# Found a young pigeon



## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

Hello everyone!! New member here! 
I live in a apartment complex that had pigeons nesting on the third floor, about 3 weeks ago as I was leaving to drop off my kids at the school bus stop I noticed a very young pigeon on the ground with only some wing feathers, once I droped my kids I called animal control but they said they wont pick up wildlife. Soo I picked him up and brought him/her to my house and placed it on a box with old shirts. 
The pigeon has now grown quite a bit, and has almost a full cover of feathers, just missing some under the wings and the tail tubes still long with some feather cover. 
The problem i am facing is that the bird still refuses to feed by it self, and I have to keep feeding it, it does go around my house pretending to eat off the floor, when I put seeds for the bird to eat it ignores them. 

Another issue I am facing now is that when I feed the pigeon a few minutes later it starts trowing it up, and it seems it does it on purpose, because he waits for about 5 minutes and then lays down and starts shaking his chest and lowers its mouth and out it comes. Should I change its diet? he poops normal, with the usual piegeon consistency. 


I feed the pigeon 2 times a day, is that too much? i noticed that the trowing up happens mostly in the morning and very seldom on the afternoons. 

I feed him dove feed, with some popcorn seeds (soaken for 24 hrs) and a small diet of soaken multigrain bread. The bird drinks a lot of water and he is like super exited about the water when I offer it, but when he sees the seeds he just turns around and leaves.

Any advice would be greatly apreciated


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Soaked seed is very bad for a pigeon, you can soak pigeon seed for 10 minutes, feed it to the bird and then throw away remainder.

This can cause the seed to get moldy and is very bad for pigeons and may be causing sour crop/yeast issue. Meanwhile you need to get the crop PH back where it should be. Do you have any organic apple cider vinegar?... if so put a drop in his water and syringe it down. Give probiotics or regular plain fatfree yogurt with culture in it too.

He needs to get weaned. You can generate an interest by moving your finger around in the seed. Try giving the bird regular seed mix or wild bird seed, in a deep spill proof dish. He should be eating a tablespoon of seed twice a day, if he is full grown.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Luftty said:


> Hello everyone!! New member here!
> I live in a apartment complex that had pigeons nesting on the third floor, about 3 weeks ago as I was leaving to drop off my kids at the school bus stop I noticed a very young pigeon on the ground with only some wing feathers, once I droped my kids I called animal control but they said they wont pick up wildlife. Soo I picked him up and brought him/her to my house and placed it on a box with old shirts.
> The pigeon has now grown quite a bit, and has almost a full cover of feathers, just missing some under the wings and the tail tubes still long with some feather cover.
> The problem i am facing is that the bird still refuses to feed by it self, and I have to keep feeding it, it does go around my house pretending to eat off the floor, when I put seeds for the bird to eat it ignores them.
> ...


What city do you live in? We may have a member near you that has some canker medicine.


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

Thanks for the info, I will stop the wet corn seed feeding and will get some yougurt for the little guy. And will start working on the weaning process.


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

Charis said:


> What city do you live in? We may have a member near you that has some canker medicine.


 I live in Denver! 

I will get some calcium for the little guy too this afternoon! As well as the frozen peas! 

Making notes for this new parental role


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Luftty said:


> I live in Denver!
> 
> I will get some calcium for the little guy too this afternoon! As well as the frozen peas!
> 
> Making notes for this new parental role



I agree that the baby should get canker meds to be sure this is not canker, as this will kill it.


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

Skyeking said:


> I agree that the baby should get canker meds to be sure this is not canker, as this will kill it.


 Now were can I get that on a not so pigeon friendly town like mine? A vet? or maybe pets mart? they sell doves but I dont know if they have such medicine. 

Ill check on the yellow pages of google. thanks for the info


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

If you can't find metronidazole in Denver...look at a store that sells medications for aquarium fish, it would be called *fishzole* or any medication with the active ingredient and only ingredient, metronidazole...I will send you some if you send me you address.

[email protected]


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

Charis said:


> If you can't find metronidazole in Denver...look at a store that sells medications for aquarium fish, it would be called *fishzole* or any medication with the active ingredient and only ingredient, metronidazole...I will send you some if you send me you address.
> 
> [email protected]


Address sent! thanks for the help, I will be going to the pet shop for some fishzole, once I get it I will be posting for amounts recomended, the same for the calcium with vitamin doses. thanks to you all!


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

OK: 

Got the yogurt, the green peas, the medicine from the fish store and the calcium with vitamin, started him on the yogurt and pepto (super tiny dose) and lets just say that feeding yogurt to a pigeon is not a easy task 

waited for about 10 minutes to feed him peas, took them like a champ, but only gave him 15 instead of thirty (wanted to make sure he could hold them down).

After the feeding I offered him water with a couple of drops of Fishzole ( I hope it wasnt too much) and drank the whole thing. 

Tomorrow morning before heading to work (yes I work sundays  ) I will offer him some more peas and yogurt with water and fishzole. 

I would need advice on the calcium dose ( 200 mg pills) and if 2 droplets of fishzole is good enough or? Tomorrow I will offer 20 peas to the little guy/gal ill work my way to 40 by tomorrow evening and then work on the weaining by mid next week.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

*After the feeding I offered him water with a couple of drops of Fishzole ( I hope it wasnt too much) and drank the whole thing. *

What does the above mean? Did you mix the pills in water?The pills of fishzole should be 250mg. You can give him 1/5th of a pill, once a day, after feeding, for 7 days . 
You need to feed the pigeon every time the stop empties, probably 4-5 times a day. If he has kept the peas down, start in the morning with a drop of pepto, wait 10 minutes and try to get 30 peas into him. Soon he will be gobbling them out of your fingers.I would give him 1/8 th of the calcium pill every day for the next 5 days. If by then he's eating on his own you can buy oyster shell and grit at the pet store and he will probably eat them on his own.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Luftty...I didn't mean to be cross with you in my last post. If you took it that way, I am truly sorry.
You did a good thing finding the medicine and it's just that the dose for pigeons is different than it is for fish and so I didn't understand how much of the medicine your pigeon actually received.
I'm glad the baby likes the peas.


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

Charis said:


> Luftty...I didn't mean to be cross with you in my last post. If you took it that way, I am truly sorry.
> You did a good thing finding the medicine and it's just that the dose for pigeons is different than it is for fish and so I didn't understand how much of the medicine your pigeon actually received.
> I'm glad the baby likes the peas.


 No problem, it was late for me doing homework and didnt explain my self appropiately! 

I bought the pills and split one of them in 4/4 size then I used 1/4 and dissolved it in 3 teaspoons of water, then used a drop measure and gave the pigeon 2 drops in his water, which ends being a lot less than a 1/5th of a pill. 
I had concerns about giving the pill solid to the bird so I opted for dissolving the pill. but I fed the bird a little bit of a dose compared to what you recomended ! 

I did give him the dose you recomended for calcium today in the morning, and he so far has hold the peas very well and his poop is really good and plentyfull  

Then again I appreciate the tremendous help you guys have provided me on helping this little guy have some sort of chance at life.

For info: the reason he fell of the roof was because pest control went up there to poison them, he escaped probably by panic. The pigeons bodies were hauled away the following day after I found him/her. So more than likely he is orphaned. My kids named him lucky, we hope it helps him later on life. 
If i can I will post some pictures later on.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Will you give him 1/5th of a pill today? 
Pictures would be great.


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

Charis said:


> Will you give him 1/5th of a pill today?
> Pictures would be great.


yep. once i get home to feed him again I will give him the 1/5th, should i dissolve it? or just give him the piece and let him digest it? 

at lunch time I gave him a full 30 pieces of peas and didnt regurgitate them so i am happy, but ill give him the medicine for a full week anyways along with calcium and yogurt. hopefully by then he eat on his own. Ill keep you guys posted.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

You don't need to dissolve it ...just pop the pill as you do the peas. I would give it to him after you feed him.


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

pictures ! 




























last picture the pigeon pooped on me


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

LOL...what I tell folks...to be pooped on by a pigeon is very good luck!
She is very adorable.


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

*UPdate*

Well here is a update from lucky, for the past couple of days she has been very active, but she seems to hate peas but started pecking at the seeds.

She started flaping really strong early in the mornings before feeding her, a couple of days ago she was flaping to strong that she started hovering with her legs barely touching the floor and she does it for about 3-5 minutes. 
But today! she actually took off the ground like 3 feet high and landed perfectly! and she ran back to her low laying perch, 4" of the floor and did it again until she actually did a full circle and landed at her adopted perch. 

I will get her a cat landing this weekend so she can start working of that, maybe 4 feet high should be ok? 

Also I introduced her to oyster shells grinds and she really likes them, i feed her a little bit and she eats them by her self, should I let her decide how much she wants to eat? or should i keep it to a minimum for a while?

I forgot to mention, she abandoned her box and took residence on a tennis shoe that my son was going to trow away, and she started decorating it with stuff inside. I have never seen a pigeon do that! the shoe is a high top tennis, we removed the shoe laces and she pushed the tonge forward and nests in it.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

It's good that she is starting to eat seeds. It may take her a while to get the hang of it, so you may have to hand feed also, while she learns. She doesn't need an elevated perch to learn to fly from, but she will probably like perching up there anyway. The tennis shoe sounds cute, but she might be safer in a cage while you aren't there with her. They seem to find a way of getting into trouble if left alone where they can get into things and maybe get hurt. You can just leave a small dish with some oyster shell in it where she can get to it. If she is starting to eat grains, she will need some pigeon grit. Oyster shell breaks down to supply the needed calcium, but pigeon grit is hard to help grind down the seeds and seed hulls that she eats. She's very cute BTW.


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

To jay: 
Yeah she roams the whole house, my wife is always at home so she keeps a eye on her and makes sure there is nothing she can grab, that might hurt her. 

I got some bird grit too, and i gave her a little bit in a separate cup, she loves to eat it too!

About the perch is just because she likes to hop on the sofas and they are made of smooth leader so she has a hard time holding on and we dont want her to get hurt or damage the leader. And we are pretty sure she will love the nice high perch instead of the 4 inch one. 

thanks for the advice


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Luftty said:


> To jay:
> Yeah she roams the whole house, my wife is always at home so she keeps a eye on her and makes sure there is nothing she can grab, that might hurt her.
> 
> I got some bird grit too, and i gave her a little bit in a separate cup, she loves to eat it too!
> ...



I'm sure she'll love the perch. I have a house pigeon also, and when we're home she is usually out too. I made her a perch that is just over my shoulder when I'm at the computer, and she loves it. The higher the better, as they feel safer, and because they are nosey, and can watch everyone from a higher vantage point.


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

*Attack of the angry bird*

Well yesterday lucky was all calmed and enjoying his feather cleaning time, when i figured it was time for her to eat, when i placed some seeds and peas on my hand to feed her she decided to attack my hand and ignore the food. 
I have noticed that she is aggressive when she sits on one of the couches armrest, and tries to peck at people when they sit on the sofa, but it was the first time I see a pigeon being so aggressive, as a kid I handled tons of feral pigeons that I would catch, then release (yeah i know i was ignorant of the birds needs and liked to catch them) and never ever ever got pecked. 
She never gets harrassed by anyone in my house and I was alone when this happened, ever since she wont tolerate anyone sitting at that particular sofa.
Once she leaves that particular spot she is friendly and accessible.

anyone has a idea? why she so aggressive? or did she just became bossy and territorial and claimed the vast real state of the sofa armrest?

edit: she puffs up when she gets aggressive, so I instructed my family not to try and grab her when she does, but to still sit on the sofa and just ignore her. or should we remove her from that spotuntil she doesnt do it?

post edit: her pecking doesnt hurt, but she goes at it with passion and tryies to pull on my skin with a lot of effort.


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

She is not harrasing you, she is trying to protect her turf. She or he thinks they own the couch or couches now. Once you are on neutral territory she will resume her/his kind behavior. Sounds like a wonderful bird trying to adjust to a human world.

The more rooms you give her/him access to more territory she/he will try to claim and protect.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

My house pij has a perch where he spends most of his time, just behind me, when I'm at the computer. No one else is allowed to sit there or he will peck at them. I think it's funny. He guards my seat for me. They are territorial and of course are going to try to claim areas.


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

sweet! 

I am fine with her protecting what she considers hers/his at least its keeping my chihuahua from getting on that sofa 

today in the morning before i left she pecked the chihuahua on the nose and she jumped off the sofa fast, now that was funny and good cause she kept getting on it and she has the habit of trying to chew on the leather  (my chihuahua). 

Enviromentally friendly deterrent  

I did told my wife to make sure the dog wont do anything to the bird.


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

*Changing voice*

Well today I noticed that the pigeon I recued is making different sounds along with the baby sounds he/she usually did. 
Now it sounds like a baby sound and then a deep sound almost like a goose sound, is this normal? 
The bird also drinks very little water, not like he used to drink but he/she is very active running around and stuff, but I noticed he/she doesnt fly as much as it used to do! 
Otherwise he/she is doing great and hates being handled now  

He /she still not really good at eating by it self but its getting the hold of it and thats good cause its getting feisty when I had to feed it. 
Did i mention he/she hates the peas? those have to be fed by hand otherwise he/she wont touch them with a 10 foot beak 

Another concern I do have is that he/she is sleeping a lot, and I dont know if thats good or not, it will be like a good active time then she will sleep for about 30 minutes then would go active again. 

She is only missing some of the under the wing fathers and the ones under her shin are out now, when will be a good time to start the soft release? cause I found a big enough flock of pigeons I would like to introduce her to.


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

NVM!!

The pigeon is turning into a adolecent now i guess!! 

He/ she still squeaking at me when I approach but when my son sat to close he/she started pecking him and cooing (or what ever the name of the sounds the adults make when communicating)!!!! 

But when I approached him/her it started to squeak again like a baby with a coarser tone hahahaha I wonder how long can it keep pretending to be a baby with me 

No wonder he/she sleeps all day, like my teenager


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## Luftty (May 19, 2012)

*Pigeon flew off my den*

update, pigeon came back, no plucked feathers! and seemed quite happy.

He is not going to be allowed to get out of my house until its a little bit older, unless you guys recomend allowing him to do so!


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