How to keep pigeons occupied.
Concerning this caption some reader will ask himself: what is this? And I understand. But this account should not be seen as a guide to “circus pigeons”, but some thoughts on what we might encounter in the years to come. In my profession I am constantly confronted with this issue. The problem is that the conservation societies stand under pressure from their members. To keep them happy they are constantly looking for new issues with animal keeping. I have often the feeling that this is the reason for their continuing demands.
Now back to our pigeons. Concerning the occupation of pigeons you have to separate the pigeons into three categories.
- 1. The performance pigeons, mail pigeons, Tipplers and the rest of the flying pigeons who do have a regular training.
- 2. Pigeons in free flight, those exist less and less (as they mostly end as raptor food) and the conservation societies are not totally innocent with that.
- 3. The pigeons that stay in the pigeonry and aviary (to those belong of course lots of breeding pigeons of the performance pigeons).
The first group: these animals are regularly involved in training, which means they have at least three training flights per week. These pigeons need the remaining time to rest.
Group two: I am of the opinion that this is the ideal pigeon keeping. Therefore every comment is useless.
Group three: Those are the pigeons that need the most activity. Apart from the breeding and raising time of the young during which they are fully occupied.
How are the pigeons meaningfully occupied?
Some time ago I read an article in the press about a pigeon breeder who kept his pigeons in a pigeonry that looked like a greenhouse. There was Humus on the floor and plants stood everywhere. Parts reached up to the ceiling. The “pigeonry” had the touch of a tropical surrounding. He fed them twice a day and the food was distributed all over the floor (Humus). This way the pigeons spend more time with the search for food until they have found all grains. That such a keeping holds hygienic issues explains itself. The seating bars are fixed with strings, so that the pigeons have to balance some time until they can sit quietly. According to the breeder his pigeons are occupied all day. I fully believe him. But this keeping is not for everyone. Since I read this article I also spend lots of time thinking about the occupation of my pigeons. The Tipplers that are in my trainings are aptly occupied. But during the resting time (winter months) the situation is different, there seems to be some boredom.
The occupation of my pigeons.
Firstly I bought myself a feeding apparatus from the firm www.axt-electronics.eu. On this apparatus you can program the feeding times and amount of food. This means that my pigeons are fed up to eight times a day. This also means that they never get huge amounts; instead they get them more often. This way they have to be constantly alert to not miss the next feeding. One disadvantage is that there can be only 16 pigeons feeding at the same time. Because I only have a small pigeon stock it’s ok for me. Additionally I regularly get chalk sand near a chalk quarry. I find the best on the border of the stone wall; it gets washed away by the rain there and is therefore quite smooth (beak size). I mix it with some Humus and millet and put it in a big flat bowl. With this mix the pigeons are occupied for several hours. You can also give the pigeons whole salads with the roots. The smaller the grains of the food are the more time they need to feed. Bathing is also a good and divertive occupation. Until they have cleaned every feather and small feather after bathing and brought into the right position a lot of time has passed. When I have paired my Tipplers I put the nesting material into the aviary so that they are busy for some time until they have flown in the nesting material. This also helps them to learn the position of their cell.
I have only mentioned some occupations for the pigeons. This subject is almost infinite. What I think is important: that we manage from our own initiative to care for an optimal pigeon keeping. This way we give the above named organizations no reason to criticize us (bully us).
Walter Stettler CH Binningen www.flugtippler.ch
The pigeons should have at least once a week the opportunity to take a bath.
The pigeons peck a mix of calcareous sand and humus for a long time.
Because only a small portion of feed is dumped, the pigeons are quickly on the spot.