# Feed Question



## columbaNY (Nov 16, 2014)

Hey Everyone,
I recently bought a 10 pound bag of wheat berries from Foy's Pet Supplies. I noticed that when I sprinkle it on the ground, the pigeons hover overhead but don't land to eat like they usually do. This happened with two separate colonies within the city. I'm beginning to think they are color blind to a certain extent. I believe they only see my arm moving going through the motion but they don't see the seed. It's also mixed with popcorn and flax. I have pigeon pellets coming in a few days which I'm going to mix with this grain.

Perhaps they lock on to the white of the milo and yellow of the millet commonly found in bird seed. What do you think?


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

They see color, but they see it differently than we do.
Maybe they don't like wheat. Lots of them don't. Or maybe there is another reason why they aren't coming down. The hawks are bad right now, and they are shy about coming down to eat.


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## amberleaf27 (Nov 16, 2016)

if feral pigeons are hungry enough they will eat almost anything including bread so they will come down when there hungry enough and I feed hundreds of feral pigeons and jay 3 don't interfear with my posts as I can read as well as you ok


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

amberleaf27 said:


> if feral pigeons are hungry enough they will eat almost anything including bread so they will come down when there hungry enough and I feed hundreds of feral pigeons and jay 3 don't interfear with my posts as I can read as well as you ok


Get over yourself. You are upset with me for coming in and explaining to you that you were answering to an older thread yesterday. I was trying to help by explaining where to look for the date. Most people would say "thank you"


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Most birds like bread. And even if they are hungry, they won't come down if the hawks are bad in the area, which they are right now.


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## columbaNY (Nov 16, 2014)

Thanks for the help guys. 

I decided to get some lighter colored feed to mix in with those wheat berries. Also, I finally got some pigeon pellets which I mixed with popcorn, flax, and oats. That seemed to help a lot. Now I'm waiting for a bag of safflower seeds to arrive which I'll throw in as well.

It's getting very cold here so I want them to have a little more fat in their diet.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

That's nice. The more variety, the more they will like it, and the better it will be for them. Nice that you help them. They need all the help they can get, especially with winter coming on. I do think though that it is because of the hawks that they won't come down so easily. We are having the same thing here. It's the same every fall and winter.


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## columbaNY (Nov 16, 2014)

Jay3 said:


> That's nice. The more variety, the more they will like it, and the better it will be for them. Nice that you help them. They need all the help they can get, especially with winter coming on. I do think though that it is because of the hawks that they won't come down so easily. We are having the same thing here. It's the same every fall and winter.


I don't think it's because of hawks. When I threw the feed on the ground, they came flying over and hovered three feet above the ground. This happened several times when I threw the wheat/flax mix on the ground. It was as if they were color blind to some extent. They saw my arm moving but not the seed on the ground. When they tired of flapping their wings, the perched on a ledge of the building just above me. Strange.


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