- Mar 26, 2015
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A bit of brief background: I got squeakers from good racing lines about 4 weeks ago, and at that time they were about 3-4 weeks old, so they're about 2 months old now. They are my first pigeons.
I've fed them twice a day, about the amount they can consume in 15 mins, and each time I feed them I shake the can and blow a whistle, and they know what the can and whistle are now, I can tell by there reaction.
They have one large aviary on the side my loft, and they use it a lot, and seem very familiar with their surroundings from that perspective. The front of my loft is where the trap door and bobs are, but there is no aviary on the front of my loft, so I built a temporary aviary there so they can learn the bob door and so they can get a front view from the loft and learn those surroundings as well. I put the temporary aviary on the front door every morning, and take it off each evening, and the pigeons use both aviaries throughout the day. They comfortably stand on the bob door's small landing platform, and go in and out of the door no problem.
HOWEVER, my young racers are still quite afraid of me. They don't fly away or freak out when I go inside the loft, but if my hands get any closer than about 6" from them, they start squeaking and moving about, which I think is generally normal for pigeons. But, making matters perhaps worse, last night I got their leg bands in the mail which have my phone number on them (took some time for them to be made), and I decided to put them on my birds. The ONLY other time I've ever handled my birds was the day I got them, when I put their ID number bands (numbers 1-6 just to identify them) on their other leg. When I went to put my telephone number bands on the opposite leg of the ID band last night, they seemed pretty scared of me, and, although I was able to pick each one of them up and affix the other leg band on pretty quickly, each one of them not only squeaked when I did it, but also grunted/growled as well, and gave a bit of a struggle. When I put each back down after putting the leg band on, they seemed pretty scared, but they were fine, just seemed a bit rattled up. This morning, things seemed to be business as usual with them, not too scared of me, but a bit more wary perhaps than usual probably due to the leg banding last night.
My question is, although I know my timing is fine (4 weeks in my loft) to let them out for the first time (not taking them far, literally just opening the loft door for them to exit and explore my yard as they please), do you think that the leg banding last night will cause problems? Will them being a bit more scared of me from banding them last night cause any issues? I already know to stay away from them when they're out of the loft exploring for the first time and avoid scaring them, and I plan on letting them out about 2.5 hours before dark, and I didn't feed them this morning, only gave them a few peanuts as treats, so they will be hungry tonight when I let them out.
Do you think, in spite of what I said above, that it is still alright to go through with my plan to let them out for the first time tonight?
Thanks!
I've fed them twice a day, about the amount they can consume in 15 mins, and each time I feed them I shake the can and blow a whistle, and they know what the can and whistle are now, I can tell by there reaction.
They have one large aviary on the side my loft, and they use it a lot, and seem very familiar with their surroundings from that perspective. The front of my loft is where the trap door and bobs are, but there is no aviary on the front of my loft, so I built a temporary aviary there so they can learn the bob door and so they can get a front view from the loft and learn those surroundings as well. I put the temporary aviary on the front door every morning, and take it off each evening, and the pigeons use both aviaries throughout the day. They comfortably stand on the bob door's small landing platform, and go in and out of the door no problem.
HOWEVER, my young racers are still quite afraid of me. They don't fly away or freak out when I go inside the loft, but if my hands get any closer than about 6" from them, they start squeaking and moving about, which I think is generally normal for pigeons. But, making matters perhaps worse, last night I got their leg bands in the mail which have my phone number on them (took some time for them to be made), and I decided to put them on my birds. The ONLY other time I've ever handled my birds was the day I got them, when I put their ID number bands (numbers 1-6 just to identify them) on their other leg. When I went to put my telephone number bands on the opposite leg of the ID band last night, they seemed pretty scared of me, and, although I was able to pick each one of them up and affix the other leg band on pretty quickly, each one of them not only squeaked when I did it, but also grunted/growled as well, and gave a bit of a struggle. When I put each back down after putting the leg band on, they seemed pretty scared, but they were fine, just seemed a bit rattled up. This morning, things seemed to be business as usual with them, not too scared of me, but a bit more wary perhaps than usual probably due to the leg banding last night.
My question is, although I know my timing is fine (4 weeks in my loft) to let them out for the first time (not taking them far, literally just opening the loft door for them to exit and explore my yard as they please), do you think that the leg banding last night will cause problems? Will them being a bit more scared of me from banding them last night cause any issues? I already know to stay away from them when they're out of the loft exploring for the first time and avoid scaring them, and I plan on letting them out about 2.5 hours before dark, and I didn't feed them this morning, only gave them a few peanuts as treats, so they will be hungry tonight when I let them out.
Do you think, in spite of what I said above, that it is still alright to go through with my plan to let them out for the first time tonight?
Thanks!
I wish I was there to help you
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. Since I have followed so attentively I feel like I have a stake in their success. It is nerve racking but from here it looks like you are minimizing your progress and magnifying your setbacks
