# Pet pigeon- aggressive behavior!



## Morphkid03 (May 29, 2014)

Hello!

I have a one year old "feral" pigeon that I rescued from a barn cat as a fledgling named Brady. Up until Brady was around 6 months old he was incredibly affectionate towards me, spending a lot of time preening my fingers and generally being sweet on me. However as he has aged he has grown more aggressive. He bites me a lot and as of today has taken to wing slapping me as well! I just returned from a week in the hospital where he was left in the care of my roommate and have now just moved not only his cage (he has been upgraded from a cramped, undersized cage to a mansion) but also have moved into a new house- I don't know how much that me not being around for a week/him adjusting to a new environment may be coming into play with this situation. He also normally flies to me when called, but since my return from the hospital he hasn't been listening to me.  Every so often when I have him out and we are playing he goes back to his sweet former self but I hate that I see that side of him so much more rarely then I used to. Is this normal? How can I stop the biting? (It actually hurts!)

Here's a photo of my beautiful boy.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Brady is a really beautiful,bird! Phoebe used to only act affectionate to me and bite my significant other. If you have been gone for a week he may be biting and wing slapping because of your absence. Give him a few days and see if he goes back to,his lovable self.


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

Handsome  
They sometimes change their behaviors when they grow up and become adults.Cocks are more territorial than hens. So does he peck you all the time or when you try to enter your hand in his cage i.e territory?


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## Morphkid03 (May 29, 2014)

All the time.


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

Lol. Then he will change I believe. Feed him from your hand and don't leave the seeds for him in dish, in this way he will wait for you for feed. Also when he pecks you, hold him, pet him and show him your love, you can give him few peanuts as a treat, they love it and give him some of your time daily and he will understand. Keep us posted how it goes. I think your buddy will be back in some time with your efforts.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Be careful and don't feed lots of peanuts. Peanuts contributed to Phoebes internal xanthomatosis which took her life.


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## Koomori (Mar 9, 2015)

I had a similar problem with my foster child, Archimedes. Unlike you though, I wasn't lucky enough to have him as a baby (hence why I call him my foster child, he's been in 3 homes before mine) and he was already about 3 years old when I got him. He was SUPER aggro. I mean... so aggressive that it was pretty much the whole reason why I joined this forum aside from the fact that I knew nothing about pigeons and wanted to surround myself with a bunch of people who have experience and knowledge.

I got some great advice here and Cwebs and Kiddy are right though, it could be his cock behavior rearing its head or it could be the fact that you were away, it could be stress... but the more you work with it, the less he'll do it. I did a few things to get my boy to stop his crap with his Mama. 

I gave him a focus:










If he wants to be aggressive, fine, but he can beat up the doll, not me. So when he starts being pecky, I grab the doll and let him attack that. I'll also play with toys with him, kind of like a child. Birds get bored and they get restless, so you should engage them and let them exercise some of that behavior. 

I also take him for walks around the house and the neighborhood. Use a harness if you go outside lest the pigey fly away but around the house, try to keep it on your hand. They'll bond to you because suddenly, you are the only thing that is familiar to them and so they'll cling to you rather than attack you. This gets them back in the "Mom/Dad is safety" mindset. 

I also spend time in my bird's territory (I have a walk-in aviary because he hates cages) so he knows I'm not there to mess his home up. I'll sit there and he'll go nuts for a bit but he calms down after about 5 minutes and starts preening my hair. In your case, since your pigeon has a cage and you can't climb inside it, maybe spend time sitting next to it, or in front of it, just doing whatever. I spend a TON of time just hanging out in the same room as Archimedes and he has gotten so used to me now that where he used to downright try to kill me before, he'll now come to me before anyone else. 

Anyway, I really wish you luck! Kiddy's suggestion on hand feeding is the best way to go about it. Look up some tips on Classical Conditioning and don't feel bad. Remember, you're goal isn't to starve the bird but to make him hungry so he'll respond to the food cue. Feed him by hand only until his behavior improves. Once he associates you with food, he'll start associating you with affection again, I can almost guarantee it. How do you think we handle hawks and eagles? LOL They hate us coming into their enclosures but they sure like the mice. Same rules apply for peanut eating pigey-poos.


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

Great Koomori... Absolutely perfect explanation. 
I loved this pic of Archemedes with soft toy, that bird seems aggressive on him too. Lol, probably knows his behavior. I am saving this pic on my device, it made me smile. Thanks


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## Morphkid03 (May 29, 2014)

Thank you all for your replies! I just took his food away and will start offering it in my hands only.

Koomori: I have the perfect thing.  Hopefully it will help me curb his biting.









And here's a photo of my setup just because.


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

Great to release his stress but not on you. Lol. Loved this stuff.


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## Koomori (Mar 9, 2015)

ZOMG!!! That's the SAME EXACT cage I had for Archimedes!! But your pigeon looks waaaay more comfortable in it than he was. King Pigeons are large and my boy here is better than an American Crow in size, he is a hefty, hefty boy. Basically he was starting to show signs of wind feather damage, which tipped me off that the cage - even though it was the largest one I could buy without getting a dog cage - was too small for him. So I said screw it and just converted a bedroom. Here's my set-up:

This is Mom's side of the room. 










From here, I do all my homework, animal studies, elevated feeder watch (I have several feeders I alternate between that get hung from that window by my desk) - and I also just derp around and watch movies. See that taxidermied crow? Archimedes is very much larger than it. I didn't do that crow myself but I did do the wing mount behind it. If you're going to love birds, love them alive and dead if you can. lol

Here is Archimedes's side of t he room: 

















As you can see in the photo, he's still territorial, which is fine; When a bird acts like that it is a good sign in a way because it means they are acting naturally and have carved out a piece of territory for themselves that they are happy with so they defend it. He's ok with me going in there and cleaning his poops (which I mulch - why waste good poop? Grow flowers!) but he still gives me the tail-flicking war dance when I first open the door before he chills his little butt out.

In here I have a window I keep open so he can get air, he'll perch on it and sunbathe in the sill. That glass table to the right is where his bath tray is (and I just use a large brownie pan - he loves it). He will perch on the stool and the table and there is also a wall-mounted shelf to the right (out of the picture) so he's got plenty of room to fly and perch as he pleases. Wanna know what sucks though?

Cleaning his nest. That massive pile of papers under that workbench with the pink cloth... yeah. He WILL try to murder me when I clean it out. But it is essential that I do. He _never_ poops in his nest but he still puts out that gross scaly moult dander and lord knows what he gets into when I bring him up to the sanctuary to socialize with other pigeons so I make a point to remove all the paper and give him fresh lining every three weeks. I literally have to take him out of the room. He will stop at NOTHING to get to his side of the room to peck my fingers off. But then when he's got a nice clean nest and everything is all fluffy again he doesn't have so much of a problem.

In short, Morphkid... you're pigeon is behaving as it should and definitely enjoy the challenge. I'm so used to Archimedes's little pecky beak it doesn't even phase me anymore. If anything, it just makes the cuddles and kisses when I get them, way more worth it. Definitely keep us updated and I LOVE that pigeon plush you picked up. So cute!!


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Loved the photos and stories about Archimedes. The squeaker we adopted about two weeks ago has settled in and has begun wing slapping and biting. But she readily gets on my finger and if I am patient lets me pet the back of her head. Am hoping she will get much friendlier. We miss Phoebe!


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## Maclofts (Dec 14, 2014)

Koomori, it's so nice to hear how far you and Archimedes have gone since! Could you post a photo of your pigeon diaper that you made? I'm curious to see how it turned out!! Morphkid03, your doing good and keep up the effort  i really admire pigeons being kept as pets and I have a a B. Roller named Pearly who I hand fed since 3 weeks old and now flies after me everywhere  let it be on a bike or car when we're out dirtbiking in the desert. I don't use a harness but I encourage you to do so because of the given circumstances... I will share a link sometime soon of her flying after me. Though, Hawks are always a problem, so I keep a close look out but even if I throw her up high, she'll drop low and will not leave my 3 dimensional radius (6 ft radius to the side and 6 ft radius in the air (if you know what I mean) for some reason she has no desire to fly up high or leave my sight lol  I really love her and I'm greatly attached to her! My main goal is always to let birds free fly (even fancy and exotic birds). My newest progress are my diamond doves! I took the babies out of the nest starting at over 1 week of age (when fully feathered, every day) and let them discover their surroundings and my backyard because their aviary is there as well. When they started to fly at 2 weeks, they took off out of my sight like torpedoes into the big neighbor hood and I thought they were gone for good... Then about three hours later, both babies were back on the floor foraging for food and then I put them back into their cage. I repeated this 2X until they flew back into their cage when they came back! Now they fly around and no Hawks can see them it's so awesome lol, I was telling my dad I might just start up a diamond dove kit


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## Koomori (Mar 9, 2015)

Maclofts said:


> Koomori, it's so nice to hear how far you and Archimedes have gone since! Could you post a photo of your pigeon diaper that you made? I'm curious to see how it turned out!!....
> 
> ....I was telling my dad I might just start up a diamond dove kit


Nah, I totally cheated and just bought one. I got frustrated because the patterns I was using didn't seem to do the trick and I was having trouble sizing him. I ended up just taking him to a local bird store (that is super bird friendly and welcomes pet birds in) and trying on harnesses there until I found one that fit. Archimedes must have thought it was torture, I haven't been wing slapped like that since the first time we met and I had to take care of his sensitive boo-boo-toes. But now he enjoys the freedom quite a bit. I'll have to start a new thread somewhere and upload pictures.

About your kit though... I'd love to see that. Do you have a YouTube? I'd loooove to see video of your free-flying birds. I'll so follow you, no joke. My YouTube is full of bird stuff and birds doing bird things, Archimedes and this dude playing the electric violin in NYC. lol I was not given the nickname "Bird Nerd", I earned it. 

And Morphkid, I really hope you stick around. You can learn a TON on this forum and let me tell you, the people here are extremely nice and know their stuff.


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## Morphkid03 (May 29, 2014)

Koomori: Wow, that's quite the setup you have! I'm impressed. Love the taxidermies as well!

I've been hand feeding Brady and so far it's been going alright, he's climbing on my hand without biting a little bit more readily than before so I'm pleased with that, though I don't love that he's flying away from me most of the time when I approach him instead of flying to me/landing on my hand like he used to.  I can't believe he's had such a rapid change of behavior.

Also been tossing the idea of getting him a girlfriend in the near future around in my head. Any thoughts? He must be awfully lonely, I feel bad for my little guy.


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## Koomori (Mar 9, 2015)

The thanks goes to my landlords who let me set it up. The whole thing (untreated pine planks, screws, L-brackets, tile flooring, the door, the locks, wall shelves, drapes, and the cage when I had it) came to about $860.00 USD. I ended up donating my cage to the guy that owns the sanctuary I volunteer at so that was kind of a loss but it went to a good cause so still money well spent. Archimedes gets a little more that 7 feet across, 5 feet deep, and 6 feet high to himself so it works out well for him and we each have our own window so I can still feed the birds out back and do my wild bird observations. A happy meeting of needs for all - plus my landlords got me to pay to repaint and overhaul that room for them!

Nest on the list is getting vinyl windows put in and replacing the baseboard heaters. As for the walls... well.. I like pink but... he is a boy pigeon. Maybe do his side of the room a bird-safe blue. /renovation rant

Anyway about getting him a mate...

I thought the same thing for Archimedes. Of course, all birds are different and you even have a totally different kind of pigeon than I do but from what you're saying he's got the coming-of-age-urges like mine did because their behaviors almost mirror each other. 

My bird was always aggressive toward other birds though. I had to immerse him in an environment where he had no choice but to get along so that he wouldn't start his crap with anyone. So I brought him up to the sanctuary and threw him in the largest pigeon pen with all the other pigeons. 

KICK! Right out the comfort zone. 

The first time was pretty rough because he had to be integrated into the social rank, which, being an outsider, put him on the bottom. I brought him up twice since then and he's now allowed amongst the upper ranks with the other King Pigeons. However, I've noticed he buddies up with the little rainbow colored ones.








That little guy in the back is the one he buddied up with and if you're wondering what that look he is giving me is all about, it's because he wanted to fly to me but I still had work to do so I wouldn't take him out yet. He doesn't like it when he comes to me and I put him back where he was.

And that brings me to another thing... Archimedes NEVER used to fly to me almost. I literally put myself around him so much that he's grown attached. I go to school online so I spend about 70% of my day in that room with him and if I have the main door to the room closed, I just open his door and let him fly all over. The more time you spend being with and handling your pigeon, the more used ot you he's going to get and especially in combination with the classical conditioning, he'll fly to you. trust me, I've done falconry and if we can train a raptor - which can rip my face off on a whim - to come to my hand for food without killing me, you can totally do it with a pigeon.

But ask someone who knows more about your particular breed of pigeon about getting him matched up with a mate. I couldn't just put another bird in with Archimedes - he'd attack it fiercely. I had to put him in with other birds and see who he bonded to. So you may want to see if anyone in your area has pigeons like yours and wouldn't mind you bringing yours up to socialize.


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## Morphkid03 (May 29, 2014)

I'm so excited- while I had him out for exercise this morning Brady finally decided he was going to listen to my commands like he used to and flew to my hand when called! He's being slightly inconsistent about it but this was a great first step, I'm so incredibly happy that he's acting more like his normal self. I think he's finally settling in after all the craziness of me being gone for so long and moving into a new home/him getting a new cage. The wing slapping has stopped and he's biting less. I'm still feeding him in hand and am going to continue doing that for a while to increase our bond. 

Koomori: I found a couple of local folks who are selling pigeons, not sure if they'd allow for a "play date"- I'm trying to get in touch with them to see what they are able to do. Brady is constantly hooting and grunting for a lady friend, so I'm hoping that if I found him a mate he wouldn't be very aggressive towards her, but obviously I don't know that would be the case for sure until they were introduced.


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## Koomori (Mar 9, 2015)

That's awesome! I'm definitely glad to hear that! Keep going with the hand feeding and conditioning but don't forget to reward. Birds don't respond to punishment in any way what-so-ever so Pavlov's conditioning won't totally work here so what you have to do is only reward. I do reward-or-ignore tactics with Archimedes. If he is too aggressive with me I leave him alone for a while. No food, only water and grit. I'll check on him an hour later and hand feed him. As soon as he starts his crap, I walk away for another hour. 

When he was in his cage, I''d cover the cage. Uncover it in an hour, see if he knocks his crap off, if so, let him out on my hand and feed. When it comes to treats, that is the extra incentive for them obeying commands and getting used to the commands by associating them with food different from the food they get by just coming to you to eat. I'm STILL working on that with Archimedes. He'll obey "Ie ni kaeru" ("return home"), "Isu ni iku" ("go to the chair"), and "koko ni kite" ("come here") on a pretty consistent basis. Here's the videos if you wanna see:

Koko ni kite

Ie ni kaeru/isu ni iku 

He's a goober. LOL I love him to pieces. And if you're wondering why I do it in Japanese, it's all part of the bonding. No one else can tell my pigeon to do anything - he'll just give them derp face. You have to say it in Japanese. But I also use physical example commands, like pointing. I point to where I want him to go.

Of course now I don't have the cage so "ie ni kaeru" has lost it's resonance and I have to retrain him to associate "kaeru" (house) with the aviary as a whole. I think he still looks for the cage. But I trained him with hemp seed. 

If he obeyed the command, he got hemp seeds. If he didn't, he didn't get anything. I did this command training at the same time as I was doing the classical conditioning/hand feeding for his behavior training. It's a GREAT way to bond with your bird. Don't feed too many hemp seeds if you use them because birdies can become little addicts for these. And you want to watch rewarding with peanuts too because birds carry all the salt they need for their bodies in the glands above their eyes, adding salt to their diet can cause kidney problems. 

Ok... I'm ranting again. I'll stop. Buwahaha I love bird training and behavioral stuff though I can't help it. LOL


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## Morphkid03 (May 29, 2014)

Koomori: Wow! Amazing. What a lovely pigeon you have. I'll have to pick up some hemp seeds at the store, I've heard pigeons go nuts over them, along with peanuts. Back when he was younger I used to use steel cut oats as a treat (that's how I taught him to fly to my hand when I coo and/or say his name) but when I offered them to him now while following your guy's advice (since I didn't have any peanuts handy) it turned out that he's not nearly as obsessed with them as he used to be, so it didn't really work as intended. I guess he's gotten a more sophisticated palate with age. 

Also, I can really see what you mean about Archimedes' size in the second video, he really makes his cage look small, and I know that it's most definitely not! Crazy!


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## Maclofts (Dec 14, 2014)

Koomori your teaching skills are amazing


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## Koomori (Mar 9, 2015)

And you're in the US so you know how much that cage ran for it's size. If you got yours at a store like I did, it was literally the BIGGEST size I could get. Otherwise I would have had to pay an even more outrageous sum of money to get a corner set up that would have taken up so much space in the aviary that he wouldn't have been able to fly in it. 

That cage was huge but I also happen to have a rather robust pigeon. lol I adopted him off a website. I literally went looking for any bird that wasn't a parrot (only because I had to hold off getting my license for an American Crow and couldn't afford an African Pied Crow), saw him and fell in love. I had NO IDEA how big he was. But I had to have the cage and everything before I would be allowed to adopt him so there was a lot of guess work involved. 

The lady brought him to my house and after inspecting the room she took him out and I was shocked. I've seen the pigeons in NYC that big but I never saw a big white one like him and it just about floored me. He is a big boy. 

But it sounds like you've got the training down pat so just remember not to give your Brady too much salt. I think you'll do great and you'll get your buddy back into shape and things will go back to normal. Let me know if you socialize him or try out the dating game.


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## Koomori (Mar 9, 2015)

Maclofts said:


> Koomori your teaching skills are amazing


I don't know anything about pigeons except for what I learned in my dissection lab, reading here, and interacting with Archimedes. lol But bird behaviors and getting animals to do stuff you want them to do... I love it. Thanks for saying that, Maclofts - I really appreciate it! Maybe I shouldn't aspire to _attend_ Cornell University but _work_ there. 

_The lights dim, and Koomori stands in the middle of a softly glowing stage with fog machines and the whole 9, it's back lit and there's Mozart playing or something. Monologue time._

I try to pass on the torch of knowledge with the hopes that together, we may set the world afire with intellect - showering each life with a spark of insight strong enough to churn the white-hot blaze of 10,000 suns. We the educated. We the brilliant. We shall shine and united, chase the shadows of obscurity and doubt from the world. Because the more you know... and knowledge is half the battle. Go Joe.


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## Koomori (Mar 9, 2015)

*Passive-aggressive Pigeon Behavior*

I just shot this video and fancied it up a bit. Archimedes has a theme song. It sounds like the music to an underwater level on a Katamari game. Anyway, you can see some of his more mellow aggressive displays in this video.

If I clean the nests, he'll wing slap me, bite me, stomp his feet while pecking my hands... the nests are OFF limits. But when I wipe up after the poo harvest he'll point out where I missed spots. But he'll still stomp his feet, parade in circles, hold his wings out and let me know when he's had enough.

Maintanence with Archimedes


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## Maclofts (Dec 14, 2014)

Haha funny  it's nice to have a bird companion 24/7!


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## Morphkid03 (May 29, 2014)

Koomori: Great video! Archimedes is so polite. Brady has a lot to learn. 

Maclofts: It definitely is! I work from home so it's nice to be able to spend lots of time with my boy.

I've gotten in contact with someone who is selling pigeons in my area and should be looking at his selection of young hens sometime this week-next weekend. I'm so excited!


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## Morphkid03 (May 29, 2014)

Found Brady's new mate- she's a really stunning pearl eyed Tippler. Picking her up at the end of this weekend, fingers crossed that the love connection goes without a hitch!


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Koomori, just love the "maintenance with Archimedes" video! Archimedes is such a smart curious bird! 
And morphkid03, love the new tippler girlfriend for Brady. What a lovely girl bird!


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## Morphkid03 (May 29, 2014)

Picked up Brady's new red and white pearl eyed tippler girlfriend on Tuesday, ended up with a completely different one than I thought I would! She's a sweet little thing, breeder said she's about 4 months old. I've named her Paisley.  Can't wait for the quarantine to be over so she can meet Brady!

In Brady related news, he's acting normal again! I'm so happy.


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## Koomori (Mar 9, 2015)

OMG Morph, that is a GORGEOUS bird. I hope to see more of her on Instagram (I just realized I follow you LOL) as well as on the board. She's stunning, I mean really pretty. I'm very interested in the diversity of plumage in pigeons. I think that their variant colors are gorgeous but as a biologist I want to know why. Ha ha, I can't help it. I want to know more about pigeon genetics and Paisley is a beautiful example of why.

I'm SUPER GLAD that Brady is acting normal again though. I knew he would, he's just gotta re-adapt to stuff. But be prepared for him to act up when he is introduced to the female - in fact, I would not be too shocked if he guards over her and attacks you when you try to handle her. Hopefully it won;t become an issue and they form a natural bond and they form that with you rather than separate from you. 

Cwebster - Thank you!! I'm working on more Archimedes videos but right now he's in full moult so he looks raggity as all Hell and he's not being too ... forthcoming with his participation. If that's how I can term "tries to kill me at random when he's not being a sweet heart or demanding I help him build his nest" simply. He's moody, but I love him. I'm moody too. The only thing we need is a half gallon of Ben & Jerry's and we're just a couple of queens. You should have seen the altercation between him and a Mourning Dove today. OH if only my camera wasn't set on a different mode at the time. Got some great fledgling Norther Cardinal shots out of it though.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Morph, Brady will love Paisley. What a pretty girl! And Koomori, I just love the videos of handsome Archimedes. And your behavioral descriptions give me hope for socializing the squeaker we got three weeks ago. She bites but after a few minutes, noogies by putting her beak between my fingers and eats out of my hand. She also lets me hold her up inside the cage in front of my face and nibbles my nose. Then she goes back to biting each time she re encounters my hand.


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## Jme (Oct 19, 2021)

Maclofts said:


> Koomori, it's so nice to hear how far you and Archimedes have gone since! Could you post a photo of your pigeon diaper that you made? I'm curious to see how it turned out!! Morphkid03, your doing good and keep up the effort  i really admire pigeons being kept as pets and I have a a B. Roller named Pearly who I hand fed since 3 weeks old and now flies after me everywhere  let it be on a bike or car when we're out dirtbiking in the desert. I don't use a harness but I encourage you to do so because of the given circumstances... I will share a link sometime soon of her flying after me. Though, Hawks are always a problem, so I keep a close look out but even if I throw her up high, she'll drop low and will not leave my 3 dimensional radius (6 ft radius to the side and 6 ft radius in the air (if you know what I mean) for some reason she has no desire to fly up high or leave my sight lol  I really love her and I'm greatly attached to her! My main goal is always to let birds free fly (even fancy and exotic birds). My newest progress are my diamond doves! I took the babies out of the nest starting at over 1 week of age (when fully feathered, every day) and let them discover their surroundings and my backyard because their aviary is there as well. When they started to fly at 2 weeks, they took off out of my sight like torpedoes into the big neighbor hood and I thought they were gone for good... Then about three hours later, both babies were back on the floor foraging for food and then I put them back into their cage. I repeated this 2X until they flew back into their cage when they came back! Now they fly around and no Hawks can see them it's so awesome lol, I was telling my dad I might just start up a diamond dove kit


You mentioned they can fly around and no hawks can see them..how? We have 6 pigeons, 2 of them I hand fed - Petre and Pox, I absolutely love them, I love all of them but these 2 are so social, they sometime even sleep with my mom..lol..we let them free range, come in and out of our house and for the most part they sleep on our garage. We also have chickens and I do have 4 roosters, but we do have hawks, and I've seen a falcon come through too..this scares the crap out of me, they have come down a few times but I've scared them off. I hear something that sounds like one and I drop everything and run outside..I have mirrors and CD' s up and around our property, especially the house..one day I spent like two hours standing in the middle of the yard with a big mirror trying the reflect it on two that kept hovering..is there something that u did to help them just not see them, like camouflage or something, I didnt catch that part, or couldn't fine it..I also have a table top umbrella I try to keep open and move it to the area their hanging out in..if something were to happen I'd be - actually the whole family- would be devistated.. I don't like cages..non of my pets have ever been caged..I want them to have the full bird experience, but I want to keep them safe..I love my feathered babies..into have experienced the aggressiveness with Petre, it started after we rescued Pox, I had to hand feed him too and thatade him very jelouse..both Petre and Pox I rescued and got them when they were about 3 days old cause their mama started pecking them and almost killing them..they both had wounds on their back and head..I read they will try to kill them if there's a predator around and their making too much noise 😔..


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## Jme (Oct 19, 2021)

Jme said:


> You mentioned they can fly around and no hawks can see them..how? We have 6 pigeons, 2 of them I hand fed - Petre and Pox, I absolutely love them, I love all of them but these 2 are so social, they sometime even sleep with my mom..lol..we let them free range, come in and out of our house and for the most part they sleep on our garage. We also have chickens and I do have 4 roosters, but we do have hawks, and I've seen a falcon come through too..this scares the crap out of me, they have come down a few times but I've scared them off. I hear something that sounds like one and I drop everything and run outside..I have mirrors and CD' s up and around our property, especially the house..one day I spent like two hours standing in the middle of the yard with a big mirror trying the reflect it on two that kept hovering..is there something that u did to help them just not see them, like camouflage or something, I didnt catch that part, or couldn't fine it..I also have a table top umbrella I try to keep open and move it to the area their hanging out in..if something were to happen I'd be - actually the whole family- would be devistated.. I don't like cages..non of my pets have ever been caged..I want them to have the full bird experience, but I want to keep them safe..I love my feathered babies..into have experienced the aggressiveness with Petre, it started after we rescued Pox, I had to hand feed him too and thatade him very jelouse..both Petre and Pox I rescued and got them when they were about 3 days old cause their mama started pecking them and almost killing them..they both had wounds on their back and head..I read they will try to kill them if there's a predator around and their making too much noise 😔..


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