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badbreedingblog:crocuta:badbreedingblog:followthebluebell:badbreedingblog:hostilepopcorn:bird-bum:earthlynation:Fancy Pigeon Appreciation. SourceModel shotsSorry, but how the hell can the dwarf dutysh and Saxon dutysh eat?? Their beaks are so tiny, they must be in danger of drowning every time they drink water! How do the Budapest tumbler’s eyes not pop out of its skull? Fancy pigeon breeders are weird, man.I don’t know a lot on fancy pigeons but does anyone know of any health issues with the ones that the person above me is inquiring about? And I’m curious about those feety feather mops on a few of them lol, how does that work? Wouldn’t this hinder flight? These are odd looking characters indeed. Amazing though, how they all look like entirely different species of bird but they’re not. Long leg feathers can interfere with flight and perching. Another concern is how they get dirty really easily since their feathers are RIGHT by their butts; they often have to be washed by hand to prevent them from becoming bacterial mops. They also break easily and need to be watched carefully, lest a blood feather occur. The pigeons with very fluffy head feathers can have trouble rearing their own offspring. Pigeons with very small beaks are offered a special diet and fed apart from the other birds to prevent bullying and competition. I don’t know anything about the pigeons with the really big eyes though. tbh, I’ve always been more concerned about tumblers and rollers. These are the birds who start rolling and tumbling while they’re flying. Some are so extremely bred for this that they can’t fly at all. It’s really hard to tell if this behavior is voluntary or not. There have been problems with rollers colliding with objects and getting injured. Wow, so I just looked up Tumblers and got this video up and it really is bizarre that they’re bred for this kind of “twitchy” flight. And here is some rollers. So weird, it is completely bred in and not trained. Never seen Rollers in flight before but I have heard of them. Hey so I’m super into pigeons and I can give you a little more info on this!Bluebell covered most of it. Some crazy neck and face feathers can obscure vision and make skittish birds, sort of like with Polish chickens. Some of the birds with extremely short beaks can’t feed their offspring (pigeons feed squabs “milk” from their crops and it is really hard to do this if both the parent and baby have half a face), so breeders will usually keep brood-raising birds around to foster chicks that would otherwise starve.I’ve read that the extreme short-faced birds can have trouble eating too, and have heard tales of birds that had to be hand-fed, but they may just be stories. I have no idea.And oh my god don’t even get me started on rollers. They’re so…weird.Apparently the tumbling and rolling can be treated with seizure medication. I can’t remember the source on that, but could dig it up if you wanted.There’s a breed called a Parlor Roller that has such a severe form of the probable-seizure-disorder that from a few months of age they are completely incapable of flight. Just trying to fly sends them into a somersault across the ground. People hold competitions to see whose bird can roll the farthest.And they LEARN to not even try to fly, because the tumble is not comfortable for them. Eventually they stop trying altogether, but still have the instinct to flap when tossed, so at these competitions they are given a low, sweeping toss like a bowling ball to encourage them to try to fly, which inevitably ends in a roll. Competitive pigeon-rollers will say not to roll the same bird too often– if my memory serves than it’s like only once every month or two?– to prevent it from learning how to control the roll, because once they do, they stop, and they are no longer a good competition bird when they can stop themselves.But it’s not ALL bad- they tend to be otherwise healthy birds, and can make excellent house/apartment pets since they can’t fly. They can lead happy lives in the hands of someone who is willing to, you know, not send them rolling into the apartment wall.Thank you for the further info on these guys! I never knew about the rolling competitions. Would make sense that their weird flying is seizure or neurological related too. -- source link