# Crested pigeon not feeding itself (and other questions)



## boryha (Jun 5, 2005)

Hi all,

1) Feeding:
I've hand-raised two baby doves/pigeons before but this new addition (named Spike) has me stumped: It just won't feed itself.

I've had a baby crested pigeon (http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/crested_pigeon.htm - Aussie pigeon, for those who don't know) for over two weeks now, and I'm assuming it's about a month old at the moment. 

The problem is it will pick seed up with its beak, then drop it, try pick it up again, hold it for awhile, drop it again. I've tried holding out and not feeding it on time in the hopes it'll get the idea to actually eat by itself but no luck in that way. Its beak *is* slightly crooked (top and bottom not exactly aligned), but it has no problems picking seed up it just doesn't seem to know what to do with it.

Any hints? My other two didn't cause me this grief! They started eating for themselves very quickly. (Troublesome child this one is). 

2) Squeaking:
The new addition is developing a habit of squeaking constantly and shaking its little wings. At first it only did this when hungry, but now it keeps doing so even after being fed. It is winter here but I'm trying to keep the room as warm as I comfortably can, so I don't think it's cold. Other than food and warmth, why else is it crying?

3) Aggressive behaviour:
My other pigeon (named Kentucky, a racing pigeon, rescued from the driveway of a KFC hence his nae) is very aggressive when not being held. He's about a year and a half years old now. He'll circle in his cage, attack us when our hands go too near and keeps trying to pounce on the poor little female dove who can't quite handle his advances. When I catch him and hold him in cupped hands though, he's very calm and makes little "hmph!" noises. Will he grow out of this behaviour or, as it's been a year and a half, are we doomed to have Evil Pigeon for the rest of his days?


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Hello and welcome to Pigeons.com

Thank you for helping all these needy birds.

That is a beautiful pigeon, and I don't know anything about that breed. I have a pigeon named Spike too, with the head gear going on.

Anyway, has this pigeon been syringe fed? Since it has a slight scissor beak, is there any damage to the tongue?

Sometimes pigeons that have been hand fed, know how to pick up seed, but their tongues have not developed that muscle that pulls the seed back into the throat for swallowing and digestion. I have seen this a lot. You might try hand feeding it seed, if you are not already, as it may need to be tought to work this muscle. If there is no damage to the tongue, or the scissor beak is not interfering with the swallowing muscle of the tongue, he should learn to build up that muscle. Continue to leave seed in deep dish bowls so he can practice. Any grown up birds can also be an example to keep his interest in picking up the seed.

If the other youngster is healthy and developing normally he may be spoiled and want lots of attention. He looks at you as a parent. Does he poop healthy poops? If the digestion is a little rapid you could add some probioics to the formula.

I had a youngster who would eat very well on his own and then stand and peep and shake his wings until daddy would feed him. He was just spoiled and wanted the best of both worlds. As long as the father would respond and feed him he continued this behavior.

The bird, Kentucky is just being a normal male and defending his territory. He is not an evil pigeon. He will play the "king of the Hill" roll, if he is the only male and the oldest and no one else is there to be his rival. I would not leave the female dove with him. He is not going to grow out of this behavior. You might want to settle him by giving him a female pigeon, but this bird also wants to fly and any excercise you can give him is important to his health and to his normal lifestyle. Is he not capable of flying at all? Do you have a room where he can fly? 

Treesa


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Boryha,

Welcome to Pigeons.com!

I had a pigeon in the house once at that same age that did that same thing. Some of them really do love attention. The one I'm referring to, once she started flying, didn't want to be anywhere but ON us. She made a LOT of noise, kinda' like she had an inferiority complex and just needed extra assurance.

Of course, there can be other problems. How much is it fleshed out? Can you weigh her? 

The seed picking up/dropping thing is something that I see a lot. Some youngsters really want the independence of eating and living on their own and seem to learn especially fast; others really want the attention of YOU feeding them. I've seen big, strong, heavy youngsters in the loft chasing daddy around unmercifully (flying everywhere and squeaking like skidding tires) to get yet another feeding.

The wing shaking goes right along with that. It's probably just trying to get you wrapped around its little primary flight feather.

Kentucky Fried Pigeon sounds like he wants his own nest and a female to share it with. And YOU to respect HIS space. He's just frustrated. Does he ever get out to fly?

Tell us more,

Pidgey


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## Whitefeather (Sep 2, 2002)

boryha said:


> Hi all,
> The problem is it will pick seed up with its beak, then drop it, try pick it up again, hold it for awhile, drop it again. I've tried holding out and not feeding it on time in the hopes it'll get the idea to actually eat by itself but no luck in that way. Its beak *is* slightly crooked (top and bottom not exactly aligned), but it has no problems picking seed up it just doesn't seem to know what to do with it.
> 
> Any hints? (Troublesome child this one is).
> ...


Hello & Welcome to pigeons.com

*If* your pijjie's tongue seems to be in working order, & the unaligned beak appears to be the only issue, I would suggest offering him seed in a deep bowl, as his problem may lie in the fact he can't maneuver the seeds properly. Offering them in a deep bowl should help this situation.

We have a member, (KIPPY), who has a *severely* scissor beaked pigeon that eats like there's no tomorrow. Kim makes sure Jack has a deep dish to eat from.

Please let us know now things are coming along.

Cindy


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

Hi boryha,


Another method for youngsters learning to peck successfully, is to fold a terrycloth Towell in half, and scatter some Seeds onto it for them to feed.

The softness and resiliency of the Towell lets them peck so that the Seed is a little farther in the Beak when they peck it, and, is easier for them to either toss back for their Tongue's barbs to catch, or, for their tongue to pull it back directy.

Some youngsters peck so delicately, that this will not help since they are only going to grasp the Seed with the very tip of their Beak, but they too soon enough get the knack.

Of course having Seeds in a Bowl helps in this way also, but some Birds at this age do not seem as interested in a dense Bowl of Seeds as they do in a few Seeds that are scattered loosely in a small area.

You can also open their Beak slightly and put a Seed in there, (or do this with one-Seed-at-a-time, useing a pre-selected quantity of Seeds to comprise a decent meal for them, ) making sure you get them in around half way or so, which will help them develop the feel for what to do with it, and for them to practice with their tongue even if the Seed is not as far back. But make most of them about half way back so the Bird gets something in them Seed-wise, if it tosses out the ones too near the tip of it's Beak.

Holding a Seed between the pads of your fingers, and, slideing it in from the front, gets it in far enough.

Opening their Beaks gently takes a little practice also, and I usually use two finger pads of my left hand to gently push down on the mid-sides of their lower beak, and, with a finger tip of my right hand, I gently left the ttip of their upper Beak, then, slide the Seed in which I was holdig between my right thumb and index finger tips.


Phil
las vegas


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## boryha (Jun 5, 2005)

Hi guys,

Though I'd update in one post!

Spike update:

Thanks about the info re her beak. I'm not too worried about it being a bit scissored now since she can still pick up seed (although at the tip of her beak). When I put seed half way in her beak she eats it properly. I'm assuming the problem is the muscle like you said and her not realising yet she needs to get the seed further down by herself. I'll just give her time and a deeper bowl for food. Currently feeding time happens on a soft folded towel and I leave her there for awhile after so she can peck, so I'm hoping things will get better! I'll be leaving her with some grown up birds for a week in July, so if worst comes to worst she can learn by example then.

In terms of her weight, I'm unable to weigh her but she feels heavier from when I first got her, plus her feathers are growing back from when the magpies attacked her. So I'll assume she's developing OK. Poops area healthy now after regular feedings... things weren't too good when we first got her, but she's better now.

I think Spike has become a spoilt baby because as I type, she's shaking her little wings and trying to climb onto my hands. I'll pamper her a bit more ;p

If interested, here are a few piccies of Spike from two days ago (sorry about the quality, taken with a mobile phone camera):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v391/boryha/SleepySpike.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v391/boryha/Spikeheardthebeep.jpg



Kentucky update:

Okay, so he's always going to be Naughty Pigeon when we go near his cage. That's fine, he knows I'm Mum when I'm holding him!  I'm not going to be able to get him a lady friend any time soon as my Mum will hit the roof if I bring another big pigeon to live at her place. He's got plenty of room to fly as he lives with the other birds in a (pretty big) laundry, plus we let him fly the family room area when I'm over. So plenty of exercise.


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

Hi boryha,



What a totally adorable youngster...!  

If you 'peck' with them, they will learn much faster...

At this age, for them, eating is a togetherness-emotional thing...

Wow...quite the presence, even in the images..!

Phil
lasvegas


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## Girl (Mar 3, 2005)

Hi boryha,

My pj is called Sweets and she went through all the same phrases as Spike and Kentucky.

Like Spike, it took a while for Sweets to learn to pick up seeds. She also went through the phrase of flapping her wings and jumping onto my lap whenever she was hungry. When Sweets finally learnt how to pick up seeds she would only eat the small round red sorghum seeds and would literally throw all other seeds out of the bowl. She didn't get sufficient nutrients in her diet so I had to practice some tough love on her. I separated the sorghum seeds and gave her all the other seeds and when she was hungry enough, she finally learnt to eat the other seeds. Mind you, she is still learning and still can't pick up the big dried peas or big dried corns.

Sweets is also like Kentucky in that she is quite territorial. She pecks my toes when I go near her favourite pearching spot on the heater. She also pecks my fingers and struts/coos when I fill up her water bowl and seed bowl in her cage. I leave Sweets in the toilet during the day so she can fly. She has developed a dislike for anything white so she also attacks me when I try and clean up the toilet every night.

All in all, I have been advised that its all "normal" behaviour and I still adore Sweets but I totally understand what you are going through. I have one pigeon who is already a handful and you have several!

Btw, Spike is adorable, I love the pics.


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## boryha (Jun 5, 2005)

*Update*

I thought I would post an update to let you all know that Spike is now eating by herself! She still keeps lookin at me as if I'm going to feed her (I think because she knows she'll be fed quicker if I do it), but then she goes back to happily pecking at her seed.

On a side note, it looks like her beak has aligned itself! Which 1) is odd because yesterday it was still scissored and 2) is interesting because with beak aligned, bird eats.

Now I must go as she is climbing over the keyboard, pecking the keys and wanting attention.

*proud mommy boryha*


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

That's a great update. Thank you.
Can you post a pic of the beak from before and after? I haven't heard of a beak aligning itself, but I would guess it is possible and that is great.

Reti


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Hi there,

Thank you for the update on Spike.

Sounds like all the muscles involved (tongue and beak) when seeds are picked up and swallowed have strengthened considerably allowing the beak to be re-aligned. Practice makes perfect.

Keep up the great work, you are doing a great job with this little cutie!

Treesa


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

Hi boryha, 

...she may have possibly dislocated her Jaw or had some problem with her Jaw...which would not only discourage eating-pecking, but be painful of course, and, (I have seen this happen, ) it can align itself over a day or so sometimes on it's own.


Phil
el ve


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