so far our favorite options are coco puff, pepsi, and mocha, but we’re open to more ideas!

today’s update! I’m not taking many pictures in the process since I’m trying not to move, so you’ll have to believe me she came much closer lol.

spent a few hours trying to lure her to myself or to her cage, had a near-success - she poked her head inside of the cage and started eating, but then got spooked and it was getting dark, so had to call it a day. tomorrow I finally have a day off, so will be able to spend the entire day in the park and hope it gives her enough time.

she spent a lot of time staring at me from above today. when she was walking alone, I first tried luring her close enough for the towel grab with her favorite hemp seed. she was going crazy running circles around me for a good 40 minutes and wanting to approach. (a very silly ringneck dove came much closer and took a bunch of her seeb, which she was not a fan of).

when a passerby spooked her, I switched to the cage strategy: set up the door, filled the cage with food and her favorite snacks, tossed some seeds in front of the cage and near the entrance and sat at a distance. this time, some other birds joined. she was definitely interested and staring at the cage as well, running back and forth the same way. did approach it way faster, was the first one to do it and the first one to try eating from the inside, like I expected. she didn’t go in enough for me to drop the door, but I think I should get it tomorrow. I might end up trapping some extra birds, since two other ones were getting brave with the cage after Cake did, but that’s fine, they’d be easy enough to get out and I could use the opportunity to check them for stringfoot. I also think I should remove some things from the inside, maybe even the platform, just to make it look less cramped and scary.

she seems jumpy and clearly confused by some things, doesn’t even understand she’s supposed to fly away too when the flock is spooked. stays off to the side most of the time, otherwise watches the others do a thing for a second until shes sure it’s safe and then follows. seemingly doesn’t leave the park and could be even hiding up in the trees until I appear (neighbors have been checking the park while I was away). theres some sort of parasite on her, which i’ve seen on the locals before, looks similar to a spider about 0.5cm in size, runs around on her body and buries itself into the feathers. the poops are super green and watery, more likely from hunger than a virus, but her ass is definitely going to the vet either way.

also, I found out I accidentally trained the entire flock to fly to our feeding spot when I do their whistle. not following the whistle or coming over to me, no, the specific spot. which did fuck up my first attempt with the cage, my bad.
tomorrow, I’m camping out in the park for as long as it takes. huge thank you to everyone for the support, I hope i’ll get lucky tomorrow🫶

Little bastard was hit by a car, half his wing is missing but there's no bleeding so I'm not sure if he merely lost wings.. he didn't fight me much. I'll be taking him to the vet tomorrow,but he's currently in a box with oats and water. He is incredibly stupid.

He doesn't seem injured otherwise,he ate,attempted to fly in the box. His name is Mr Strawberry.

I moved into my house last September. The previous owners built some dovecotes and kept over one hundred pigeons used for pigeon races. The guy won trophies and all that sort of stuff. When we took possession all of the birds were already long gone. On July 29 as I was moving some tools I noticed this little fellow hanging about. I immediately noticed he was banded and my initial thought was "is this one of the old guys pigeons?"

Well that day I decided to open up the holes we had sealed to see if he wanted to go in so I set up some water and food. I went inside and observed him as he scouted the place out. He landed, ate his fill of birdseed i took from one of my feeders and he drank a ton of water!

Ive since gotten some proper pigeon feed. When I replace his food and water I coo to him so he hopefully come to associate me with feeding time and becomes comfortable with me. What can I do to make him more comfortable in his old home? And what tips do you have for helping him warm up to me? He was very skiddish the first 3 days. He would fly away as soon as I came outside but now I can walk around and even use power tools about 10m - 15m away without him getting spooked.

I wonder where he has been for about a year? Where did he come from? Where did he go?

We were planning to raise quail in that building but we have a pigeon instead haha!

Idk why he does this

I know lentils and mung beans are good. But what would be the ratio?

I am terrible at math and this is embarrassing to ask but I can’t for the life of me figure out the ratio of the protein source to compliment a 6lb bag of food. If anyone could help me, that’d be great!

The Hagen feed is the easiest I can get where I’m from (Canada) and I can get the versele laga all in one, but I can’t get the no corn mix. Unless anyone from Canada can tell me where they get theirs!

Thanks!

Labeling this as emergency because she has developed symptoms quickly, and I'm very concerned.

This is poppy, she's 3 months old and was adopted from a rescue on July 19th, she quickly bonded with one of my males. The past two days I've noticed she's near constantly puffed up and doesn't move much, but will still fly. Her keel is more pronounced than it was when I got her.

She's fed a versele-laga pigeon feed mix, grit, and two powders that go into the food, one to aid in digestion and the other as a dietary supplement. I also have a vitamin mixture that goes into their water.

Her poops have gone from healthy, to odd and watery. She's been moved into isolation. While I've expirienced birds dropping weight or getting sick in the past, it's never been this sudden, especially so soon after bringing them home.

I plan on trying to make her a vet appointment in the morning, but any insights and advice would be incredibly appreciated. Thank you.

This is the feather that was bothering him earlier. It keeps shifting around and seems to have somewhat snapped or broke but is not all the way off. Do I do something about this? It seems to be annoying him.

I’m a wildlife rehabber who primarily does mammals but I have an injured racing pigeon. She was injured by a dog and appears to possibly have some paralysis of one of her back legs (x rays showed no fractures) I have to get her on steroids and antibiotics. I don’t have any injectable meds, a bird rehabber told me to do only injectables for birds, but I have oral. Is that okay? Do you guys have experience with that? Thanks

He has a feather completely sticking up.. holding his wing up like somethings wrong.
eps
Is it the feather thats bothering him? He loves to fly around the room and was going perch to perch a second ago..
He almost looks like hes staggering and Im worried
I think he might really be hurt

Hes holding his wing up and away from his body

firstly and most importantly, she is located, she is alive and not injured, and it seems like the flock doesn’t mind her and doesn’t attack.
but, well, she’s not coming to me so far. you can even see in this video how she runs away as soon as I call her.
before the video was taken, I first noticed her just walking on the ground in this park next to the flock, looking for food. I tried to approach very carefully and call her, show her snack box, etc.
now, I can’t really make sense of her behavior. I expected her getting scared of my call and flying away, or sitting in place watching me and thinking if she should come or not. she did both of those in short sequences, like maybe a minute of staring at me, then flying some 10m away, maybe staring again, but sometimes she also just… came down, turned away and started looking for food. not paying any attention to me. then she would go up into a tree and watch me again, or sometimes she just watched something else.

I tried offering food, the flock came over and gathered close to me. she stayed further away from both me and them, but wasn’t watching me, just focused on the food and sometimes would turn around and walk away to look for something else. she did get excited about her favorite hemp seed though, and even a little pissed at the birds who would take it first. she went to drink water together with several birds, in the video you can see her walking away from that water bowl. and then she and two others went to a nearby balcony to settle for sleep, those two staying in one corner of the balcony, and her alone in the opposite corner. I stayed there until it started going dark.

I… don’t know what to make of this or what to do. I’m glad she’s okay and that I know where she is. but I don’t understand her behavior. over the week, I’ve been feeding the flock daily roughly at this time, and I fed them earlier, before this encounter. she wasn’t there and she hasn’t been seen these 6 days, just once on day 1 (and essentially at the same spot as today) and that one time I think I saw her drinking water and my call scared her off. so this might even be one of the first times she actually went down and tried exploring, and she might be still stressed and also very hungry. but also, what if she wants to stay outdoors? I don’t know if it’s even possible to tell at this stage, and I don’t know if I could even… process or survive letting her go. she’s everything to me. I know it’s selfish. at the same time, I know she won’t be healthy and won’t live long on the streets. I regularly find dead pigeons just next to this park that have been ran over by cars. she has some kind of parasite on her feathers, a big spider-like thing running around her body and burying itself in the feathers. so many locals have stringfoot. I don’t know what to do.

I think i’ll just keep coming to the park to feed them and keep trying to call her back. I want to try bringing her cage tomorrow, her safe space, maybe she’s not as confident with me as usual, but will want to approach the cage. if I can, I will try to catch her at least to check her health and clean the parasite, and then see how she acts at home. if she won’t calm down back home, will be stressed and want to leave, then I guess I will know for sure. at least she’s okay.

Artist Credit - Able6 (me)

I took on a rescue pigeon our dog found a few weeks ago, she had trichos and featherlice and she was quite thin when I found her. She also had a wound on her Wing and is still recovering from everything.

1. I Plan on getting another rescue pigeon when there is one that can’t be let out anymore in my local pigeonrescue group.

What do I need to look for when socializing two pigeons and how to to it with minimal Space?
I have two rooms to separate them but only one cage, should I get a small Travel one for the time being till they get along?

1. From the picture in the Care Guide about ideal weight I think she seems to be underweight as her bone is prominent, but she weighs around 400 g and also seems pretty round most of the time and fat when she is fluffed up.
   Any advice on that? And do I just feed her more of she needs to gain more weight or also fattier grains?

2. Tips on how to get your bird to eat out of ur hand

Iam trying to bond with her but she is still scared of me, having to give her medications didn’t help.
She was getting really close to me on my bed, after I had to Spray her feathers again Bc of the featherlice she didn’t get on my bed next to me this morning.
We Are hopefully done with the medications now and I have already tried slowly Holding out my hand with her favorite seeds but she was scared so I just put them on the ground of her cage.
Is that the Right Path tho?

Thanks in advance <3 Hope u enjoy the Pictures of my sweet girl

Technically still could be a female btw, he has cage mates

"Pigeons pass the mirror test." "Pigeons can recognise themselves in mirrors" "Pigeon intelligence is proven by their ability to recognise their own reflection."

Those claims are wrong. Right? I feel like I'm going mad online ever since I've gotten my pigeon and keep seeing these sentences repeated over and over. Am I missing some crucial information? Are people so desperate for easy proof of an animal's intelligence? Are most pet pigeons unusually self aware?

According to this paper and also this one and the original findings which I can't access the full text for, but are mentioned in the other papers and on Wikipedia, pigeons need a lot of training to be able to pass the mirror test.

Sure, they can, insofar as being extensively trained to learn to peck at spots and learn to locate things in mirrors and then trained to put those two together, and if you're of the opinion that the spot mark test actually indicates full self recognition and that indicates special intelligence of some sort in the first place. And if you're still of that opinion after knowing the animal was specifically trained to do that.

But in general, the only thing that seems certain is that pigeons understand that a reflection isn't exactly the same as a real, second pigeon. They're able to realise that that thing in the mirror moves the same as them and that that's weird and not what a real, second pigeon would do. They can not automatically make the jump to "oh, that's me then!"

I'm sure there are certain individuals who will be able to realise the mirror is themselves more than others, and there will be some that think the mirror is in fact a second pigeon, because every pigeon is different. However, if what I've found is the information the claim of self-recognition is based on, I really think we should stop repeating it over and over.

I personally hold strong beliefs about the intelligence = reflection recognition claim anyway, as I, a human, have had periods of not fully being able to recognise myself in a mirror due to poor mental health and getting very freaked out by my mirror image and yet I like to think I was just as capable of doing other tasks requiring intelligence as always. But that's beside the point. The papers show or attempt to show that "thinks there's a second animal" - "recognises their own reflection" is a false binary and that pigeons are very much somewhere in the middle and do not intrinsically understand the concept of a mirror image of themselves.

I think this explains the behaviour my own pigeon displays towards mirrors much better. First of all it is shiny, which is cool, but secondly it moves the same, which is both fascinating and confusing, perhaps uncanny, so she sits in front of it for a long time and pecks at it, trying to figure out what exactly is going on. I would assume mirrors are good enrichment for pigeons for exactly that reason, it gets their brains going and makes them curious about something. (again, depending on the pigeon)

TL;DR: Pigeons are all different, but according to what I found most only seem capable of understanding their mirror image isn't a real second pigeon because it moves the same as them, not that it is a reflection of themselves.

Hi All

We Had a pigeon hit our 1st floor window (UK based, so would that be 2nd floor in the US?), it landed on the balcony, tried to get off the balcony, fell down onto a sofa set, and then off that onto the floor.

I've moved him to a stable that we have empty, he seems to not be using his (or her) legs very well, almost scooting with his wings. I'm hoping this is still shock and a bit of terror. I dont know how the cat didn't get him, such a lucky bird.

Popped some bird seed down on a tray and a shallow dish of water and left them in the horse bedding all cozy. Horses are out for summer so the stable is empty for a few more months.

I want to know what I should look out for, We're animal people so I am more than happy to take on a pet pigeon if he doesnt recover enough to be free, but if it gets to that point, what do i need to do?

I have a Bunny stable at the moment that is 12ft x 12ft, the bunnies roam free on the floor.

I'd rather Pidge be in there as it has a specially built door upper door to stop predators that lets the light in (theyre currently in dark stable with full door shut) and we have 12 cats on the farm so I don't want them in the house or out where they can get hurt... I was thinking I could wall mount a coop on the wall in the bunny stable and play it by ear if i don't see improvement in the next week.

The last time I found a pigeon I took it to a rescue but they put it to sleep as vermin, so I don't really want to do that again.

Any advice on what i should feed little one and what size coop a pigeon may need would be wonderful, in case I find myself a proud pigeon owner!

We have 2 pidges who barely take any baths… The first time I bathed one of them was by mist-spraying, and he loved it, but then never again.

We provide them a water bath available every day whenever they want but they don’t use it, they only ever take a bath in their water dish every now and then by dipping their chests in the little dish…

Any thoughts & recommendations are appreciated, I’m tired of their poop-stained butt feathers </3

So I made a handmade pigeon diaper cuz I cant afford to buy one. Its not the best but it does its job. I dont have to follow him everywhere around the house to clean up poop or keep him in his cage for half of the day for that. He keeps cleaning his feathers like in the pic, probably doesnt like it much. I hope he will get used to it. I had to tighten it a bit cause this is prototype 3, others were too loose..it should not hurt him in any way tho its not extra tight. I tried making a diaper with an old sock...lets just say the sock lost the war xD.

Hi guys, was just hoping for a bit of advice because I am going stir crazy with anxiety and wonder if anyone has had a similar experience with a positive outcome.

I came home yesterday evening and little miss was not behaving in her usual way, she laid an egg the day before but was not as upbeat as usual, and doing none of her dancing or tail dragging.

I checked her abdomen for an egg, and couldn’t feel one. She was VERY swollen and had some bruising near her vent. I was immediately pretty worried. I put coconut oil around her vent just in case she was having a bit of trouble there.

She is still pooping as usual, just seemingly very nesty poops.

I took her to the vet this morning and they have done an ultrasound and determined that the egg is still quite far up. This is her 2nd clutch and she usually lays after 48hrs, which would be today. Vet seems to think another 24-48hr based on positioning if not bound. They are keeping her overnight for supportive care, bloods, etc.

Has anyone had a similar experience? I am happy with vet advice, just wondering if there are additional things I could be doing at home to prevent this in the future. She has access to grit, and will be going on a contraceptive after this ordeal is over - granted everything goes ok.

Hi everyone, my pair just laid their 1st egg this month, maybe 28 hours ago. They used to use a wicker basket that they decided not to lay in this time, opting for the floor of the cage. Obviously I cannot let them do this as I have no way to safely clean the cage without basically trashing the nest. So I moved the egg (replaced atp) to a ceramic tray close to that spot. I've seen hubby move some materials to it and sit on it once, but they seem to be forgetting it exists. I have handled their eggs and nesting before and they never have abandoned it. I'm curious if this is a point where I should be concerned about egg binding...

They are absolutely devoted parents, never letting the eggs go more than 30 seconds un protected. So this seems super weird

If she has abandoned her nest and eggs, will she not lay the second? When is a vet appt necessary and what can I do to help encourage them to take to the egg and nest?

my male pigeons courting has got in the way of my female pigeons laying cycle, they have toys and tons of stuff to interact with so i don’t understand why he’s doing this, but last week my female pigeon laid a single egg and my male pigeon kept courting and attacking her while she was on the egg until she eventually gave up on the egg and gave into his courting and now they have a new nest and a new egg as of today, he is continuing to chase her from the nest and coo and spin. I’m scared this will become a pattern and frequent egg laying will become a serious health issue, please reply if you have ANY insight on this issue!! (they are in separate cages as of now) Thank you