# dirty pigeons, can i help them?



## rena paloma (Jan 30, 2005)

some of the feral birds in the neighbourhood are filthy, looks like they have been "tarred" and feathered. can i lure them with food and clean them up, i have cleaned willing birds before, but these are shy and look like they have a history of abuse. there is a big white king pigeon in the neighbourhood, who eats sometimes, (they come to my front yard) and i named him paloma, but he has such a dirty crop and beard that i feel terribly sorry for him, and looks brown on the white feathers. like dirty brown, on a white utility king that has obviously flown away from his loft and never returned.he is banded.
it is a cheep wire with out numbers, but it is on his leg nonetheless.
i have removed forigen objects from many pigeons, but to capture and clean them, is this a good idea, or will they clean themselfs?
rena


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## minimonkey (Apr 7, 2005)

Wow-- poor guys! I'm hoping that someone more experienced can answer your question. It seems that capturing and cleaning would be fairly traumatic for them -- but if it actually is tar on them, that's very poisonous to pigeons. 

Sorry I have no answers -- my heart breaks thinking about your poor fellows.


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

Hi Rena,


I have sometimes grabbed young 'dumpster Pigeons' who could not fly from being so saturated with discarded cooking oils or whatever it is in the dumpsters they sadly adapted to feeding in, under and around.

So, sometimes when I have been somewhere and see one, I grab them and bring them home. Usually their self esteem is in poor shape but they never knew anything else.

I cage them and put them on good food and grit and after a month or six-week, and letting them bathe now and then, they tend to come out just fine. Usually, since these are young Birds anyway, and since they had never flown really to any extent, they then, once all clean and bright, are willing to join my wild Flock, and they do not seem to return to the dumpster way-of-life they accidently got into from being born too near one or something.

One could wash them in 'Downy' was it? Oh heck, now I do not feel confident what product it is! - my memory this morning is nor sure. Anyway, what the rehabbers and rescue folks decided on from long experiment for tar or Oil-Spill Birds...shoot, I will look it up later. I need to get some anyway in case I ever need it.

One could do that, and keep them a while on good chow and so on...then release them...

Older Birds will maybe return to their previous habits, I dunno...but younger ones anyway, I am sure will be more open to a new way of life.

Phil
Las Vegas


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Unless there is something very specific - like tar, oil, etc. - they do come up clean eventually with good care and baths when they like 'em, I reckon.

This pic is the same pigeon! Cynthia has known 'Glory' for quite a while, but one day picked her up in the city center, starved and weak. We believe it was the overgrowth of her beak (trimmed back in the pics) preventing her picking up small food items. But I could not believe it was the 'Glory' I had seen, for surely she was white (OK, dirty white) and this one was interesting shades of gray. But lo and behold, after a while in the aviary ...... it was indeed our white 'Glory'. We figure she must've been nesting or roosting around smokey chimneys or some industrial output.

John


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

Unbelievable, what a difference. I wouldn't recognize her.


Reti


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## Lin Hansen (Jan 9, 2004)

John,

Hard to believe these are pictures of the same bird!

Phil, I think it is Dawn dishwashing liquid that is usually recommended because it is supposed to cut grease very well.

Linda


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

Hi Linda,


"Dawn"...yes...thank you!

As for the above, I think maybe these are two seperate Birds who have been confused with one another somehow...Lol...

Soor stained, dirty, soiled or oily Feathers do not 'lay' so nicely as those on the 'grey' Bird, so I think those are in fact, the normal 'grey' Feathers OF a 'Grey Bird', and, as a seperate Bird entirely, we see a 'White' bird...

I thinkk there has been some continuity confusion in the loft as far as who-was-who...


Best wishes,

Phil


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

No Phil, I can assure you, this is the selfsame pigeon! In fact, her beak still has to be trimmed regularly.

there aren't so many that we don't know each one individually  

I see no other explanation for such a complete color change except a combination of getting cleaned up and replacing the gray feathers during the molt

John


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

Hi John,


Wow...

Then this is truely an odd and curious situation..!

I have had quite a few 'dirty' Birds who with good care and wholesome chow and some time, came out plump and glowing and radient, but never have I seen so drastic a change in what appears to be in intrinsic color of their Feathers...

Trippy!


Phil
el ve


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

Hi Phil,

Glory is the only real fantail we have so unconfuseable even if we didn't know each of our pigeons by name and history.

I fed her when she was a feral and watched her colour change over two or three years, but when I finally found her weak and grounded she was so convincingly and naturally grey that I thought that the original Glory had probably died long ago and that it was her decendants and their offspring that I had been feeding although it seemed odd that each of her descendants was just that bit greyer, appeared in the same spot (under a tree in the market place) and that only one was ever seen at any one time.

The grey didn't wash out overnight, it took several months to fade and there are still traces of pale grey in her feathers. Even so, I was surprised to see the white fantail finally emerge in all her glory!

Cynthia


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

My FanFan was a similar case .. filthy on arrival: http://www.rims.net/fantail.htm and a beautiful white and black bird eventually http://www.rims.net/bird0621.htm

Terry


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

Is it something about fantails?  The other white pigeons just stay white despite living rough.

Cynthia


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Quite a transformation, isn't it, Terry!

Lovely pidge, Fan Fan 

John


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## Lin Hansen (Jan 9, 2004)

Terry,

Another remarkable transformation....love the second picture of the "clean" FanFan...she is looking at the camera as if to say "I'm just adorable, and I KNOW it!" LOL

Thanks for the pictures,
Linda


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## TerriB (Nov 16, 2003)

Did you noticed any parasites (lice or mites) on Glory when you picked her up? I remember my grandmother would sprinkle the ashes from my grandfather's pipe/cigar on the wool carpet to repel the moths. Assuming the grey color of Glory's feathers was ash, I wonder if it would act as a deterent to parasites?


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## feralpigeon (Feb 14, 2005)

TerriB said:


> Did you noticed any parasites (lice or mites) on Glory when you picked her up? I remember my grandmother would sprinkle the ashes from my grandfather's pipe/cigar on the wool carpet to repel the moths. Assuming the grey color of Glory's feathers was ash, I wonder if it would act as a deterent to parasites?


Ashes are great for polishing silver, too


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