by Dragan Tisanovic “Gaga” [For PDF version Click Here]

I am from Velika Gradiska, Serbia. I am 54 years young, married and have two sons. One of my sons just started in Tippler hobby. This is just great and I will enjoy my hobby even more now. My telephone number is 064-2146610. In 2005 I have flown my youngsters 17;02 and 17;55 for National Serbian Young Birds Record. In 2008 I have established again National Serbian Young Bird Record with time of 18:28 which by the way is the 5th best young bird time in the world.

My main line of Tipplers is Boden/Newton. I also have 3 pairs of Colin Bristow’s birds, and a pair of birds from the Mahutijan line gifted to me by Ahmed, a dear friend of mine.

I do not like crossing the different lines I have except for Boden/Newton. However, I did cross Colin’s cock with my hen which is a Boden/Newton cross and luckily they produced 2 birds in my record kit; the Black and the Dun in the picture. The other 2 red birds are from the Mahutijan line. I obtained my 3 pairs of Colin Bristol’s from B. Franjica a Croatian friend of mine. Bristol’s birds are excellent fliers and I am very satisfied with them. I like their style of flying and temperament.

My training method is a simple one. I train my birds on only barley and make sure that my flying birds are hungry enough so that when I give them the droppers they respond to them immediately. If they don’t respond immediately, I decrease their feed next time. My fliers are fed only barley until they get in a fairly good flying condition.

When they fly 6-7 hrs or more and they demonstrate the level of discipline I look for in my fliers, only then do I give them better feed which is a combination of small seeds; rape, flax, red and white milo, hemp, rice, canary seeds, and some other seeds that I find at the local market. I mix together equal parts of mentioned seeds. When I start giving my birds this mix, I fly them according to the weather conditions from 5-8 hrs twice a week. I do not fly my birds longer than that and I do not feel the need to fly longer. 5-8 hr work-outs on a regular bases is sound training. Training regularly is the key to getting our birds into an excellent physical condition for the fly day. Good training contributes a great part to success in the Tippler flying competition.

In the beginning of training, I fly my birds every day for a few days close to dark, then every other day I let them fly a bit longer into the dark. When the birds are accustomed to flying in the dark, I fly them up to 8 hrs including dark flying.

In preparation for the fly, after each workout, my birds get my mix and grape sugar or electrolytes in water. When feeding my birds for a competition fly, I always consider the weather conditions.

Monday: I fly my birds up to 8 hrs. When they are down, I feed them 4TS of my mix and an hour later they get electrolytes in water for a quick recovery.
Tuesday: they again get 4TS of my mix and 2TS Belgian’s mix with a Super Form tablet and an hour later clear water.
Wednesday: I feed my birds twice a day; in the morning and at night.
In the morning, they get 2TS of my mix and water. At night I feed them 2 more TS of my mix, 1TS of Belgian’s mix, Vitamin B, Super Form and water..
Thursday: In the morning, they get again 2TS of my mix, an hour later they get water.
At night, they have 2TS of my mix, 2TS of Belgian’s mix and an hour later they drink clear water.
Friday: The day before the competition, the birds are fed in the morning 2TS of my mix.

An hour later they get clear water. At night, they are fed 3TS of Canary seeds, and clear water. Before the start, about 2am, water is offered. The main reason I feed twice a day prior to the competition fly is that this way the birds will drink more water than if fed only once a day. Water is crucial to endurance flying Tipplers, especially when the temperature is high.

I find that old cocks are easier to control than old hens and that’s why I prefer to fly old cocks. I also like to compete with young birds and test their flying ability and behavior. Young birds are crazy fliers and are difficult to train compared to old birds. Young birds and a lot of training effort is wasted when they are not draped at night. My young bird’s training and feeding system is the same that I use for old birds except they get a little less feed. I have shared my training and feeding program with some of my Tippler friends. They are appreciative and happy with their results.

All the best.
Gaga
Visit Gaga’s website:
http://www.tisanovic-gaga.tk

[A big thanks goes to Kemo Basic for translating Gaga’s note to English..thanks Kemo.]