# Brother and sister pigeons mated, need advice!



## forooghandfahd (Jul 12, 2014)

A pair of pigeons laid their eggs in my bathroom window. The parents stopped feeding the girl early on. And yes I knew she was a girl and the other a boy. Anyways, I bottle fed her and put her back under her parents for incubation. She grew up and everyone flew away. The girl and boy continued coming back for seeds and just to hang out. They would sit on the shower rod for hours and then leave when they wanted. Soon enough the brother got aggressive with the sister and wouldn't allow her to eat and seemed to have forgotten who she was. They never were pals again , they lived separate lives but slept in the same building windows with a lot of other pigeons. I even saw the girl found a group of friends and was sleeping in front of the building and the boy was by himself . Then the girl started coming inside and sitting there all day, if I tried to show her out, she got angry and would stomp back inside and assume her position above the medicine cabinet. Now I kept feeding her seeded and her water and sat with her, she seemed lonely . But I wanted her to live her natural life so sometimes I would close the window and she did go about her business but she would come back and knock. I saw the brother regularly as well as the rest of the gang. One day I saw the brother trying to mate with the girl and she ran away from him and then he tried to mate with another pigeon and she ran away. I thought dear god what is he doing . The girl is small and although appears healthy and normal, she eats slow and she can't compete well for food with those fast peckers so I would let her in to fill up. Also when it snowed and a few times when she had very loose stool and was ill. She saw my place as a safe place and she always runs to me when she feels scared of the aggressive birds. The brother would come indoors from time to time but he would peck the girl and take over her bowl. Overtime it was mostly just the girl coming in and one time she stayed for 3 days so I made her go back out, I want her to be free although I would love to have her with me forever . So one day the boy comes in and I'm guessing he girl is lonely so when he was friendly , she was very responsive and seemed happy . She even tucked her head under him. But he was making crazy noises and between that and what I had witnessed 2 months earlier , he was looking for a mate . He tried while I was there and she ran to me and got on my shoulder. Crises averted. But this kept happening but I would sit with them to help avoid it because she clearly wasn't interested and they're siblings. But then she started to sit with him and one day I came in and I knew anf I was right becAyse he started flying branches in, I found over 50 branches behind the toilet. They definitely mated. For the past week they move as s unit. They also bang on the window becAyse I closed it . Then I saw a pigeon hitting her and she panicked to Coke in and I let her in and sure enough the brother wasn't far behind . And again , flying in branches . At this point it's obvious they've mated and it's my fault becAyse I let her come and stay a day here , 2 days there and he swooped in and at first it was ok , he wasn't there to make friends with her and another pigeon was there as well, they just fought over the food and flew around . So basically , I'm pretty sure it's my fault because the girl, Sadaf, liked spending time at my place and sitting on my shoulder . The boy, Gunfoud, wanted to eat . The frequency of interacting and the availability of food I guess made him think would be an ideal place to mate . So had I not allowed her inside , it would have never happened . So now are the babies going to have defects and suffer? And I'm pretty darn sure she has every intention of laying her eggs inside becAyse they've built a castle of sticks and twigs up and Gunfoud is scaring everyone off that comes near . So I'm upset I caused this to happen and I want to know what's going to happen to their babies ? And they'll stay as a pair so it will be s lifetime of babies who won't be healthy . I don't know what to do. I know there is nothing I can do now. Why did he want to be mates with his sister ? He spent 95% of his time outdoors . She spent about 70% of her time outdoors . Even when he started coming in more , he would leave when it got dark and she would spend the night . After they mated , she leaves with him and returns with him. I feel awful


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

They will be fine, any babies they have will mate with other birds. It happens. They don't see each other as siblings. Stop worrying about them and just let them be pigeons. The babies will be fine.


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## forooghandfahd (Jul 12, 2014)

Thanks for your input. Makes sense that they don't see one another as siblings because while they were still in the best as babies, they were very protective of one another and when I would take Sadaf to feed her, he didn't like it. As he got older he would try to scare me away. They are very reactive to one another as babies, cutest thing ever. But after they went outdoors, within a few month or so, he became hostile to her , he treated her like any other pigeon. Do they forget? Even the father would peck and fight with them after a few months of them being in the wild. It was around 7 months he showed some interest in her, she flew away and then that was that. But around 9 months it started a whole new relationship. He stopped pecking her and let her eat . He was completely different towards her. A month after that, she has eggs in her belly! But how come they don't know they're related? And will the babies have any problems ? Something was wrong with her because their parents stopped feeding her early on, still incubated but no feeding and I notice she is slow eating so maybe something in her mouth . She seems great though. Healthy pigeon.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Her parents feeding or not doesn't mean there was anything wrong with her. Could be bad parents, or young parents. 
The babies will be fine. Like in breeding. The babies will breed with other birds and all will be fine. No, they don't look at being related in that way. You are putting human feelings on birds, which of course, they don't have.


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## forooghandfahd (Jul 12, 2014)

They were really good parents, they protected her and cared for her and sat on her and almost took my eye out when I came to get her for a feeding. They just wouldn't feed her, thry looked her direction after feeding the boy but she was barely putting her neck up and of course she got weak very quickly and that was it. I consulted here and was advised to start feeding her so I did, she would have died otherwise. I even took the boy out for a while hope my they would feed her but they didn't, but they incubated her the whole time. And when they were old enough the dad took them out to fly and they returned together . Probably nothing wrong with her , maybe the first egg which was the boy, just got stronger really quickly and then she had no chance . I honestly thought she was going to die, didn't sleep much for 2 weeks so I could feed her every 2 hrs. That's good that their babies will find other mates and their babies won't have genetic issues that are expressed . She is definitely pregnant . It's funny because all this started when the evil neighbor beat 2 babies to the ground below and I brought them in. I put them by the window and opened it wide and their parents found them and fed them. When they left, sometime later the female returned with her mate and laid 2 eggs. Those 2 eggs are now Sadaf and Gunfoud, the newlyweds. Also the parenys of the first 2 babies are still around and the mother really likes me, she'll walk right into the bedroom if the window is open , I call her Grandma because she started it all. But I never had contact with her, I just brought her babies up and opened the window and let them be. Put out food but it seems as if she remembers something because she was completely wild and grown but after rescuing her babies , she will walk right in and even get on my head. They have to have memory . Even Sadaf has s really good memory and communicates very well, she tells me when she wants the faucet on for a bath, when she is thirsty , hungry and when she wants me to let her be . They're quite intelligent . I'm fascinated by pigeons and it came out of nowhere . Just rescued to babies and here I am I guess a little over 2 years later . I know about 11 pigeons now. I'm ambivalent about letting Sadaf hsve her babies here because I'm going out of town in 3 weeks and I'm afraid the eggs will roll into the tub or the sitter won't know what to do to feed them. Someone will be feeding my cats and the pigeons but they may be afraid of him so I'm not sure what's best for her babies , but she is determined to have them here, relentless to the point I had to relent and say ok, build your palace and have your babies . Thanks for your help


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

If you just block them out, they will build a nest somewhere else. Hope the person caring for the cats doesn't forget and let the cats in there.


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## forooghandfahd (Jul 12, 2014)

That's exsctly what I'm afraid of. I almost want to cancel my trip. I'm not looking forward to the trip at all because of this. Should I shut them out so they build their best elsewhere or is it to late, I think they lay the eggs ten days after they mate. That means in the next 5 days it's happening , is she able to build a nest now?


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## forooghandfahd (Jul 12, 2014)

I think I'm going to leave a ton of birdseed in a bin in the tub and water bowls. I'll move their nest into a big turkey baking pan, the tin ones. I'll put a brick at the bottom like I did when they were born so it can't tip over and fall in the tub. I'll make it soft with lots of towels and crunchy paper. Then I'm going to buy a lock and put it on the bathroom door so the cat sitter can't even get in there and forget . I'll ask him to feed the other pigeons at the kitchen window . This way , the newlyweds and their babies are perfectly safe from the cats . My two cats experienced the pigeons little by little , I would say no and they held back but if I turned my back I'm sure they would try something . But I found s homeless cat and he is feral and very aggressive , he is here until I find him a home and it's been 7 months now ... But he wouldn't hesitate to kill them all. He doesn't listen at all and is very aggressive . So that door must get a lock and never , ever be opened while I'm gone .


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## JennyM (Sep 21, 2015)

aww, I just want to say that I love how you love the pigeons! I rescued a pigeon a few months ago and now I am pigeon lover too!! so I completely understand how you feel. I hope everything works out for Sadaf and Gunfoud, and their babies too!


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

If you block them out they will nest else where. Then you wouldn't have the worry about it.


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