# Sticky  The European Wood Pigeon



## Feefo

*Temperament: * 

Woodpigeons can be extremely scatty and liable to panic. If you approach a wild adult move very slowly and handle it gently. If it opens its mouth and starts to pant stop whatever you are doing, leave it alone...fear can produce adrenalin rush and a heart attack.

If you have an adult sick or injured woodie in a cage, cover part or all of the cage.

Even tame wood pigeons can panic if confronted with an unfamiliar situation. A strange animal in the garden, a strange person in the aviary, an unfamiliar implement can all lead to a panic and once one starts the rest follow. My woodies have panicked just because I carried a pink broom down the garden.

*Common Illnesses *

These are the illnesses most commonly seen in wood pigeons. people can't catch these diseases from the pigeon, but common sense dictates that you should always wash your hands after handling a sick or injured animal.

*Canker: *

This is caused by protozoa called trichomonads and can be out of sight in the crop or other parts of the digestive system but usually presents itself as a cheesy growth in the mouth. If unchecked it will cover the oesophagus - and cause starvation- or the trachea which will cause asphyxiation. Any attempts to remove the growths can result in a fatal bleed...treatment by the administration of the antibiotic Cardinazole (sold as Spartrix, veterinary prescription not needed) which will usually clear up the condition in 10 days, the pigeon might need supplementary hand feeding of something like Poly Aid or Ready Brek mixed to a creamy consistency with warm water during this period.

Metronidazole, also sold under the name of Flagyl, is a good drug for stubborn cases of canker...a prescription is needed for this drug.

*Pigeon Pox: *

Juvenile wood pigeons tend to get this disease in autumn, it usually presents itself as pustules on the feet, neck and eyes, but it will often affect the pigeon internally. This photo shows the first signs of pox on a juvenile wood pigeon's feet. 

Suggested treatments to fight pigeon pox are to strengthen the immune system with echinacia, give vitamin supplemets, specially Vitamin A and administer one pillule of the homeopathic the 30th potency of the homeopathic remedy Arsenicum and one pillule of the 30th potency of the remedy Rhus Tox every two hours for 3 doses each. If you see an improvement, stop dosing.

In wood pigeons this illness tends to become wet or internal and therefore is often fatal...if internal wet lesions develop administer 1 pillule of the 60th potency of the homeopathic remedy Kali Mur and 1 pillule of the 60th potency of the homeopathic remedy Nat Sulph alternately once an hour for three doses, then reduce to once every three hours for three doses...if there is any improvement stop...if there is no improvement continue this treatment for a day.

*Calcium Deficiency*

Fledgeling wood pigeons are often weak and have rubbery beaks due to calcium deficiency. This can be corrected by using calcium supplements such as Ziolcal and Calcivet.

*General Information*

Wood pigeons are gentle and intelligent birds.

They usually lay 2 eggs in what can be a badly constructed platform of twigs in a tree. If they use the same nest time after time it will build up into a more solid structure

Both parents share incubation duties and later the feeding of their young.

The eggs hatch 17 days after being laid. 

The parents will usually carry the empty egg shells away from the nest.

Baby wood pigeons feed by putting their beaks inside the parents' beak and gaping...the parent regurgitates the crop contents into the baby's beak. This involves a lot of squeaking and wing twitching from the squab being fed and can look as if the adult pigeon is fighting with it or hurting it.

Baby wood pigeons are fed with "crop milk" ( this is nothing like dairy milk, it is consists of high protein "milk" cells that develop on the crop wall and are shed into the crop when feeding is due ) for the first three days of their life.

After three days the main food of the nestling wood pigeon is whatever their parents eat with ripe cereal grain, fed from the parent's crop being the most common and the most nutritious. 

A baby wood pigeon's eyes open on the third or fourth day of life .

Wing quills appear on the fourth or fifth day of life.

The young are fed frequently intially but the frequency is gradually reduced. At 8-10 days they are being fed twice a day by each parent . By this time the parents will also stop brooding them, returning to the nest only to feed them.

The white wing bars appear with the first feathers (but the neck band does not appear until they are mature).

Feathers break from their sheaves around the ninth day of life.

Youngsters have a soft, grey, spatulate bill.

At 16 days of life a nestling wood pigeon weighs between 230 gms and 290 gms, depending on the season and the availability of food. 

The young leave the nest at about 22 days of life, but their parents continue to feed them for at least another week, probably longer.

Juveniles have their first moult at around 6 weeks.

The average weight of an adult wood pigeon is 500 gms, varying between 465 and 560. 

The female wood pigeon weighs slightly less than the male.

The male wood pigeon has brighter plumage than the female.

Wood pigeons have a varied diet with their food choice varying according to seasonal availability. In captivity the enjoy sunflower hearts, lettuce, rocket , chard and water cress, peanuts, mixed corn and pigeon mixes. 

In the wild their foods include tree buds, clover, weed leaves, cultivated mustard, peas at all stages of growth, ripe and partly ripe cereal grains, beechnuts, acorns, hawthorne and elderberries. in summer they will sometimes eat small snails and woodlice (these can be vectors for parasites so should not be fed to captive birds) .

(Source of General Information: Collin's New Naturalist - "The Wood Pigeon" 1965)


----------

