Hey Kyle,
You are close, but a shoebox is probably too big. You need something like a bowl, maybe a small cat dish or dog dish. A small strainer about the size of your fist is perfect. Here is a link showing several different types of nest: http://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/catalog/nest/index.html

You need something textured in the bottom of the nest to give the baby something to stand on. Otherwise, the baby can become crippled with "splay leg". You can tear up a paper towel in tiny strips or you can put some hay in the cage. You can find hay at the pet store. (Don't use outside yard grass, because there might be bugs, fleas, or pesticides in it.) This bowl and hay will stimulate them to go into the nest building mode.

I found a cool video of Mark Baluck's new baby bird! The nest material is cut up paper, which I do not suggest. This can be sharp and cause a paper-cut or entangle the baby. Go with paper towel strips or hay. http://www.markbaluk.com/vids/newbird.wmv

Hey, I really appreciate the effort put in to reply my posts. Y'all are really helpin out. I'll try the bowl and hay. I really hope they'll mate and I'll have babies!

Kyle, we all love to help and we are happy to have you here at The Magic Café! Please feel free to post a new topic anytime. We all learn a great deal from each other.
Autumn

I have a method for training a return flight in less than 3 weeks! I have 3 birds trained by this method. The bird will even fly back in a crowded garage with NO pro lighting at all! I tried Clark's method but felt it took too long for the bird...

PM me if you would like to know how I did it. A quick note is that the bird will be on a strict diet.. :0)

- Wadini

Posted: Sep 3, 2007 7:31pm
I put together a short video of the birds the last few weeks. The first toss was at day 2 with the bird. The second toss was at day 7 and it ends on day 13... I used Greg Frewin's dove toss gimmick. That thing is COOL!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kcv_RkRLplk

My method Is kind of backwards from what I have seen out there. I feel my method works faster and is more effective in a real world working environment. Your not always gonna have the best stage or lighting at all times so my method will fix this problem. As you can see in the video I'm in my crowded garage and not using and special lighting! I call it the " Peek - a boo " method and takes three easy steps and 14 days or less to complete.

I'm NO bird trainer by any means.
just a dude that found an easy way to get the job done. For other bird training techniques visit http://www.magicalbirds.com or http://www.birdtricks.com for GREAT videos!

I have had a ton of messages about the method... Is this something you guys would be interested in learning if I put together a video for a small fee for my time and effort? I could film it from start to finish and show you how to do it...

PM me if interested.

- Wadini

Wade, most dove workers have the birds fly back to them during the fly back. Your vid shows them flying to a table. Does your method work for the usual fly back or just to a prop as you show? And to be clear, your method takes on average 14 days to train for fly back? A normal method usually take about the same time so I'm curious as to the advantage of your system. Not being critical, there's always room for improvement. It's nice to see Greg's gimmick in action though.

The bird fly back to the hand also... I threw the video together in just a few minutes. I have others clips of the bird flying to the hand. From the posts above I been seeing 6 - 8 weeks for training... My system uses NO lights and encourages a cluttered environment for the bird.

osted: Sep 3, 2007 8:45pm
I feel that starting the bird off in almost perfect performing conditions could cause problems down the road. The whole side curtains and stage lights work but... By starting the bird off in a crappy cluttered environment the bird will learn what is safe and what is not. The other methods work! They do! I feel they take too long and could be done faster and easier with the same ending. I found this method to work faster with the same result and almost perfect % of a flyback. This method could be used to have a flight trained bird in 7 days if needed. I would not suggest this but it could be done with NO problem. I would say 10 to 14 days for a solid return flight to a prop or directly to your hand. I also would like to say it works for shows outside in full daylight!!!

Just my opinion peeps! Do what works for you that's all.

- Wadini

Thanks Wade, like I said, just curious. I never train my birds with curtains and lights up either. I do the training in my cluttered basement. I only put up the curtains when rehearsing the entire act. Just an FYI though. On the posts you've seen stating it takes 6 to 8 weeks to train a bird, that's the entire training process, not just the fly back. Fly back training should only take about a week.

The bird I've flight trained is suddenly afraid of me. He's running away from me when my hand enters the cage. When he's out, he seldom flies from hand to hand, now that his wings are fully grown, not clipped. Do I have to start from scratch!?

I want to thank Wade for sharing his training method with me here is a video of me training my dove's
this video was during the 4th day of training.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyVrvy7EF5U

thanks

Jose

Dave Womach lead me on to the whole seed method first while I was training with him Saipan...:0) http://www.birdtricks.com

We never wen't into detail on how to toss the bird or the exact diet so... I tried my own training method and found it to work very fast. I call it the peek - a - boo method. Basically you would side arm toss the bird from the right side of your prop so the bird will peek the feed dish on the inside and return. Eventually you will be able to toss the bird straight out for the return. After about a week of this you can stand in front of the dish and the bird will return directly to you.

Not really rocket science. The bird is hungry that's all.

Wadini

Ok guys here is the finish product. this was on the 14th day, thanks wade


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j5kIPoUhx0

Jose

I had one of my birds trained to fly backwards to her perch. After the dove was produced from one of my former self-working props, I would pick her up and toss her about 5 feet backwards in front of her perch. She would fly forward to her perch with ease. She was doing good outside for a couple of years. Next, you know what happened when a big breeze hit her outside.

Posted: Oct 1, 2007 4:32am
Quote:


On 2007-04-25 16:36, Dave Scribner wrote:
Kyle, some magicians, such as Shimada, use this method. It works, however my feeling is that you run the risk of damaging the feathers of your dove. As the dove slides out of the sleeve, it will be traveling in the opposite direction of the feather growth. Most of the time, it will probably be OK but it only takes one time and your dove’s wings could be broken.


That might be why the dove's tail feathers are ruined shown at Andy's first two tosses: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsMIfhyMCDg

The reason the feathers can be damaged is because they grow from head back towards the tail. Loading them backwards and tossing them out means the feathers slide opposite from the growth direction. The wing tips have a potential of getting caught as they leave the sleeve and thus damaging them. The same holds true for the tail. It can get caught and bend or break.

I just personally feel that if you are going to do a toss out, you should train the birds and do it as safely as possible without taking risks with your little buddies. It doesn't take that long to train them.