Hello! I was wondering what sort of requirements pigeons would have and the whole breeds thing. (Sorry long ask) How much room would a pidge need? Like cage size and also, how would one go about excersizing them? Do you reccomend letting them fly free for the day and come back at night? Would they possibly get hurt or catch a disease/parasites out there? Are they expensive to keep? And what breeds are the most friendly/affectionate? Thank you :) 1/2
You know how some dogs have been bred to look nice but have a multitude of health problems (ie pug, chihuahua, great dane ,dachshund ect) does that happen in pigeons too? And if so, how does one know which might be genetically predisposed to getting problems later on or just generally wont have the best quality of life? 2/2
Whuf!
These are really broad questions. I’ll have to break them down and answer ne at a time, so I apologize in advance for the length of time it will take me to get this ask out.
“How much room would a pidge need? Like cage size...”
Pigeon breeds range in size from the tiny Valencian Figurita and Portuguese tumblers (vying constantly to be the worlds smallest breed) to the literally chicken sized Giant Runt.
So the amount of space required depends on the breed’s size and energy level.
Homers are about the average.
Here is an old picture from before the loft’s redesign of two of my breeding pair in their pens.
These are labrador sized dog crates, outfitted with a rabbit’s corner litter pan as a nest box and a garden stake cut to length as a perch.
Pigeons need flat perches because they are cliff nesters. Round ones like branches or dowels hurt their feet.
If yours is going to be a house pet, the cage should be what a crate is for dogs: A safe place to sleep or wait for you to get home until it learns the house rules.
Pigeons are intensely social birds that are happiest with the freedom of motion to come see you when they want, and go occupy themselves when they don’t want company.
The nice thing about pigeons is that they don;t need to be all over you all the time. They are independent enough to go do their own thing, but want to be able to come check on or spend time with you.
Which dovetails nicely into your next question: “how would one go about exercising them?”
A pigeon allowed to free range indoors will exercise themself plenty.
If you cannot let them free range the entire house, letting them out in your bedroom while you are home will be fine for most breeds.
“Do you reccomend letting them fly free for the day and come back at night?”
Absolutely not!
“Would they possibly get hurt or catch a disease/parasites out there?”
That possibly could be turned all the way up to a guarantee.
Performance breeds like racers, rollers, and tumblers are over bred to make up for the losses during training flights from inclement weather getting a bird lost, hawks snatching them out of the air, and diseases picked up from wild birds and brought back.
“Are they expensive to keep?”
After the initial cost for set up and the vet check to make sure they don’t have parasites and aren’t ill, the upkeep for a few is shockingly cheap.
You can get a lab sized kennel for $50-70. If you want an even bigger space, Great Dane kennels are about $80.
You can buy a wooden garden stake from pretty much any hardware store for about $5.
The bunny corner box is not required if you aren’t breeding. Pigeons will just as happily use a dollar store dog bowl to nest in.
My vet bill for a new bird is $70: $35 for the exotics wellness exam, $20 for a throat swab, and $15 for a fecal test.
I expected feral and lost birds to have lice, worms, parasites, and infections, but was floored when every single show bird I ever purchased from breeders did too!
You’re better off in the long run assuming something needs to be healed, cleaned out, or cleared up and just finding out from the vet as soon as they get there what needs treating.
Clear it out then, and an inside bird is pretty well set.
You can buy 50lbs of feed for $20 at Tractor supply.
And 50lbs of calcium supplements for $11.
I have 36 pigeons and 2 ringneck doves right now, so 50lbs lasts me a little over a week.
But a single bird will eat off of that for over half a year.
“And what breeds are the most friendly/affectionate?”
Most of the Exhibition breeds are pretty friendly, but from most to least kennel space, here are the ones I have enjoyed the most hands on:
Utility kings
These are the size of chickens and will need a LOT of flight time.
They are a meat breed, so they are genetically predisposed to docility, but also obesity.
They do best free roaming the house full time. It’s really hard to find a cage big enough to comfortably accommodate them.
Giant Homers
Utility kings are a squabbing breed, designed for constant production of big squabs, so they are more bird-shaped than the Giant Homer, which was bred to be eaten as an adult, and then for the aesthetic of a fat round bird.
Like the Utility King, Giant Homers are known for their mellow, gentle temperaments. But after having worked with them for a few years, it seems mostly to be that they are simply too big and heavy to evade effectively, and they know it.
Along with being prone to obesity, their sheer weight puts tremendous pressure on their feet and they can develop huge, painful calluses.
I like my mixes better than their purebred parents, because they inherited the temperament with out the bulk that causes painful or dangerous health issues.
Lahore
Named for the city in Pakistan where they were developed, the Lahore is a huge, gorgeous bird.
Their wing span more then the size of their actual body makes them difficult to cage, so it’s best they have the run of at least a bedroom.
these are laid back and mellow, but not exactly touch me birds. If one gets on your shoulder or in your lap, feel honored.
Frillbacks
For the same reason as the Lahore, Frillbacks can be difficult to pen indoors.
An individual can be happy in a Great Dane sized kennel, but frankly won’t fit comfortably into anything smaller.
These are very laid back, not especially flighty, and quite friendly. Young birds are very much cuddle bugs, and the individual pictured still comes up to me to nurse between my fingers.
No known associated health issues, but individuals with especially long muffs can stay especially still because the shaft of the feather under the skin of their feet is bigger around than the bones of their toes, making walking painful.
Show standards require large muffs, so it can be hard to find them with muffs like Bean’s here.
There is one breeder that raises hers with short muffs and entirely clean legged. I’ll be happy to link you.
Voorburg Shield Cropper
These leggy, slender birds are a pain to house because of their height, but the only breed I know of with points taken off in the show standard if they are not friendly enough to try to court the judges.
This sweet flamboyant temperament makes them an absolute delight to work with!
These are the first on the list with no known health issues associated with the breed.
Show Type Racing homer
This is an elegant exhibition breed, easy to house in the example set up we discussed at the beginning of the ask.
They are bulkier than racing homers or flying type show homers, VERY tightly feathered.
This is a wonderfully sweet tempered breed that tends not to be especially flighty.
Some of that is due to the sheer bulk of its musculature, but most of it does genuinely seem to be temperament.
Old Dutch Capuchine
These have a reputation for being docile, but I have found them to be quite flighty.
Mixes incorporating this breed, though, tend to be quite bold and out going.
Racing Homer
This is the most commonly available pigeon breed.
Bred for endurance racing, this is a very high energy bird that needs a LOT of time out of the pen to fly.
They have the strongest immune system and highest intelligence of any of the pure breeds.
though some individuals can be hair-trigger flighty, this breed is keenly intelligent and highly curious, and those individuals can learn to overcome their flightiness if their handler can learn to be aware enough of their comfort levels not to startle them with too-quick motion.
Lucerne Peak Crest
Named, like the Lahore, after the city in Switzerland where the breed was developed.
The Lucerne is an extremely temperature hardy breed.
It’s among what are called the Owl Breeds; small, compact breeds with short to mid length beaks, round faces, and large, round eyes.
Most of the owl breeds are mellow and sweet tempered, boldly curious, and not generally prone to be flighty.
Their beaks being a little short makes their nasal slit narrow and the opening to their sinuses wide, so small seeds like Millet can get stuck in the nasal cavity of some individuals.
Classic Old Frill
Oh, this is my favorite purebred.
The total pidge package: Small, friendly, shockingly beautiful, devoted parents.
There is absolutely everything to love about this wonderful cuddle bug breed.
Nun
These are a gorgeous breed, often described as being friendly because they are not smart enough to be wary.
They are unspeakably awful parents, prone to literally treating their eggs like an especially large, uncomfortable poop.
Old German Owl
Another absolute delight of a charming little Owl breed.
These are as stubborn as they are sweet tempered, which can make them a really fun challenge to train.
These are cuddle bugs, for the most part.
Chinese Owl
These are tiny little clouds that range from intensely curious and strongly treat motivated to absolute refusal to have anything to do with anything even remotely human shaped with very little in between.
Small and easy to house.
Portuguese Tumbler
This is a tiny bird, not much taller than a conure.
They are bred purely for aerial performance, so this is a SUPER high energy breed that, like the racing homer, needs a LOT of out time.
They are very bold in their friendliness, eager to check up on you and steal a cheek-smooch before zooming off to resume doing their own thing.
Unfortunately, their breed standard requires their back toe not to touch the ground. They go on tippy toes when they are happy, excited, or relaxed, which makes something like a human hand or shoulder physically difficult to balance on, and there for uncomfortable to stand on.
So trying to pet one throws their balance and stresses them severely.
Mixes with stronger feet are thrilled to have the affectionate attention of human flock mates.
Valencian Figurita
The tiniest owl breed, currently just barely winning out over the Portuguese tumbler.
It’s known for its trapezoidal head shape and upright stance.
This is a bold, plucky little bird that in my experience loves shoulders. ^v^
They are bred a little too small, though, tending to only lay one egg to a clutch, with many dying in the shell with out space for the peep to develop.
Their hatchlings are often given to ringneck doves to foster.
“You know how some dogs have been bred to look nice but have a multitude of health problems (ie pug, chihuahua, great dane ,dachshund ect) does that happen in pigeons too?”
Oh, god, you would not believe the number of pigeon breeds that aren’t even bird shaped!
There are nearly twice as many severely distorted breeds as fit, bird shaped ones.
Check the Modern art Pigeons tag.
“And if so, how does one know which might be genetically predisposed to getting problems later on or just generally wont have the best quality of life?”
Pippin is a feral pigeon.
This is about the closest you can get to the base line natural shape of the species Columba livia.
The more pigeon-shaped the breed, the better.
Ferals are, genetically, a blend of the homers, rollers, and tumblers that survived getting lost on training tosses or during performances.
Here is Wilson, another purebred Racing homer.
Because this breed is designed to fly marathons literally hundreds of miles, it’s a lot more compact and muscular than Ferals and genuinely wild Rock Doves, who only need to fly as far as it takes to find enough to eat in a day.
The farther off this base line you go, the less physically fit the breed.
The American Fantail is an especially heinous train wreck.
Its chest is out thrust over its head, its neck curves parallel to its spine, and its head is propped up by its own tail feathers.
This pitiful creature is not just displaying.
Their skeleton is permanently stuck in that shape.
Parlor rollers are bred with a combination of neuromuscular defects that throw their balance when ever they flap their wings, sending them into a panic as they flail to right themselves.
Parlor Tumblers have a less severe version of the same group of deformities:
We talked about the Old dutch Capuchine above.
Jacobins are the extreme “modern” version of the ODC.
You could trim their feathers to clear their field of vision
But their very long necks tend to collapse into their shoulders with age.
The male Barb’s huge, wrinkled wattle and ceres block off their nasal passages and deform the eyelids so that they may not be able to fully close.
Cocks usually go blind with in three years, but that doesn’t matter to their breeders because their peak show and reproductive performance is between their first and second year of age.
The Short Faced Budapest’s show standard requires its eyes to telescope as much as possible.
Its eyes are literally bigger than its skull, and don;t fit in their sockets.
The eye lid is all that holds them in.
And some can’t fully close their eyes.
This is the Oriental Frill, also called the Modern Frill.
they have literally no beak.
Turbits have a longer head, but a nearly inverted beak.
These birds can;t feed their own young, and struggle to preen themselves.
Aaaand here is the Egyptian Moraslat
This is a very typical attitude among breeders of these birds with extreme body shapes.
I also have a series on weird, but physically sound breeds, and would be happy to go more into those in another ask.
