The other day I was playing with my doves and I am going to make custom made holders for each dove, Now I have not marked any of my dove yet but instead of using a band or ballon mouth peice could I just use differant colored shapies and color their toenails?

Jeff

You can mark your doves in any number of ways.

Here's two examples:

You can trim some feathers on their tail or wing.

You can use a small dab of nail polish on the underside of their tail feathers.

All the best,

Rob

Jeff, yes you can color their toe nails to tell them apart. I've seen some guys put a tiny colored sharpie dot on the back of the head but you have to keep redoing that as they molt.

Hi Jeff, a friend of mine marks his on their heads as Dave stated, however as well as them molting, it doesn't look very nice if you let people see the doves after the show. People are very particular when it comes to working with animals, so having colured marks on their heads only creates questions!! My advice would be to colour the toe nails or just stick with banding their feet, that's what I do with mine.

The head markings I was talking about are actually placed under the top layer of feathers. You ruffle them up a bit and place you dot. I don't like that method, just passing on an alternative for you. Toe nail coloring is the best if you don't want to use bands

I just use leg bands I got from Dan Sperry. You can't see them from the audience and they don't give the doves any discomfort. Also, you can just leave them on the doves and don't have to keep touching up the toe nails/sharpie dots.

Edward, that is the way most of us mark our doves however Jeff was looking for alternative methods as he didn't want to use the leg bands.

You're right about the audience not seeing the bands. They are so small, regardless of whose bands you use, they are unseen by the audience unless they actually come up close to see the birds.

Thank you very much for some other ideas and thoughts, I will take them all into consideration.

Jeff

Although, in theory, I'd rather use bands, in practice I'm of the "sharpie dot" school. I, however, place it on the top of tail feather that is normally hidden unless the tail is spread. I never had anyone notice it. (But you do have to stay alert to re-do the dot when the feather falls out.)

Just to share, do NOT...I repeat, do NOT use the tip ring of an 260Q balloon. One professional doveworker on a teach-in suggested this.

I have a couple of doves on this a few years back, it is cheap & works fine...but for some unknown reason(perhaps due to the dove pecking the band OR.. I really don't understand how this happen)...

ONE bird out of the Nine, has the whole band rolled over & caught portion of the leg .....when I realised it...one of the five toes of the bird turns black, no blood circulation & it has to be amputated off....really shocking for me & I immediately remove all the 260Q ring balloon bands from all my doves

I now uses Dan Sperry's Leg bands, they are great!

Dove-boy, How tight did you wrap the balloon?

I took the end of a long balloon and placed it on the doves leg. It doesn't bother the doves thus the doves don't mess with it. It is a good way to mark them. ( If you are going to use the balloon method you might want to talk to Jessica Reed before even thinking about doing it.)

Not too tight, not too loose, just nice fit....once you cut a 260Q balloon, you will see the dove leg goes it as nice & a perfect fit.

But I guess is the dove who pecked it...causing it to roll over & stuck to its foot...after thinking about it...it is elastic...anything can happen...I always that balloon ring method is excellent,

but I am wrong after trying out....the dove can chew it & perhaps swallow them...guess for Me, hard plastic band is the best.

Hope this helps
dove-boy

I had the same issue as dove-boy once when I was younger and I was giving a dove from another magician who had put an animal balloon on the dove's leg...it had actually left an imprint int he dove's skin as the dove grew into it...seemed really weird to me which is why I changed to the leg bands. I did use the sharpie method in a pinch by just marking a dot on the back of their neck where they can't get it to it but was always afraid other doves could peck at it and somehow get the dye or ink in their system..i guess I'm just an OCD freak like that...basically for me, even as a stupid 14 year old kid that balloons are for balloons and for fillign with air and whatnot, leg bands are for bird's legs...seemed like an obvious end of story solution. I've seen it all from pipe cleaners to the balloons to sharpie to plastic bands to you name it...you run into all sorts of things out there

EGADS buy Dan's bands if you need them, don't use balloons that's an awful story dove boy...

Maybe I have it easy since I have just 5 white birds and the rest are all colored and I mean colored. For example, I have light green or pastel green and then a bird that is DARK GREEN and so on. Many different colors makes it easy to tell them apart for sure.

For the white ones...
For awhile, I marked the white birds under their tail feathers with sharpies but eventually I just was able to tell them apart. People think that's odd since they are all white but if you spend enough time with them you notice subtle differences
in them I guess.

Steven

Yes, Dan's band is great...I have 1 on a bird for a month(which I monitor closely), she seem good so I bought more for all my birds now.

I agree with Haywire, I have all my birds coloured before...so very easy to tell them apart but the constant retouching & audience questioning me why why, makes me stop colouring the birds.

When I swap to white, ea dove has its own body weight, feel & certain looks...as the owner, I can be able to them them part...but sometimes when rushing to a show e.g kids show, in a rush...very rush/panic....sometimes I will fail to choose the correct bird, & this may be disaster for the act

I remember once, loaded invisible on a bird which is suppose used for bag....no wonder she struggle when I produced her...opps , I don't take chance now & decided coloured leg bands is the best choice.

But actually non-toxic coloured marker/crayon is also good, Amos's friend- David who loaned several doveoworkers, including James Dimmare...did have this marking.

When I got from them...I find it very easy to identify...but of course, not so nice for close up as audience might find it odd....guess on stage is fine.

Another Advantage about this is that U easily easily spot the bird straightaway....e.g you need to vansih a bird in a cage full of birds....with the marking on the back, U can quickly spot & remove that bird for that effect with No dead-time.

For bands, sometimes you need to look under the feet....ea has it own pros & cons....I finally still opted for leg bands cos it suits me & I do not have a cage full of birds which I need to spot & remove them instantly.

Hope this helps
dove-boy

I only have two doves so I only need one band on one of the legs.
Marking doves are a great way to make sure the right doves are in the right props. A good tip for beginners, make sure you find a dove that works well with one trick and one trick only, mark that dove in some fashion so that you won't use it for a routine other then the one you trained it for.

Also, you should never use your doves for anything other then that trick. Never ever let someone borrow your doves, even a fellow magician; if they want a dove they will have to get one themselves.