# Why is daddy pigeon favoring one fledgling and chasing the other away?



## Dovena (Apr 12, 2005)

Of the two fledglings that were born to him and his wife on April 30th, Daddy pigeon tolerates and is so-so nice to one of them, the one that has his wife's coloring. However, he is very mean to the one that is mostly white like him. He chases this one all over the place, chases him away from every food station in the room, and just generally is hostile and antagonistic towards his child. Can anyone explain this strange phenomenon? This is an Alpha Male type of bird, anyway, but does anyone understand why he is so alpha towards his own child, and favors one child over the other? This morning, I had to lock Daddy out of the room, just to allow his unfavored child some time to eat and drink, as his father wouldn't allow him to. This is a most bizarre and dangerous situation. Suggestions?


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Hi Again,


I had a situation once, where the father favored a youngster who turned out to be a young hen, yet ignoring and chasing away the other. She pestered him for food even though she was old enough to eat (30 +days old) but he would feed her. 


First of all,
Do you know if this youngster has shown any personality traits that he may be a boy? Does he try to defend himself at all? Also, is the baby growing up normally like the other, or does it have any physical problem that makes it different from the other? 

The father may feel threatened by this youngster, especially if it is a boy. He may even sense that this youngster could be an alpha-male or female....or if the little one has a physical problem or acts different he may sense there is something wrong with it.

My 30 day old boy has been roo-kooing (in peeping form) for the last week. Everytime he is at the feeder and gets pecked by an adult, I hear him peeping, and doing 360 degree dance and wing slapping. I laugh myself silly, and I don't have to worry about him at all.

Second of all, Because the father is so persistent and aggresively chasing this youngster, I would like you to tell me about his background, and how he was raised, if he had any trauma in his life, if possible. That will help get at the root of the problem.

I find more pigeons that have a hard time dealing with raising (even hatching) babies had trauma in their childhood. My Skye and Sonic had major issues at the birth, and I found they cannot hatch eggs, let alone raise babies. (Don't laugh, pigeons are smart and have emotions like people)

You are doing the right thing keeping an eye on the youngster at this point as this aggressive behavior may harm him or her, both physically and mentally.

Treesa


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## Dovena (Apr 12, 2005)

*Response (more details) for Treesa*

You asked if there was anything distinguishing the harassed fledgling from the favored one. The only thing I can think of is that the one Daddy harasses has the same coloring (white with smudges of black) as himself, plus this one did not fledge as early as the first. The checker one (same coloring as Mom) flew out of the cage a good three days earlier than the harassed one. Then Daddy flew into the cage and started chasing the remaining fledgling all around, pecking at him. He chased him in circles and was all puffed up and crowing and trying to peck him. Finally, I chased Daddy out of the cage and locked the door to keep the fledgling safe. 

At first, I thought Daddy was just chasing the fledgling to get him to come out of the cage and fly around. But not so, because yesterday and today, he has been flying around the room and Daddy is still harassing him and today would not allow him to eat or drink. This is bad.

You also asked if there had been some trauma in Daddy's early life. Maybe so. I rescued him in early January, because I noticed that he was staying on the ground by himself longer than the other birds, and later into the night. Turned out he had coccidia, but that might not have been the reason. Also, some of his flight feathers were weird, definitely signs of stress. Also, he acted strangely because when I first brought him home, other birds would harass him and he would not run away or fight. He would just stand there, blinking innocently, not knowing what to do. But look at him now. He is the total alpha male.

No, there are no signs whatsoever that the harassed bird may be a male or anything. All I can say for the poor harassed fledgling is thank God there is a sibling who can at least offer him/her some affection and kindness. Without that, the harassed little bird would be the loneliest creature in the world.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Is your hen in the process of laying another clutch of eggs, or being especially broody?

John


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Hi Dovena,

When this fledgling left the nest last, was there a set of new eggs mama is brooding? 

Until the youngster is able to take care of himself, you will have to come to his/her aid, as you have been doing. Do you have a seperate coop within your coop for youngsters to grow up once they have left the nest? The father may eventually give up tormenting this fledgling but meanwhile he/she will need a safe place to be when you are not there to keep an eye out.

If there is some kind of trauma with the father, it most likely occured with the previous owner.

As far as the father goes, keep a close eye on him with this baby. You may not want him to hatch another clutch if the behavior is too tormenting for this fledgling. You can replace the next clutch with dummy eggs, for the time being. Then at least his time will be spent on brooding again, and not tormenting the fledgling. If you do let him breed you will have to watch carefully his behavior with the new kids. It will be interesting to see if it is the baby that bothers him or if it's a trauma issue from his upbringing.

Treesa


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## Dovena (Apr 12, 2005)

*Yes, in fact Daddy's wife is sitting on eggs for about a week now*

Funny you should ask, but yes, Momma is sitting on eggs for about a week now. But does that explain why Daddy is mean to only one of his two children? The only thing I can think of is that this one took several days longer than the other to fledge and fly out of his nest. It is too late now to substitute the eggs, because they are about a week old already. The two children are very sweet, protective and affectionate towards one another. I don't know what happened to Daddy, but you think it's from some sort of psychological trauma, you say? Not genetic? As for it being related to the fact that Mom sitting on new eggs, that would explain Daddy chasing the fledgling away from Dad and Mom's food station, but what about his chasing the fledgling around and around in circles inside the fledgling's large cage, trying to peck at him while fluffing himself up and crowing? The fledgling has his own food station inside the large cage, so this wouldn't be explained by territoriality over food.


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

The father chasing the fledging out of the nest is not something I have ever seen, but that does happen, when the new eggs are in the bowl. My best breeders will let the youngsters linger and linger forever in the nest box,while brooding a new batch, until the fledglings decide to leave on their own. Then they continue to come back at night and sit on the porch of the nest box, without a noise from the parents. 

Yes, he might chase them BOTH out because of the arrival of the new clutch, especially the last one to leave,(especially if there is food in the nest box) but that doesn't account for his continuing bad behavior to the young one in the coop after he has left the nest.

Yes, I do indeed think some kind of trauma might be to blame, whether physical or psychological, we will never know not knowing his childhood. I bet if he could talk he would give you an ear full...we need the pet psychic!LOL

But, you will have a chance to see if he picks on anyone of the next two to hatch. I'm glad the two youngsters are keeping each other company!

Treesa


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## Dovena (Apr 12, 2005)

*More bizarre by the minute*

Treesa, it's even more bizarre now. The fledglings were born April 30th, so they are around 5 weeks old now. In addition to picking on the male, Daddy this morning tried to mount the daughter. Mom actually got off the eggs and nest to stop Daddy from copulating with his 5-week-old daughter. Is Daddy a sociopath? I truly wonder. Last night, he would not allow his son to eat and I was afraid he would keep harassing him, so I locked him out of the room so that his children could sleep in peace. Great. He attacks his son and is trying to copulate with his daughter. Is this normal behavior? Is this normal? I have another mated pair and haven't seen anything like this from them.


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Dovena,

Is this feeder in the nest box or is it a feeder in the coop for all birds? If this feeder he is chasing the youngster away from is in his nest box, yes this is normal behavior.

How many other birds do you have? If you only have a few, he may think he is the big cheese and declared the whole coop to be his, including the feeder for the whole gang. He is not chasing the female because she is not a threat to him, but t he feels threatened by the other youngster because he is a boy...and may be just like dad. In this regard, it is normal behavior.

As far as the mating goes, I have one elderly male that did that with his (step) daughter, although he didn't know she was a stepdaughter. It was about the same age as your youngster. This may be unusual behavior, maybe just confusion. 

Just remember this bird is an alpha male, and he is going to be bold and respond much more aggresively then the other male in the coop. Try to understand him, but keep an continued eye out on the youngsters.

Anybody else have a male that mated with the fledgling daughter? Please respond to this post.

Thank you 

Treesa


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## ernie (May 3, 2003)

How about a father trying to mate with his fledgling SON.
The first pair of pigeons we had, only hatched 1 egg in their first clutch. 'T****head' was definitely a boy, but Dad still kept trying to get armourous with him while Mom was sitting on the next clutch. He hasn't done it since with any of his other kids, so I always chalked it up to first time confused parent.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

I am certain someone else on the forum had quite a similar problem with an alpha male parent and offspring. If I can find it I'll bump it up.

Such males pigeons may try to mate with any pigeon or even a stuffed toy! I saw, a couple of weeks back, one of the males in the aviary mount what is definitely another male! I think they do get confused when their instincts run wild.

John


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## Lin Hansen (Jan 9, 2004)

Hi Treesa,

You are doing a great job trying to help Dovena...don't mean to butt in here, but thought you and the rest who are trying to give advice may find some additional information helpful.

These birds are not in a coop, they are in a one bedroom apartment and I think there are at least six birds with two more on the way. I found some previous threads where Dovena describes her birds and her accomodations.

Again, don't mean to butt in here, but thought it may help you to know more about the situation while trying to advise her:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=10101

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=10029


Linda


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## Dovena (Apr 12, 2005)

*Description of habitat of this family of birds*

Okay. To be clear: Yes, I have a one-bedroom apartment. Daddy and Mom pigeon have the entire kitchen to themselves and currently Mom is sitting on eggs in a nest on top of the refrigerator. The fledglings had a fairly large cage all to themselves, also in the kitchen, a few feet away from the fridge. When the fledglings fledged, they flew out of the cage and all around. The food station in the kitchen is on a platform on top of the cage. This means that, although Mom is sitting on eggs, the fledglings were in another area, their cage, so Daddy was not pushing the male fledgling out of the NEST that contained the new eggs, at all. He flew into the cage and harassed the hell out of his male child for no reason related to clearing the nest for the new eggs about to hatch. There are no birds inside the kitchen besides Daddy, Mom, the two harassed fledglings, and the two eggs that Mom is currently sitting on. The only thing I notice about the fledgling being harassed by Daddy is that he is quite large. But aside from that, he is not particularly aggressive or unusual, at all. But Daddy harasses him and does not allow him around the food station, and Dad actually mounted his own daughter this morning until Mom got off the nest and came over and interrupted him. This is all new to me. Also, the kitchen is open, so Daddy and Mom have the freedom to join the birds in the other room. So far, they do, but the fledglings are not interested in leaving the kitchen. There are food stations outside the kitchen that Daddy and Mom help themselves to, as well, so the food station that Daddy tries to shut his son off from is not the only food source, although it is for his son. Am I clear?


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## alaska (Mar 17, 2005)

Hi Dovena,
From this description you gave it doesn't sound like 'Daddy' is harrassing the youngster out of a need to protect eggs or food sources, perhaps he is doing it as the youngster is a male and he is trying to set in place a pecking order, saying he's the boss.
Although it is definately not accepted in humans, it is not uncommon for male pigeons to show this behaviour towards their daughter, some breeders actually look to do this (it's called line breeding) to improve pigeon standards and any resulting young are usually fine.
However don't forget it's up to you to say what goes on in your kitchen


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

I noticed that alpha males do that. Your male considers the kitchen his territory, so he will chase and harras anybody who comes into his room.
At some point parents don't recognize their children any more as their offsprings. They will chase them harass them or mate with them.
Have you considered to put the cage with the youngsters in the living room?

Reti


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Thanks Linda, I had no idea about the situation.

These pigeons may just be stressed because of their unusual living situation,their history, and the dominent male is taking charge as no one will challenge him. 


Treesa


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Could be simpler than all that--he (Daddy) might just be a BAD pigeon. I know I've had a few.

Pidgey


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## Pigeonpal2002 (Jul 27, 2002)

Hi Dovena & All, 

John, I think you were thinking of my situation when you were recollecting reading about something similar. 

I have 4 pigeons;1 mated/older pair (wilder birds) and their 2 hand reared offspring (1 male, 1 female and very tame). Although my situation is a little different, it's close. The Alpha male (Eggbert) incessantly chases and tries to attack his son at any given opportunity for no reason other than for the sake of it. Like your young male, mine has no desire to fight back or stand his ground. Eggbert also tries to mate with his daughter all the time now if the birds are together. He's quite smitten with his daughter actually. He used to attack her when she was 3 months old until about 9 months of age, but now that she's older, he sees her as a potential mistress. 

Dovena, the only way I fixed this problem was to permanently separate my two pairs in their room. It's been 9 months since this aggression started and 3 months since the incestuous behaviour began and it hasn't subsided really at all. I have no definitive answers for you but I think some of the members have given you good insight to possible causes. 

Here is the link to the thread I started about my birds, background info, setup and what led into this behaviour. I haven't updated this thread in awhile with the current behaviours. However it's mostly still Eggbert trying to rule the roost in this little flock and him wanting his cake and eating it too with two hens around

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=8957


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## Dovena (Apr 12, 2005)

*The fledglings have abandoned the kitchen*

A couple of days ago, the fledglings decided to venture forth and fly out of the kitchen, into the living room. Daddy doesn't harass them in the living room. So the problem has resolved itself, you could say. But the question as to why he was so obnoxious and antagonistic towards his son goes unanswered. The only conspicuous thing about the son is that he is rather unusually large for his age (5 weeks old), sort of like Baby Huey of the old comic strip. He is noticeably larger than his sister and maybe even as large, if not larger, than his Daddy. It's very cute.


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