# I figured out why the pet pigeon I found was abandoned. He bites people's face.



## Altair (Nov 25, 2015)

He is a he, and he's sweet and all, well trained, and obedient. This is his sweet self: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9mvuzM62qo
However he has a dark side: since he's a very confused pigeon and he only wants to mate with humans (he's not interested in other pigeons, unfortunately), he decided he wants to mate with me, problem is that now he wants me to sit in the nest and lay eggs. 
Well , no problem, I'd do that... the problem is that he loves his box, and he wants me to get in the box and nest in there. this is clearly impossible beacause I can't fit in that hole.
I tried putting my hands where he thinks the nest is, but he wants me to put my head in there. Since I can't, he bites my face. 
And he bites hard and way too close to my eyes to be comfortable, and it really hurts. He'd just sit on my shoulder and bite my cheek continuously. If I try to put him down, he'll immediatly fly again to me and starts biting me within 5 seconds.
He'd stop biting me only if I put my head inside the box. Then he would groom me.
So I presume this is why his previous owners got rid of him. If he can even visibly scratch my skin, he'd probably hurt a child hitchcock-style.
Is there any way to stop this behaviour? Maybe getting rid of his favourite cat box, and avoiding petting him in holes where I can't fit (so he won't think I want to nest there?).
I don't want to leave him alone because of this, I want him to be happy. But I can't be with him if he continues to bite my face. If he bites my eye the way he bites my cheek, he's gonna seriously hurt me sooner or later.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Petting the bird will encourage him to think you want to mate with him or her. Think you have a horny female...wing flicking, hunching down. Petting a bird below the top of the head suggests "I want to have sex with you." Would change the environment...put her in the cage and only interact with her by hand feeding. If she tries to bite, put a little hot sauce on your hand or whatever she is trying to bite...most pigeons don't seem to like hot sauce. Whatever you do, do not pet the birds back. Our girl, Phoebe, would act this way and would want to have sex with me but would bite my male significant other. Our avian vet said, don't pet the bird. Reduce any interaction during non daylight hours. Cover the cage when it gets dark at night to reduce how much light she gets. Move stuff around in the cage,. Restrict food to a few minutes twice per day. All this will discourage reproductive behavior. If all else fails, you can get injections or implants of hormones. We got Phoebe deslorelin implants. There are also lupron injections to stop the reproductive behavior. But behavior changes and environmental changes are easier. It takes a couple of weeks to change the behavior. Whenever the bird acts broody, put her in a cage and ignore her. Do not touch her. Put in toys but move toys and dishes around. Make food less plentiful. Make life a little more unpredictable so she won't think, all right, time to mate! Most important, do not pet the birds back! She will calm down. Phoebe did. She is a lovely bird. They think, all right, time to mate! She is likely stimulated from the petting and desperately wants you to make wirh her. I was amazed when Dr Speer explained this to us. But changing things you are doing will stop her aggression very soon. Don't give her any chance to be near your face and eyes. She just thinks you are being a tease.  if I am right, you still may get eggs soon. You can swap them for fakes. She will likely calm soon.


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## Lefty07 (Dec 30, 2009)

I agree with cwebster: petting or stroking birds, especially on the back, is totally "sexual" to them. It stimulates them. Birds never touch each other like that except when mating.

I had this happen with my parakeet. She crouched by my hand - and I unknowingly tried to pet her - and she liked it, too much! 






And then she started laying eggs - which once a single female birds starts to do, it can be hard to stop. She displayed no aggression, like your pigeon, but she is super bonded to me. I don't mind that (the bonded part) but I try not to pet her anymore to discourage egg laying, which is hard on female bird's health, if they do it too much. When she lays, I let her sit on the (non-fertilized) eggs for as long as she wants - usually up to 4 weeks - so she gets "it out of her system". Otherwise, if I remove the eggs, she lays again and again, taxing her body. As it is, even without petting her any more, she lays eggs about twice a year - during which time, she just sits and sits on the bottom of the cage. But, like I said, I let her do this so she gets it over with. Eventually, a day comes when she's "done" with the eggs and wants to come out of her cage and fly around again.


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## navamanas (Mar 17, 2016)

Most people shouldn't own animals, because they aren't prepared to devote years of their own personal time to another living being. Hamsters only live 3 years at the most, and very few people can provide a mentally stimulating life with a close bond for that small amount of time.

Dogs live 7 to 15 years. Cats live up to 20. Rock pigeons can live from 15 to 30 years (Kaiser lived 32 years). Parrots up to 80... The longer the animals live, the more likely that they will be abandoned by selfish people who can't commit to a life that is bound to captivity and cannot survive on its own on the wild. And people fail to realize how intensely emotional animals are. I have realized this with my pigeons. It upsets me to see stupid people keeping house-pigeons in cages, or letting house-
pigeons fly outside... 

Sorry about the tangent. Your pigeon does exactly what mine does if I don't have time for her. I work at night, which is when she nests down. She stays next to me when I sleep in the day. Because I love her and I want the best for her, I sleep with a bandana covering my eyes, and I keep 5000 kelvin lights at full power all day, and the blinds stay open for lots of sunshine. If I'm awake, it's all about her. If I go to the gym, she goes with me. If I go to a triathlon, she goes with me. If I go to a shooting range, she goes with me. Since I go early in the day, or late in the day the car never over heats. The exception is the shooting range, but because it's an out of doors range, I'm right next to the vehicle and I leave it running with A.C.

Point is, i never thought that i would have a pigeon when I found this little peeper in a parking garage sitting next to her squashed sibling. I even let her sit there for another day thinking that nature would run its course - until i got my head straight and realized that none of this is nature, since Rock pigeons are here because humans brought them to America - and there's nothing natural about being stuck in an underground parking garage.

I thought that I'd take care of her until she learned to fly, and then release her... until I realized that she was so young that she'd been imprinted on and she was never going to be able to identify as a pigeon. Then I found out how long they live, which, although it seemed like an awful lot of time, now doesn't seem like that much. Whatever misgivings I had about taking care of her at first, I wouldn't ever have done otherwise because it's my responsibility.

And I've learned a lot about these creatures... If they view you as their mate, they need a lot of time from you. Otherwise, they become emotionally upset, which can be displayed as biting. But be thankful that your pigeon bites you. The other options are worse. They can become depressed, or they develop separation anxiety and start pulling out feathers. Even if they don't pull them out, anxiety can cause them to drop a large portion of their feathers. None of this is nice to see.

I make time however I can. Sometimes she files me around the house when I'm vacuuming (she was exposed to the vacuum at anearly age, so she has no fear of it), or she sits and preens next to the sink while I was dishes, or she sits on my shoulder and preens while I work on the computer. When I go outside to the beach (I live on there beach) I set up a 100 sq ft screen tent to sit outside with her (she gets to go outside without risk). (BTW, the screen tent is a one-man setup in about 2 minutes.)

I even travel with her. I'm working on getting her prepped for international travel now: papers, chip, vaccines (but only if required), and approval by the U.S. Dept of Fish and Wildlife. All relationships are compromises. If we decide to takein an animal we become responsible for its well being as long as it's alive.

I hope you were able to get something out of what I was trying to say, and I hope that Latte lives a long, happy,and healthy life with you.


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## SRSeedBurners (Jul 22, 2015)

You realize you're yapping in the wind? Altair hasn't been here since 2016.


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## FredaH (Apr 5, 2016)

That parakeet was such a sweet little hussy though, lol.


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## navamanas (Mar 17, 2016)

cwebster stated: "...put a little hot sauce on your hand or whatever she is trying to bite...most pigeons don't seem to like hot sauce."

Capsicum is the chemical that occurs inplants that induce the burning sensation in most mammals. The sensation isn't real. Basically, capsicum fools nerves into thinking that there's some sort of damage being caused and the inflammation that does occur upon exposure is inflation of nerves. The avian neurological system isn't effected by capsicum. If they don't like hot sauce then it's a personal taste preference. My oldest pigeon, for example, likes cilantro parsley but won't touch Italian parsley; she loves egg yolk but hates egg whites; she likes Romaine lettuce but not Arugula...


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