New developments in taming my homers

LamarshFish

Crowing
8 Years
Mar 26, 2015
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I had been looking for help taming my homers since they were pretty afraid of me, and upon recommendation I tried peanuts. I started about a week ago just placing them on the ledges of my loft to get them to like the taste. Then I started standing closer to where I placed them, so they were sort of forced to come close to me to eat them. Eventually one of my four pigeons decided she was comfortable eating from my hand, and she's been doing that for a few days now. Tonight, the other three had to sit there and watch the one eat from my hand, and it was only a matter of time before they couldn't stand to watch much longer, and joined in on the action.

So thank you all, especially Hokum Coco, for making the recommendations. Things are moving along well in my loft. I'm going to give these new fellas another week or so before letting them out again.

Another thing I started doing was just filling my feeder up with a lot of food and giving it to them morning and evening for a timed period, rather than measuring out the amount I think they can eat in 15 minutes. I think this will allow me to be more precise, and will compel my birds to be more disciplined in responding to my feed calls (i.e., if you don't go eat when you hear the call, you miss out). I did this because, for whatever reason, recently my birds have been leaving their food sometimes and will eat it when they please. This was only recently, as most of the first month of having my birds they would for the most part frenzy over my feeding times. I think this may have happened because there are less birds in my loft after losing those two a few weeks ago. So I will try this timed method for now and see how it works.

I have not yet opted to include water in the timed method, and I am continuing to keep fresh water in the loft at all times for them, especially in these hotter summer months.

Any more advice is welcomed and greatly appreciated!
 
Yeah!! :clap Excellent progress.

Tonight, the other three had to sit there and watch the one eat from my hand, and it was only a matter of time before they couldn't stand to watch much longer, and joined in on the action.
Amusing to watch, ¿no? :lol:

Removing the food after meals also keeps vermin out of the loft. What kind of waterer are you using?
 
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What kind of waterer are you using?
You can buy pigeon water bottles (shown above) but this works well also.

 
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mRYseuTnGGiLGyXp-VwbVdg.jpg
You can buy pigeon water bottles (shown above) but this works well also.

Both my waterer and my large feeder (the one I am using for this timed method) look exactly like the ones you are showing above. My waterer is something like a 1 liter, and the food hopper I believe is a 2 gallon. I found it's important to really fill it up with a decent amount of feed, because when I put in just a little they knocked it over (presumably because it is so large and becomes top heavy with a bird trying to land on it or run into it).

The feeder I used to use when I would give them small amounts morning and night was one of those rectangular shaped wood ones with the flat tops you can open, and wooden dowels/bars that they can stick their heads through to eat.
 
UPDATE: Day 2 now using the timed feeding method. I placed the feeder in the loft for 15 minutes, the birds went in and out of the aviary the entire time, I could not tell if they were eating or not when they were in the loft, but they certainly weren't taking the entire short 15 minutes to eat. My suspicion tells me they were not eating. I'm sure (I hope) they'll learn soon that when the can is shaken, the whistle blows and that feeder gets put in the loft, you better get your eating in, because next meal isn't for a while.
 
Yeah!! :clap Excellent progress.


Amusing to watch, ¿no? :lol:

Removing the food after meals also keeps vermin out of the loft. What kind of waterer are you using?

One that looks just like the one posted above, except it's a 1 liter. For times I have to leave for extended periods I have a larger, metal gravity waterer with a cone top that holds I think 2 gallons.
 
Another thing I started doing was just filling my feeder up with a lot of food and giving it to them morning and evening for a timed period, rather than measuring out the amount I think they can eat in 15 minutes.


Agreed with your timed feeding method but suggest you also measure the amount they should consume because Pigeons are notoriously selective feeders, picking out their favorite bits, etc. and thus need to be 'coerced' into eating the entire mix for best nutrition.
 

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