Crawlers in Short Face Youngsters
Michael Seiler, Jackson, NJ
Michael Seiler, Jackson, NJ
This
term “crawlers” is not my own. This word was coined by, the great
short face breeder, Rudy Strnad back in the early 1970's. He used the
term to describe the movement of a very young unhealthy squab that would
eventually die no matter how you attempted to save it. You would put a
youngster under a pair of foster parents to be raised as one usually
does and you would see the youngsters crawling out from under the adult
bird. Sometimes you would witness the adult birds re-positioning
themselves over the baby repeatedly. In the early spring the youngsters
usually crawled out of the nest bowl to die from exposure. In the warm
summer months you find the youngsters all over the nest box. For many
years, we blamed those losses on the foster parents. It is not the
foster parents!
How
often do you say to yourself – if I only knew then, what I know today.
Well better late than never. The root of this problem is the onset of a
navel canker. The youngster is getting pressure on the digestive track
and is starting to starve and the response is this “crawling.”
Even
if you treat your flock for canker in the beginning of the breeding
season, you will see this occur sometimes. You can cure this problem
and save the youngsters if you work quickly. Fortunately, I do not see
this problem as often as years ago. One in 30 youngsters might have
this problem. If it occurs, all you have to do is take a Spartrix
tablet (10 mg of Carnidazole) and dissolve it completely in warm water
and administer it to the youngster. Ridzol is another very useful
product for canker. I realized that these affected squabs are very
small. Therefore, I suggest that you get a very small syringe and
attach a cannula tubing to it with the leur lok head and draw up the
solution (Spartrix or Ridzol dissolved in water) into it for easy
insertion into the crop.
The
cannula is a tube used to administer I.V. injections into a patient or
large animal. I am sure that a doctor, nurse, or veterinarian can get
you one. You don't need the needle portion and if they cut off the
needle you no longer have a problem with anyone accusing you of having a
dangerous piece of medical equipment.
Spartrix
and Ridzol, in my opinion, are two of the finest medications on the
market. These are rather reasonable and readily available. The
tolerance of the birds is extremely good. You will not poison a little
squab even with a whole tablet. The youngster will resume normal growth
in a day or two. You may have to switch the youngster to another
foster pair to get the additional pigeon milk it will need to stimulate
growth again. You could,also, hand feed it the youngster.
The
reason that I addressed this topic is that for 50 plus years of raising
pigeons I never saw this phenomenon in my long face youngsters. (Exact
same loft conditions for both long face and short face). Only the
short face youngsters exhibit this navel canker. I believe the reason
for its occurrence to be two fold. 1) Many times we, as breeders, help
short face youngsters from the egg and this leaves the navel wet and
vulnerable to infection. 2) Nutrition plays an important role here as
well. Short face youngsters never really get enough milk from their
parents in the first two days because they are so small and their crops
only have one third the volume of long face youngsters. Their genetic
parents, also, never get the right nutrition from the food they manage
to pick up either. This, of course, contributes to weaker youngsters.
Yes,
the breeding of short face pigeons is an art and quite a challenge
because they have been altered by breeders for almost 200 years. A
little knowledge and experience goes a very long way.
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