once in a week. So that it can supplement the pigeons with minerals and vitamins. We can also give them brick powder. 

3.) Water Tub

     Water Tub should be little wider that two pigeons can get in at a time. The height of the tub should not be more than 3/4th of the height of the pigeon. Since Pigeons not only drink water they also take bath more frequently in the water tub. Water Tub can be of any shape oval , round , rectangle but the width and the height should be carefully assessed. Even you can separately maintain drinking water tub and the bath tub. But an important point is that frequent water changes should be done. As it takes bath and sometimes shits in the water tub frequent water changes is a very essential thing.

     Feeder is for proving grains for the pigeons. You can get that from the pet store or DIY.

4.) Resting Pad

     Resting pads are required only when there are no trees around your house for the pigeons to sit and take rest. It is better to keep the resting pads at heights.

5.) Cleaning Instruments

     You can buy cleaning instruments at the pet stores.

Buying Pigeons

     At first we should decide the type of pigeon to buy. After that you need to ensure that the pigeon is healthy and is not affected by any diseases. For beginners it is better to start with Homing Pigeons. They are easy to take care and they are the fast breeders too. You need to buy pigeons in pairs (a male and a female). Since pigeons are homing birds it needs some time to understand its new home and settle here, until then the feathers of the pigeon should be taped, so that it wont fly away. The first 4 long feathers should be taped down. After two times of breeding the wings can be untaped ,or else you can buy young pairs of homing pigeons before it starts flying. Once you bring it home it can easily accustom to the new environment. Don't buy only one pair. As i said earlier buy at-least four pairs of pigeons.

Homer

Wing Taping

After buying pigeons

     After taping the wings let each pair occupy one partition. It will take several days (3-7 days) to know its own partition, until then it may move out to other different partitions. We should take care and put them in its own partition every time before closing the doors of the pen. After a couple of days it will learn to move to its own partition.

     Provide them clean water in its tub. Change it frequently. Provide them their food in its feeder. Feeder is essential if the grains are provided in a plate or tubs pigeons will stand on it some grains get wasted. In order to avoid this wastage feeder is required.

Feed

     Release them out of their pen in the morning. Keep the pen open so that it can move out and come in. After the sunset pigeons used to come back to its pen and sleeps. You can close the pen after all pigeon gets in.

Daily Routine

            Every day morning let them out. Then feed them with grain/mixed grain and fresh water. They will fly, roam, fight, move in to their portion, comes out. By evening they will come back to the pen.

            Usually male pigeon tends to fight with other males for various reasons. Some reasons are,

• Every male tends to be a potential male in the group.
• To threaten other males entering into its portion.
• To attract female pigeons.

            Female tends to fight only when other pigeons enter into its own portion.

Breeding

            A good pair of pigeon starts breeding within 6 months of its birth. Once a pair reaches its adulthood it mates several times a week. You can identify a pigeon that is about to breed in a week. The male pigeon starts chasing the female, it won’t even let the female to rest for some time. The pair will not stay idle for about 3-4 days before it lays egg. The pair will run, fly, roam around. It also starts picking up small tweaks, straws to build its nest. The female will sit inside its portion and the male will go out in search for small tweaks and straws and takes that to the female. The female pigeon will arrange the tweaks and build up its nest and will get ready to lay eggs.

            After an egg is laid, it will lay the second egg a day after the first egg laid. Until it lays the second egg the pair will not sit on the eggs properly. After laying both the eggs it starts sitting on the eggs to provide the eggs proper heat to make them hatch. Both male and female pigeon will not sit together on the eggs. It will change the shift to sit on the eggs. When the male is out the female will sit on the eggs, when the male returns to the pen the female will move out to relax.

            It takes around 17 days for the eggs to hatch.  In some cases it takes even 18 days to hatch. So be patient till it hatches. Don’t try to disturb them or touch their eggs in hand, coz it may not hatch. Even if the pairs starts fighting inside its portion where the eggs are laid, it may not hatch because the eggs might have jerked. You should also ensure that the eggs should be neat, if it gets unclean because of the pigeons pee it cannot absorb heat evenly around its surface and it won’t hatch.

            On the day of hatching provide the parents with small grains like bajra, roasted gram, to facilitate them easy digestion and provide the babies rich diet.

Common Diseases

Pigeon Pox

     Pigeons wont be easily affected by diseases, unless it is properly fed and the pen is properly maintained. The most common disease of pigeons of the tropical region is "Pigeon Pox". Pigeon pox is caused by a virus belonging to the poxvirus group. It normally affects the beaks and the feet of the pigeon at the starting stage. It can be cured when found at this stage. If not it will lead to death of the pigeon.

 
      It can be cured by applying 'Pox cream' daily on the affected spots.

     This pox may spread to other pigeons, so the affected pigeon should be separated from other pigeons. This wont spread to humans at all, so no need to worry.

PARAMYXOVIRUS (PMV)/ Head Rotation Disease

     To prevent Paramyxovirus from coming into your loft, it is recommended that all birds are vaccinated at least once a year. Young birds should be vaccinated at 4 to 8 weeks of age, but no later then 4 weeks before the young bird race season. Re-vaccinate all birds 4 weeks before the breeding season. Once a pigeon has Paramyxovirus, there is very little you can do, vaccinating at this point will not do any good. We recommend that those pigeons that have the disease are treated with La-Sota, that has shown some success. This can be done individually by putting a drop in each eye for three days, or putting it in the drinking water for flock treatment.

Symptoms of Paramyxovirus: 
Loss of weight
Watery green slimy droppings.
Parastop (Belgica-DeWeerd)
Twisting of neck and head

Products for prevention or cure: 
PMV1 Vaccine (Lohmann Animal Health)
LaSota (Lohmann Animal Health)

*NOTE: If a visible Paramyxovirus problem occurs, you may try the following remedy. This was recommended by several of the leading pigeon veterinarians in Holland and Belgium. Vaccinate the effected pigeon 3 x in one week, with PMV-1 killed virus vaccine, 0.5 cc per shot in the neck, on Sunday, Wednesday and Sunday. After treatment, keep pigeon isolated for an additional week, to make sure all symptoms are gone. Remember, that the bird will always remain a carrier.

CANKER (Trichomoniasis)

A yellow cheesy substance, generally seen in the mouth, however 10% of Canker is external, while 90% is internal. Breaks out at any age, also in youngsters still in the nest. It is caused by a flagellate, living on the mucous membranes of the throat and the crop.

Symptoms of Canker:
Loss of appetite
Problem digesting


Products for Cure:
Ronidazole (Ridzol)(DAC)
Metronidazole (Flagyl) (DAC)
B.S. (Belgica-DeWeerd)
Ronidazole 10% (Pantex)
Ronidazole 40 (Pantex)
5% Cure (Travipharma)