Caring For African Owl Pigeons (Part I)

It is said that the most difficult pigeon breed to raise is the African Owl; nonetheless, these birds have long been kept by different owners all around the world as pets -- most of these learned how to care for them via hand-on experience. But this should not scare you. Now that the internet is very much widely used, information on caring for these birds has also become available. No longer are aspiring African Owl pet owners required to go through the "ignorant" days when it comes to pigeon-keeping. Today, anyone can just go online and make a research himself/herself about the birds and end up like a pigeon expert himself/herself!

This particular article, for example, is one of those materials that a would-be owner can read (even those who have been taking care of pigeons for some time can also learn something new from this). The caring techniques outlined below are hinged on the concept of manipulating the innate characteristics of the pigeons to aid the breeding program of the birds and at the same time, keep them comfortable during the entire time that they have to be kept in lofts and in pigeon boxes. Since African Owl requires more attention than most pigeons, it is normal for first-time pigeon keepers to cringe about the idea of having these birds as their first pigeon pets. But, if you are really after having a bird that is tame, docile and very attracted, then by all means pursue the African owls and read the simple tips below to prepare yourself for the responsibility.

1. Get the Best Stock

(c) pigeonfarms.com

You might have started to become interested in pigeons after you learned that these birds are involved in a kind of "sports". Well, this can be understood because pigeon racing has indeed become so popular these days; it is that popular that there is even a very fat chance that you want keep pigeons for this purpose too. That's alright through, for as long as you take care of the birds properly and treats them humanely. Now if this is your intention, make sure that you get your birds from a participant in the races that owns pigeons that are consistently winning. This is important because in pigeon racing, the overall health of the birds can greatly affect their performance (the same with humans and horses, actually). Thus, if there is an owner who is able to get multiple wins during different periods, you can also assume that he/she keeps very healthy pigeons. This also means that the pigeons that he/she owns have a good bloodline and this can be seen in the performance of the bird, as well as in its appearance.

Of course, we all know that racing skills are not hereditary. But when you choose young birds from a good pigeon family, you can be almost very sure that you will have no problems when it comes to the immune system of the birds, as well as their susceptibility to various diseases (which is actually hereditary). However, you have to realize too that the genes of the African Owls are quite recessive; getting stock from a good bloodline is not a 100% guarantee that you will get good adult birds in the future, but it is still better than just randomly picking any birds.

2. Good Feeder Birds

(c) tonyglew.btinternet.co.uk

African Owls do not thrive well in the wild because of their physical characteristics. You see, these birds have very short beaks. Thus, a mother African owl will definitely have a hard time feeding its own chicks. In most cases, when these birds are in the wild, one or more of their chicks will die because of malnutrition. When they are domesticated, owners somehow shoulder the responsibility of making sure that all the chicks survive. Some owners feed the chicks on their own but this is actually a very painstaking task, especially if the owner keeps a lot of birds. The best possible approach is to get "foster" bird parents. These birds are made to assume that they are feeding their own chicks. It is the responsibility of the owner to find a really good foster parent for the birds so that they get all the food that they need.

The switching of the birds happens immediately after the eggs are hatched. The eggs are placed in an incubator until they are fully developed and then they are left for the care of the foster bird parents. They birds are known as the "feeders". If you are a serious breeder, then this is the option that you should be taking. All the other options have been proven to have loopholes.

Many pigeon owners prefer to assign one foster parent to each African Owl chick. Since African Owls normally lay two eggs, it is also important that the owners keep at least two foster parents for each pair of African Owl he/she owns. This is the surest way to keep each chick well fed during the development period, something which is very important if you are training these birds to become future racers. Examples of good feeders are the Flying Flights and the Racing Homers. These birds can take on big jobs and are normally very passionate about their young. They are not very particular with the appearance of the youngster too (some birds can easily identify chicks that do not belong to their breed). You can also explore your other options and try other feeders because these two common ones are quite expensive. However, you should know that many birds are incapable of caring for the African Owls and during your "experiment" period, you might end up having some casualties. But the choice is complete up to you.

Important

These two tips do not sum up everything that you need to know about these birds; look for the second instalment of this article down in the archive section below. Do not forget that you need to know as many things about African Owls pigeons in order to prepare yourself for your future ownership of such birds.