# pigeon and dove ???



## tat2boss (Jun 29, 2015)

hi everyone!!!

let me start off by saying i am new here and new to pigeons and doves...quite unexpectedly lol

here's my story...
about 3 weeks ago i received a cabinet and window delivery from my local home depot, well this delivery also came with 2 young pigeons and a destroyed nest. the delivery driver said ahh more rats with wings and just tossed these babies in the grass to die!!! i could not let that happen. so i got a box and some seed and brought home 2 young pigeons...

well my 10yr daughter came home and fell in love...the pigeons were named "magnificent" the larger one and "frightful" the smaller of the two.

we had a small enclosure (a wire dog crate) which we kept on our porch out of the elements. the birds were taming down quite nicely especially magnificent. they quickly became best friends, hand feeding shoulder perching even coming to her when she would get close to the cage. it was really neat to observe.

sadly, tragedy struck one early afternoon. we came home after being away for about an hour and magnificent was missing. the cage was still closed and frightful was there...then we noticed blood and found the decapitated head of magnificent...but no body. the head had been twisted off and who knows where the body went, i am quite positive this was caused by a two legged predator!!! being that we have many feeders and birds that visit our house and there are some feral cats in the neighborhood that sadly have gotten to a few birds in the past. anyway there is always more evidence of a struggle at least.

so over the past 12 days or so i built a larger more secure enclosure for frightful and my daughter really focused on him/her and he has really imprinted to her as well. things are going well but he seemed lonely and we have vacation coming up july 6th for 2 weeks we have a sitter to come feed our birds (we also have cockatiels and parakeets) twice daily and clean cages every other day. anyway i thought frightful has been lonely since the loss of his nest mate and my daughter is gone to grandmas til the fourth so i went and got this beautiful little white dove to share the enclosure with frightful...
here is my dilemma...frightful (pigeon) is getting i wanna say territorial over his enclosure and bullying and pecking the dove? did i make a mistake placing these two together?
is this the natural order being displayed?
what should i do?
the dove can fly and the pigeon is just starting too...
the enclosure is 5ft long 3ft high and 28in. wide, constructed with pine, plywood and poultry fencing...the soft plastic kind...
ive attached pics of the birds


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Putting pigeons and doves in together is not a good idea. The pigeon can easily badly hurt the dove. You need to separate the two. Another pigeon would be a much better choice, and even then, it is a good idea to introduce them slowly to each other. Two males will usually fight, two females will usually get along, and one of each usually works, as long as you introduce slowly.
And the plastic chicken wire you have on the cage isn't safe. Anything can get through it. Rats, squirrels, raccoons can chew that with no problem, rats and raccoons will kill them, and a squirrel chewing through to get at the seed, will make a hole and they will get out. Just not safe. Raccoons can even go through the wire chicken wire. You can purchase hardware cloth at a hardware store or Home Depot, or Lowes. 1/2 inch will keep things out. And get the heavier gauge. The 23 gauge isn't heavy enough, and they can go through it. I know you have put a lot of work into making it, but so many have come on here, who used something other than the hardware cloth, and found dead birds.
It may have been a rat that got the other bird, as they can squeeze in through those holes, and they do chew the heads off.You may think they are not around, but they are every where. They birds just aren't safe like that. It's really worth a little more effort to keep them safe.
Also, just want to mention that pigeons prefer a flat perch like a shelf, as a round perch isn't very comfortable to perch on. And perches should run parallel to the floor, not angled. Not trying to pick on your setup, just trying to help.


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## tat2boss (Jun 29, 2015)

*thanks*

i will seperate them immediately...thank you for the info...and make changes to the enclosure as well!!!
unfortunately i listened to the "expert" at the hardware store and he told me the birds would be fine together...i dont wanna take any chances however!!!
as for the bird head it had definately been twisted off and was outside of the cage with no bird body to be found thats why i believe it was a human...but thanks for so much useful information i really appreciate it!


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

tat2boss said:


> i will seperate them immediately...thank you for the info...and make changes to the enclosure as well!!!
> unfortunately i listened to the "expert" at the hardware store and he told me the birds would be fine together...i dont wanna take any chances however!!!
> as for the bird head it had definately been twisted off and was outside of the cage with no bird body to be found thats why i believe it was a human...but thanks for so much useful information i really appreciate it!



Don't know whether it was human or animal, but a rat will take the body away. Seems that if a person did it, they would just twist the neck and kill him and leave the whole thing there. That's just horrible either way.


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