Birdman
19 posts
Nov 08, 2004
12:37 PM
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I had a friend over at my loft yesterday looking over some of my birds and he noticed a pupil irregularity in one of my hens that could be seen with the naked eye. To the naked eye it appeared to be shaped like a white colored hourglass right in the middle of the pupil. I got out a 10x power eye piece and upon closer inspection it looked like 2 snowflakes
just off-center of the middle of the pupil. It only occurs in one eye. I don't know if this may be an old injury or a defect of some sort but I do know that this hen produces some extremely fast spinning birds. Has anyone else witnessed similar irregularities in their birds? And if so what do you think it is?
Russ
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MCCORMICKLOFTS
320 posts
Nov 08, 2004
3:29 PM
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Russ, from the way you describe it, it sounds like it could be a cataract(sp). Never seen one that I can remember, but I have seen some rollers with triangle shaped pupils as well as one that had pupils shaped like a snake.
Brian.
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jeo2314
2 posts
Nov 08, 2004
4:18 PM
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Russ, If you go to Tom Makowecki's site www.tmakowecki.com click on friends info and eyes and at the bottom of that page is a link to Bob Flemings breeding eye. You might be a pretty lucky guy, don't know if it means anything in rollers but you said she breeds good so who knows. What does the rest of her eye look like?
Jeff
Last Edited by jeo2314 on Nov 08, 2004 4:21 PM
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Birdman
20 posts
Nov 08, 2004
5:23 PM
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Hey Brian, no triangles or snakes but I have had one with a perfect teardrop shaped pupil in both eyes. I was thinking that it may be a cataract too, but I've never seen one to know the difference. All I know is that with an eyepiece they look like little snowflakes. Wierd??
Jeff, I will take a look at that website. The rest of her eye looks normal to me. She is a very light pearl eyed bird with a touch of rose coloring and an alert look. Pupils are centered. I've handled her a hundred times and never really paid that much attention to her eyes. I bet that 95% of us would not have seen it. I don't believe that an eye quality or defect will necessarily make a roller good or bad. I believe that the bird is either mentally programmed to spin a certain way or not, and that the delivery and style of roll depends on the birds type. But I sure would like to find out what that eye thing is!
Russ
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redneckhippie15
65 posts
Nov 08, 2004
5:42 PM
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Just my thought,
Could it have rolled blood and healed with this "deformity" or scar tissue?
----------
Never watch you birds with you mouth open!
redneckhippie*blue dot lofts*
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Birdman
21 posts
Nov 08, 2004
5:48 PM
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Jeff, I just checked out that site. Damn!! That's it! That's what I'm talking about. It's not
cataracts but Clusters. I've never seen or heard of anything like it but if it's the ultimate homing pigeon eye then I'm going to re-band her with an AU band and put her in some races. LOL LOL!
This is my first year using her in the breeding loft and she has produced some extreme velocity youngsters. I only bred her on one cock all year so I can't really give her all the credit, but I will be using her on a couple different mates next year to see if I get the same results. On the downside, 3 of her young spun blood in the eye at about 5 months but haven't done it since.
I would sure like to hear from anyone that has seen pupil Clusters in their rollers, and if so, did it affect the offspring one way or another?
Thanks Jeff!
Russ
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STARFIRE
64 posts
Nov 09, 2004
6:27 PM
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Hey Birdman;
You say you have other youngsters off this pair.Did you
look at the other young ones eyes? I think you just have a split eye.It's pretty common in some rollers. I have had quite a few in my day.It won't hurt anything.You can breed it out if you want to. Stan Arnold
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Mongrel lofts
3 posts
Nov 09, 2004
10:04 PM
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Hey Birdman,
It sounds like what you are talking about is what I call star clusters,, Its is a cluster in the dark part of the pupil,, If you will notice, it is the same color as the Iris, Meaning it will be kind of golden in orange eyed birds and kind of blue pearl in the pearl eyed birds.. I have them in many of my birds.. I don't think they mean much, but the ones I have had, have also been good producers,, I figure it is because they were good rollers, but the clusters in the eye, are cool looking.. Mongrel lofts
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Birdman
22 posts
Nov 10, 2004
11:59 AM
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Hey Mongrel, I guess that's what they are. I never really paid much attention to the pupil in my birds. Kind of neat to look at with an eyepiece! Thanks for the input.
Russ
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