I have a ten year old son, who has had a yen for racing pigeons. Since I am a good and loving mother, trying to foster his interests and education, I got him a pair of the birds for his birthday one February. Not knowing from whence the birds came, and not wishing to cause weather shock....I started out by putting them safely out of Eastern Forest winter snows and in a cage in the house. And the learning began.
First, we got to witness and watch the mating rituals of pigeons. Let me tell you, rabbits have nothing on these fellers. What they lack in duration they make up for in number of attempts. I also thought right from the start, how similar to people they are. The male will strut, and bob his head, and spread his wings and tail feathers ....and try his best to convince his lady bird
that he is the one to lay eggs with.
She, reacts with what seems like disinterest.... eating, calmly preening her feathers....looking the other way....I think our lady pigeon actually rolled her eyes a time or two. She knows what all us women know...that he would act that way for any ol' lady bird.
Just to prove this, we put a mirror in the cage one day. Catching site of himself, Manly pigeon began to bob his head and flex his feathers, strut around in his little circle, never guessing he wanted to mate himself. Whoops. Mr. and Mrs. Pigeon soon produced two shiny new eggs. One at a time. Well....two days apart. They nicely took turns sitting on the eggs and treated each other tenderly ....preening each others heads, practicing feeding on each other ......I began to wonder if they were like humans at all. They did not bicker or fuss ...but lived in perfect peace with each other it seemed.
Then one afternoon, the first egg hatched. Lady bird took on the task of mother, and at first Manly bird looked on curiously and protectively. Soon, he jumped in the nest and tried to help. Lady bird took the opportunity to go eat some gourmet seed. (Wild birdseed, $1 a bag from the Dollar Store.)
Within minutes, she noticed that Manly bird was making serious and disastrous mistakes in his feeding and sitting techniques, and promptly went over and kicked his hinny out of the nest. He looked hurt, but he listened. I think he watched TV for the evening.
Another day later, the second egg hatched. The first chick had already grown so much you could immediately tell the difference in the two from size. But both parents were attentive, taking turns with care and feeding and keeping them warm, and the chicks thrived.
Some days, Manly bird, would get diarrhea. I, being the caring and loving mother I am, was concerned that the birds might have some disease, or health problem. So I watched closely, and made hand washing a must. One day he squirted. The next, he pooped fine. They looked well....bright eyes, alert, the babies are growing..... As time went on, chick one stayed ahead of chick two in growth, but all else seemed fine with them.
Mom and dad bird developed a serious pooping problem though. I would say the substance turned into more of a "poop juice" than a "poop". Manly daddy bird would strut around his cage in his little foot stomping circles, back his butt up to the bars....and release! Poop juice would squirt across the room like it came out of a Super Soaker squirt gun....You could hear it leave the
hatch....and hear it hit its destination.
Squiiiiiiiissssshhhhhhhhhpt ...............splat!
My son called it "Power Pooping." I, in wonder, would watch this happen, thinking ...."Oh my. I have to be the one to clean that up...but I was laughing. Why am I laughing?
A bit of salt I learned cures the birds pooping issue. It seems the birds use valuable body salts to feed the young and need it replenished. Crumbled saltine crackers in the seed solved the problem within a day.
Yep...pigeons. Wanna laugh...breed some pigeons.