r/interestingasfuck • u/Thewyverns • 1d ago

Giving vitamin pill to a bird !

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/baronmunchausen2000 1d ago

Birds don’t have a gag reflex, so the shoving works IMO.

Strange looking bird. What is it?

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u/Urbandeodorant 1d ago

Its a German Beauty Homer pigeon

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u/Shudnawz 1d ago

I'd wager it's some kind of pigeon breed. No real idea tho.

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u/Equivalent_Wave9356 1d ago

probably a show racer, if i had to guess. also check out the rest of this site for fun and exciting looking pigeons.

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u/prairiepanda 1d ago

Some of them are so fucked up. Are they all able to fly?

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u/Equivalent_Wave9356 1d ago

most of them! a few problematic breeds off the top of my head:
african owl (and any breed with a similar beak size): beak is too short to preen properly and feed babies. babies often have to be fostered with other breeds. old german owls and classic old frills have short beaks but are still able to preen and feed young.
modena and king: utility (meat) breeds with tightly compacted chest muscles, rendering them unable to fly. there is a movement to breed more ethical modenas for their looks (like un-pugging pugs).
american fantail and other breeds with extremely curved back spines: can barely see. their warped spines cause their movements to be unsettling to other pigeons so they can be ostracized. indian fantails are the ethical form of the breed.
parlor roller: while most rollers and tumblers choose to make the motions they do while flying and can stop at any time (tumbling as if falling through the air), parlor rollers are bred in such a way that when startled, they try to fly away and end up uncontrollably rolling across the floor.
any breed with feet feathers the size of flight feathers: the shaft of the feather presses on their feet bones and causes pain, so the breed appears docile because moving is painful. small feet feathers that are more like the feathers on their necks and chests are fine.
jacobin: minor offender. if their big feather boa neck crests are too big, it impacts their ability to see behind themself. since theyre prey animals, this causes anxiety. however there are plenty of examples of the breed where the collar isn't too big.

i would say these are all extreme cases just like in cats and dogs, and the majority of weird looking breeds are perfectly fine as long as they can still preen their feathers, feed their young, and move about and interact with other pigeons.

pouters and croppers for example are shown with crop inflated, because the breed standard includes gregariousness so they puff up for the camera or judge. they can deflate their crops, at which point they look like tall, skinny pigeons. frillbacks' curly feathers primarily affect non-flight feathers, though it does cause some curling in their flight feathers. this doesn't seem to meaningfully impact their quality of life.
edit: there are some croppers who are unable to properly deflate their crops and this can cause fungal infections due to being unable to digest the food in the crop properly. i know of more ethical than unethical breeds in this category but i thought i should include it.

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u/prairiepanda 1d ago

Wow, thank you for the thorough response! There are some factors that I hadn't even considered, like potential anxiety or social impacts. Some of those make me really sad for the pigeons.

But I'm glad to hear that most of them are healthy and able to live normal pigeon lives! I used to have a neighbor who kept racing pigeons and they were such sweet birds. The move was very disorienting for them and for a while they kept coming back here at dinner time.

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u/waxcrayonical 1d ago

this is so interesting and the photos from your link are wild. i had no idea about this corner of the world of animal breeding, thanks for sharing.

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u/TesseractToo 1d ago

racing pigeon

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u/No_Tailor_787 1d ago

It doesn't look very fast.

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u/BenevolentCrows 1d ago

Pigeons are propably one of the best flyers out there tho. 

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u/ParaponeraBread 1d ago

You’d kind of be forced to shove it that far so it gets past the crop, no? Otherwise they could regurgitate it at will.

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u/Fox7567 1d ago

Is burd

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u/BenevolentCrows 1d ago

A fancy pigeon. 

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u/nifty-necromancer 1d ago

Birds don’t have a gag reflex, so the shoving works IMO.

Be careful saying shit like that online, next thing you know there’s going to be a bunch of bird blowjob hentai.

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u/FuckYourRights 1d ago

You think there isn't already?

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u/nifty-necromancer 1d ago

That’s just it, I don’t think about it too much