#Sorry for the wait ^^; tumbler being poop

[theramseyloft]

Hello! I was wondering what sort of requirements pigeons would have and the whole breeds thing. (Sorry long ask) How much room would a pidge need? Like cage size and also, how would one go about excersizing them? Do you reccomend letting them fly free for the day and come back at night? Would they possibly get hurt or catch a disease/parasites out there? Are they expensive to keep? And what breeds are the most friendly/affectionate? Thank you :) 1/2

You know how some dogs have been bred to look nice but have a multitude of health problems (ie pug, chihuahua, great dane ,dachshund ect) does that happen in pigeons too? And if so, how does one know which might be genetically predisposed to getting problems later on or just generally wont have the best quality of life? 2/2

Whuf!

These are really broad questions. I’ll have to break them down and answer ne at a time, so I apologize in advance for the length of time it will take me to get this ask out.

“How much room would a pidge need? Like cage size...”

Pigeon breeds range in size from the tiny Valencian Figurita and Portuguese tumblers (vying constantly to be the worlds smallest breed) to the literally chicken sized Giant Runt.

So the amount of space required depends on the breed’s size and energy level.

Homers are about the average.

Here is an old picture from before the loft’s redesign of two of my breeding pair in their pens.

These are labrador sized dog crates, outfitted with a rabbit’s corner litter pan as a nest box and a garden stake cut to length as a perch.

Pigeons need flat perches because they are cliff nesters. Round ones like branches or dowels hurt their feet.

If yours is going to be a house pet, the cage should be what a crate is for dogs: A safe place to sleep or wait for you to get home until it learns the house rules.

Pigeons are intensely social birds that are happiest with the freedom of motion to come see you when they want, and go occupy themselves when they don’t want company.

The nice thing about pigeons is that they don;t need to be all over you all the time. They are independent enough to go do their own thing, but want to be able to come check on or spend time with you.

Which dovetails nicely into your next question: “how would one go about exercising them?”

A pigeon allowed to free range indoors will exercise themself plenty.

If you cannot let them free range the entire house, letting them out in your bedroom while you are home will be fine for most breeds.

“Do you reccomend letting them fly free for the day and come back at night?”

Absolutely not!

“Would they possibly get hurt or catch a disease/parasites out there?”

That possibly could be turned all the way up to a guarantee.

Performance breeds like racers, rollers, and tumblers are over bred to make up for the losses during training flights from inclement weather getting a bird lost, hawks snatching them out of the air, and diseases picked up from wild birds and brought back.

“Are they expensive to keep?”

After the initial cost for set up and the vet check to make sure they don’t have parasites and aren’t ill, the upkeep for a few is shockingly cheap.

You can get a lab sized kennel for $50-70. If you want an even bigger space, Great Dane kennels are about $80.

You can buy a wooden garden stake from pretty much any hardware store for about $5.

The bunny corner box is not required if you aren’t breeding. Pigeons will just as happily use a dollar store dog bowl to nest in.

My vet bill for a new bird is $70: $35 for the exotics wellness exam, $20 for a throat swab, and $15 for a fecal test.

I expected feral and lost birds to have lice, worms, parasites, and infections, but was floored when every single show bird I ever purchased from breeders did too!

You’re better off in the long run assuming something needs to be healed, cleaned out, or cleared up and just finding out from the vet as soon as they get there what needs treating.

Clear it out then, and an inside bird is pretty well set.

You can buy 50lbs of feed for $20 at Tractor supply.

And 50lbs of calcium supplements for $11.

I have 36 pigeons and 2 ringneck doves right now, so 50lbs lasts me a little over a week.

But a single bird will eat off of that for over half a year.

“And what breeds are the most friendly/affectionate?”

Most of the Exhibition breeds are pretty friendly, but from most to least kennel space, here are the ones I have enjoyed the most hands on:

Utility kings

These are the size of chickens and will need a LOT of flight time. 

They are a meat breed, so they are genetically predisposed to docility, but also obesity.

They do best free roaming the house full time. It’s really hard to find a cage big enough to comfortably accommodate them.

Giant Homers

Utility kings are a squabbing breed, designed for constant production of big squabs, so they are more bird-shaped than the Giant Homer, which was bred to be eaten as an adult, and then for the aesthetic of a fat round bird.

Like the Utility King, Giant Homers are known for their mellow, gentle temperaments. But after having worked with them for a few years, it seems mostly to be that they are simply too big and heavy to evade effectively, and they know it.

Along with being prone to obesity, their sheer weight puts tremendous pressure on their feet and they can develop huge, painful calluses.

I like my mixes better than their purebred parents, because they inherited the temperament with out the bulk that causes painful or dangerous health issues.

Lahore

Named for the city in Pakistan where they were developed, the Lahore is a huge, gorgeous bird. 

Their wing span more then the size of their actual body makes them difficult to cage, so it’s best they have the run of at least a bedroom.

these are laid back and mellow, but not exactly touch me birds. If one gets on your shoulder or in your lap, feel honored.

Frillbacks

For the same reason as the Lahore, Frillbacks can be difficult to pen indoors. 

An individual can be happy in a Great Dane sized kennel, but frankly won’t fit comfortably into anything smaller.

These are very laid back, not especially flighty, and quite friendly. Young birds are very much cuddle bugs, and the individual pictured still comes up to me to nurse between my fingers.

No known associated health issues, but individuals with especially long muffs can stay especially still because the shaft of the feather under the skin of their feet is bigger around than the bones of their toes, making walking painful.

Show standards require large muffs, so it can be hard to find them with muffs like Bean’s here.

There is one breeder that raises hers with short muffs and entirely clean legged. I’ll be happy to link you.

Voorburg Shield Cropper

These leggy, slender birds are a pain to house because of their height, but the only breed I know of with points taken off in the show standard if they are not friendly enough to try to court the judges.

This sweet flamboyant temperament makes them an absolute delight to work with!

These are the first on the list with no known health issues associated with the breed.

Show Type Racing homer

This is an elegant exhibition breed, easy to house in the example set up we discussed at the beginning of the ask.

They are bulkier than racing homers or flying type show homers, VERY tightly feathered.

This is a wonderfully sweet tempered breed that tends not to be especially flighty. 

Some of that is due to the sheer bulk of its musculature, but most of it does genuinely seem to be temperament.

Old Dutch Capuchine 

These have a reputation for being docile, but I have found them to be quite flighty.

Mixes incorporating this breed, though, tend to be quite bold and out going.

Racing Homer

This is the most commonly available pigeon breed.

Bred for endurance racing, this is a very high energy bird that needs a LOT of time out of the pen to fly. 

They have the strongest immune system and highest intelligence of any of the pure breeds.

though some individuals can be hair-trigger flighty, this breed is keenly intelligent and highly curious, and those individuals can learn to overcome their flightiness if their handler can learn to be aware enough of their comfort levels not to startle them with too-quick motion.

Lucerne Peak Crest

Named, like the Lahore, after the city in Switzerland where the breed was developed.

The Lucerne is an extremely temperature hardy breed. 

It’s among what are called the Owl Breeds; small, compact breeds with short to mid length beaks, round faces, and large, round eyes.

Most of the owl breeds are mellow and sweet tempered, boldly curious, and not generally prone to be flighty.

Their beaks being a little short makes their nasal slit narrow and the opening to their sinuses wide, so small seeds like Millet can get stuck in the nasal cavity of some individuals.

Classic Old Frill

Oh, this is my favorite purebred.

The total pidge package: Small, friendly, shockingly beautiful, devoted parents. 

There is absolutely everything to love about this wonderful cuddle bug breed.

Nun

These are a gorgeous breed, often described as being friendly because they are not smart enough to be wary.

They are unspeakably awful parents, prone to literally treating their eggs like an especially large, uncomfortable poop.

Old German Owl

Another absolute delight of a charming little Owl breed.

These are as stubborn as they are sweet tempered, which can make them a really fun challenge to train.

These are cuddle bugs, for the most part. 

Chinese Owl

These are tiny little clouds that range from intensely curious and strongly treat motivated to absolute refusal to have anything to do with anything even remotely human shaped with very little in between. 

Small and easy to house.

Portuguese Tumbler

This is a tiny bird, not much taller than a conure.

They are bred purely for aerial performance, so this is a SUPER high energy breed that, like the racing homer, needs a LOT of out time.

They are very bold in their friendliness, eager to check up on you and steal a cheek-smooch before zooming off to resume doing their own thing.

Unfortunately, their breed standard requires their back toe not to touch the ground. They go on tippy toes when they are happy, excited, or relaxed, which makes something like a human hand or shoulder physically difficult to balance on, and there for uncomfortable to stand on.

So trying to pet one throws their balance and stresses them severely.

Mixes with stronger feet are thrilled to have the affectionate attention of human flock mates.

Valencian Figurita

The tiniest owl breed, currently just barely winning out over the Portuguese tumbler.

It’s known for its trapezoidal head shape and upright stance.

This is a bold, plucky little bird that in my experience loves shoulders. ^v^

They are bred a little too small, though, tending to only lay one egg to a clutch, with many dying in the shell with out space for the peep to develop.

Their hatchlings are often given to ringneck doves to foster.

“You know how some dogs have been bred to look nice but have a multitude of health problems (ie pug, chihuahua, great dane ,dachshund ect) does that happen in pigeons too?”

Oh, god, you would not believe the number of pigeon breeds that aren’t even bird shaped!

There are nearly twice as many severely distorted breeds as fit, bird shaped ones.

Check the Modern art Pigeons tag.

“And if so, how does one know which might be genetically predisposed to getting problems later on or just generally wont have the best quality of life?”

Pippin is a feral pigeon.

This is about the closest you can get to the base line natural shape of the species Columba livia.

The more pigeon-shaped the breed, the better.

Ferals are, genetically, a blend of the homers, rollers, and tumblers that survived getting lost on training tosses or during performances.

Here is Wilson, another purebred Racing homer.

Because this breed is designed to fly marathons literally hundreds of miles, it’s a lot more compact and muscular than Ferals and genuinely wild Rock Doves, who only need to fly as far as it takes to find enough to eat in a day.

The farther off this base line you go, the less physically fit the breed.

The American Fantail is an especially heinous train wreck.

Its chest is out thrust over its head, its neck curves parallel to its spine, and its head is propped up by its own tail feathers.

This pitiful creature is not just displaying.

Their skeleton is permanently stuck in that shape.

Parlor rollers are bred with a combination of neuromuscular defects that throw their balance when ever they flap their wings, sending them into a panic as they flail to right themselves.

Parlor Tumblers have a less severe version of the same group of deformities:

We talked about the Old dutch Capuchine above.

Jacobins are the extreme “modern” version of the ODC.

You could trim their feathers to clear their field of vision

But their very long necks tend to collapse into their shoulders with age.

The male Barb’s huge, wrinkled wattle and ceres block off their nasal passages and deform the eyelids so that they may not be able to fully close.

Cocks usually go blind with in three years, but that doesn’t matter to their breeders because their peak show and reproductive performance is between their first and second year of age.

The Short Faced Budapest’s show standard requires its eyes to telescope as much as possible.

Its eyes are literally bigger than its skull, and don;t fit in their sockets.

The eye lid is all that holds them in.

And some can’t fully close their eyes.

This is the Oriental Frill, also called the Modern Frill.

they have literally no beak.

Turbits have a longer head, but a nearly inverted beak.

These birds can;t feed their own young, and struggle to preen themselves.

Aaaand here is the Egyptian Moraslat 

This is a very typical attitude among breeders of these birds with extreme body shapes.

I also have a series on weird, but physically sound breeds, and would be happy to go more into those in another ask.

[alicesaupairland-blog]

21/11/2018 11:38 PM, As awake as the dead I can't sleep and I don't know what to do with myself so I might as well write it down on the Internet for a bunch of random people to gawk at. Well, what's happening to me right now is that, I feel this anxiety about how I'm deliberately skipping my exam today. Look, I can't take it anymore and no one will understand because it will take hours, probably even days or months to explain 24 years of bullshit that landed me in the position I that I currently occupy. But maybe talking to myself about it won't take as many hours, days or months. (Hold that thought, I don't understand why the font keeps changing on this god damn tumbler app) Anyway, tumbler please don't kick me off your app, I quite like writing in this manner, it's seemingly therapeutic. Agh there you go, the font is smaller again and my inner ODC, alter ego thing is now settled. Kay, look I'm doing this on my phone so it's absolute shit. I'm a much better writer on Microsoft word, you know, thesaurus is bae.

Now where was I?

I was right about to tell you about the 24 years of my life that are apparently inducing my body with enough anxiety to steal away my sleep, well that and also the fact that my sleeping patterns are fucked up, so I also took a 2 hour nap during the day.

Seriously! Let's be fucking done with the continuous small talk and introductions and also avoiding the fact that I don't know how to start this 24 year old long story, and just begin!

I set an alarm on my phone to wake up at approximately 4:30 AM to take a ViaVan to my boyfriends house and hide away with him till 2:00 PM because everyone, including my host family thinks I'm going to write my Real Analysis exam. Strange, I know. Now very briefly I will say that I got caught up in the fun of Amsterdam and all of a sudden its 2 and a half weeks away from my exams. I start to freak out, anxiety kicks in and I simply run away from everything, especially the exams.

"They're just exams! Doesn't make sense for her to freak out that bad over exams"

I know that's what you're thinking, but that is what makes this story so interesting. It's strange and peculiar. It's unique and it will give you perspective on-a bunch of stuff, that if summarized will ruin the story. So hush, hush dear your curiosity will be rejoiced soon.

Now back to the story. I'm going to pretend to be writing an exam and the only people who know I'm pretending is my boyfriend and his mum. (Sorry, pause again here's some in between information.)

I am Alice, and Alice does not give a flying fuck about what anyone thinks of the things I do say. Now I don't always say things, I am very careful about how and when I speak because when I do I am extremely, explicitly and utterly honest. There is no filter, precise enough to refine my thoughtful voice. I am flat out blunt and when I say what I want to say I think really clear and deeply (maybe too deeply) about it so if it hurts you, it was meant to, if it offends you, it was supposed to, if it arouses you don't be surprised and if it comforts you appreciate it. Now I've registered my tumbler name as my own, but who the fuck knows I even exist, all I have is a brain damaged boyfriend and a few euros a month. But I love and respect this brain damaged boyfriend very much so I'm going to call him Joey.

In approximately 5 hours and 3 minutes I will be getting ready to make my way over to a hopefully, warm and asleep Joey. I'm going to wake him up, only if he wants to. I'm going to hold him and make him feel taken cared of and loved. And then I will lay with him till I can tell what he feels like doing. Knowing Joey, he's going to want to fuck me, he will grab me and start pushing his hard dick against me. And I don't mind, I love it when a man wants me, but I love it more when a man makes me feel wanted. So maybe we'll fuck, and maybe if I'm lucky it'll last just shy of 4 minutes and no I probably won't get to cum. But for godsake I love this boy so much and I don't know what to do about the bad sex. Nor does he. And we have this conversation and argument almost every day I spend with him. He's really insecure about it and I love him too much to see him feel bad about himself so all I can do is encourage him. Although sometimes I feel like I need to stop this immediately or I will end up feeling used and that will change the way I look at him and I really don't want that but I just don't know what to do.

22/11/2018

4:46 AM, sitting in the ViaVan on my way to Joey

Sorry for the drift off but I fell asleep and content. Although just before that, I spent some time thinking about how to solve the sexual dilemma between Joey and I. And the only thing that I could think of is "try harder Alice". Anyway, I'm now on my way to him and am definitely over thinking the outcome of my anxieties and sexual frustrations. Can't wait to see what happens!

11:35 PM, Alice's laying some what comfortablely in bed

I don't know what my host mums, mum put in that pea soup but it's got me pooping and farting, as if I were back in SA and had eaten some extra hot Nando's chicken for dinner. I've been in Amsterdam for- I just counted 187 days and I've eaten everywhere and everything and never been sick not once. What on Earth, did she do to the food? It couldn't have been what I cooked. Everything I cook, from the spices to the freaking water us fresh and organic and that's a story for another day. Okay fuck this I cannot concentrate.

Something is up with Joey. I have really good intuition and I feel him drifting. He's with friends almost every night of the week, going out almost every night of the week and it's strange, it's all of a sudden. I don't mind, I want him to live his life but it's just odd. And Joey used to call me every single day. Every single day, like 3 times a day and now he calls maybe once a week. Its strange. I don't like it. And I need to figure out why.

Now I've got this uncomfortable, unsettling feeling within me and it's unfortunate because I had so many interesting things to write about. But this is how the cookie crumbles. The universe needs to balance out in some way and I guess after having such a wonderful day, here's the shit part of it that has to make it real. See, I don't feel the way I do because I'm an obsessive lunatic, I feel this way because Joey and I are extremely close and I can sense the gravitation of something being odd. One more thing, before Joey met me, he was a complete fuck boy, in fact the day he met me he thought he was going to get an easy fuck and then chase her away. Well it didn't happen and now we're together for approximately 117 days. (That's almost 4 months). Is this what happens around 4 months of being in love? You just start drifting? I just don't understand because today, in the morning, it was incredible with him. We had great sex and we did it twice, we had great food, he walked me to the bus stop and waited with me for the bus (which was a 20 minute waste of time because I thought that the tram wasn't working but it was). Its just confusing. It's like he's completely in love with me and then completely forgets me. Well he does definitely have brain damage. I don't know, it's just unusual.

So I'm not good at this blog thing and I don't know how to really do it but here's my first post. There'll be more to come, I promise.

Oh bloody hell I forgot to continue with my 24 year old long story.

Anyway, good night, ill carry on with it tomorrow.

XXX

Alice