When I was 11, I wanted to try to get a bird, so my parents let me get a parakeet. It was, to put it shortly, a disaster. Looking back, the care we gave was totally subpar, the parakeet had been totally unsocialized, and honestly, I found that having an animal capable of making such sharp noises and biting so hard (I never got bit, but my mom did and it looked like it hurt!) made it hard to trust the bird and bond with it.
After it was... well. After the cats did their thing, I lived birdless for a long while, somewhat put off from the whole birds as pets thing. It was cool to watch other people interact with their parrots, but they weren't an animal I could see myself being capable of caring for or being unable to be anything but always somewhat afraid of the bird. I'm an anxious person - I know I can't read parrots well, and I'm way too weenie to risk losing the tip of my finger in a second's mistake.
When I was... oh, I guess 19, maybe 20? I saw a video of a pigeon cuddling with someone's hand. Unlike most "Strange pet video lures someone into a pet they never thought of before" stories where it ends with someone buying a fucking Fennec Fox or something - I went out, I did research to the best of my ability (pigeon resources are hard to find and often obviously ancient), and bought a pair of pigeons from a Eastern European gentleman with a loft of High-Flying Tipplers.
They were completely unsocialized, but I didn't know that there were pet breeders for pigeons yet. A lot of the information I had in the early days was wrong (Palomacy, for example, gives some really bad advice on food and grit and a few other things, and most of the racer and performance loft resources were based heavily in superstition.), so while I did the best I could to tame the birds I'd gotten, I made a little progress but plateaued. When we'd had them about 8 months, I got the idea that maybe we'd breed them once - pigeons are notoriously good at propagating, help the parents raise the babies, and then rehome the parents to a loft where they'd obviously be more comfortable than with humans they didn't trust.
Not really the ideal path to pigeondom to tell the truth.
At some point in the next 3 or so years I was looking for pet pigeons on tumblr and ran across The Ramsey Loft. She was breeding birds for *friendliness.* She also knew a lot and everything she said seemed to be scientifically sound, especially when she provided sources to real science and studies and not a Top Ten Things You Didn't Know About Pigeons article. Reading her blog and seeing her answering questions and asking my own taught me how to better connect with my two half-socialized but mostly stand-offish pigeons that I'd helped raise. She taught me that actually, no, pigeons shouldn't get fruits or vegetables! That pigeons in mated pairs often are offended to be touched by someone who isn't their mate. Pigeon body language! I learned that I was probably keeping my pigeons too cooped up without enough out-time (I had 5 cats until very recently, down to 4 now since one moved out) so my family and I built a small loft on our deck and moved the birds into it.
It's a closed loft - no free flying with these birds. The loft is 4wx8lx10h I think? It has an indoor section at one end that's 4wx2l? or something close, maybe like 2.5l. They've got a big nestbox complex on the back wall that is made with cafeteria trays so we can just pop it out and swap it out to clean. Bunch of perches. WAY better for the birds. WAY better for our relationship. Without me having to tell them to go back in their cage or grab them when they wouldn't go (remember, we have cats, as much as it would have been cool I could only let them out so long), both birds became much friendlier. I respect their boundaries as birds that generally don't like to be touched (I'll play wrestle the boy though now, which I recently found out about) and in return the female preens my hands and my face, and the male stands on me and dances and every once in a while he preens me. Also he does occasionally try to have sex with my hand or foot. It's like, a little gross I guess, but it's very funny and so short it's not like annoying.
Soon I got another pair of pigeons, this time from a breeder I knew was ethical, had healthy and socialized birds, and had a breed I was interested in. I've had them for about.. 8? months now? The first pair I've had about 3 years. The new breed are a funny pair - the male came out of the box friendly and outgoing and immediately willing to sit on my knee, and the female a shy, anxious bird who hated to be separated from other birds. Her sister (she's pretty popular on pigeon instagram) is an angelic snuggly bird with confidence and sass. I'm interested to know if that potential is in there to pass that down with her male's confidence.
And after a lot of preparation, learning by watching, and waiting for interest, I'm beginning to breed my pigeons myself for others, and planning on socializing them as thoroughly as I can. It's been about a year since I set up my shop and waited for potential pigeon-wanters. I don't want to breed birds without a home to go to, you know? Well, someone noticed me this month. A few weeks later, I have at least 4 clutches lined up with people interested in socialized birds, especially this breed, which people like a lot but are rare in this country. This year I'm only doing single pet birds, no breeding pairs - single pet birds bond REALLY well to their new owner but do require more of your time.
But this is not an ad about my breeding hobby: it's me telling you that if you're looking a friendly pet bird, remember that pigeons, especially from the right sources, can make great pet birds. Can't handle the strength of parrots? Can't handle sharp piercing noises? Think finches are dumb and still want a smart bird? (Pigeons have the intelligence equivalent to around a 2 year old) Want a bird that was actually domesticated? Want a bird you can still train?
Pigeons are fantastic birds. They have tons of personality, they're a good size (and do come in a range of sizes), and most are not strong enough to even come close to drawing blood with their bite (larger-breed human imprints have done so, though, so be aware if you see a human imprint for sale they can be strange birds) and if you get a bird from a reputable source your unlikely to deal with health problems.
This is where I give a moment of advice! If you are interested in a pet pigeon, look up companion breeders! The Ramsey Loft is a great place to start, but many companion breeders will direct you to the same sources of information - most people breeding their birds TO BE PETS are also doing so in a much more ethical manner than other sources, and they have correct information, unlike the big rescues. Definitely don't be afraid to adopt a bird from a pigeon rescue, but know that most of them give out dubious advice not based in science, and a few have lied about the the birds temperaments. But from both rescues and companion breeders, the birds you get should be, baseline, deloused and cleared of health issues before they come to you. You can't get that from most big-loft breeders, and I want you to be aware of that! I wasn't when I started, because I didn't know there was this community out there to help. So go looking for it if you're interested in pigeons! I don't want to link anything because that feels like promotion or something, but I've told you what you need to find good resources!
[link] [comments]
from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/mbtpfb/have_you_ever_considered_a_pigeon_as_a_pet_some/
No comments:
Post a Comment