# My pet pigeon named Friendly is the meanest bird in the world!



## bzagor (Feb 2, 2013)

Hello,
I'd like to get some advice about what I can do to help my pet pigeon Friendly foster a personality more akin to his name...he is an extremely furious, rude, and irrational bird and I just want him to act like part of the family!

I have a flock of ferals that I take care of and live on my balcony. Friendly was only 4 weeks old when I found his brother or sister dead one morning with no clear cause. I was horrified to lay eyes on Friendly because he looked like the exorcist with his crooked stargazing head. I took him inside and cared for him for weeks- watching Kitchen Nightmares together, hand-feeding him peas and corn, petting and snuggling him, keeping him warm and clean and quarantined from the rest of my birds, and hoping for the best. Within 10 days of caring for him, while watching the show, his head suddenly came out of it's crooked position! It was an amazing miracle! Meanwhile though, I am paranoid that Gordon Ramsey's assertive personality wore off too much on Friendly during his interim. (YOU'LL F-CKING KILL SOMEBODY WITH THAT TOMATO!!!)

After he got better I waited for a couple weeks and then let him out around the other birds. When he was hungry he would squeak and hit me with his wings while I made his food. He would sit with me, and had moments where he enjoyed being petted. I made him a pair of pigeon glitter space pants to impress him.

Then he grew up. It has been 6 months and he has turned into the dictator of our home. He has full run of the apartment (along with the other house birds) and spends his time fighting with pants, socks and tablecloths, attacking me and my finance's feet/hands/ect...hitting us with his wings, and constantly making his territory noise. It has gotten to the point where I can't walk around my own living room without getting bitten. And he doesn't let go- he is extremely strong. He also took our innocent dove's heart and made her much less friendly and basically into a total battered wife. He doesn't act very nice to her- he often threatens her when she tries to eat at the same time as him. He even masturbated with a sock while she was sitting on their eggs- right in front of her! They have laid 4 eggs together which are replaced by fake ones by me. He has attacked every bird in the house/that comes in the house, so I have to keep them away from him all the time.

He is still very cute when he takes a shower because he just hops right in, and I appreciate that at best he treats me like another pigeon instead of a human, but he is horrible and brings nothing but frustration to me and my finance. What can I do to try to help and change his behavior? If there is nothing I can do, will he change for the better as time goes on? He is only 6 month old still. 

Thanks


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## altgirl35 (Sep 5, 2008)

I feel your pain!!! I to was a battered piji wife
I had lumpy, and he would land on my head, hump it, then bite the crap out of me
I don't really have any advice, I got lumpy into a loft where he has found a little homer wife
Still lands on people but at least doesn't attack anymore 
I tried to release him once and he was landing on people


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

bzagor said:


> Hello,
> I'd like to get some advice about what I can do to help my pet pigeon Friendly foster a personality more akin to his name...he is an extremely furious, rude, and irrational bird and I just want him to act like part of the family!
> 
> I have a flock of ferals that I take care of and live on my balcony. Friendly was only 4 weeks old when I found his brother or sister dead one morning with no clear cause. I was horrified to lay eyes on Friendly because he looked like the exorcist with his crooked stargazing head. I took him inside and cared for him for weeks- watching Kitchen Nightmares together, hand-feeding him peas and corn, petting and snuggling him, keeping him warm and clean and quarantined from the rest of my birds, and hoping for the best. Within 10 days of caring for him, while watching the show, his head suddenly came out of it's crooked position! It was an amazing miracle! Meanwhile though, I am paranoid that Gordon Ramsey's assertive personality wore off too much on Friendly during his interim. (YOU'LL F-CKING KILL SOMEBODY WITH THAT TOMATO!!!)
> ...



He has matured and wants to mate, being not with other pigeons where he can pick a mate and breed and build a nest and do all those things he may be frustrated more so than cock birds are. He does not know a human wants him to be a pet, he is just being a pigeon. I think it is best to have more than one pigeon, but they have to be introduced slowley, don't get another another cock bird, only hens. another option is a slow release, feeding him with the other pigeons on the balcony and then he will go off with the flock at some point.


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## Lefty07 (Dec 30, 2009)

If it's any comfort, people who own parrot-family birds often experience the same sort of seasonal hormonal aggression, from birds without a mate! And big parrots can REALLY bite!


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## Coconut (Oct 20, 2013)

My ex-racer is quite similar. He wing-slaps and attacks my hands, but after a while he will just sit on them. He's fine as long as my hands stay away from him!


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Well it isn't like he is alone. He is with a dove, and they have eggs. 
They do go through a growing period where they become more independent, and as they grow and mate up, they eventually, (usually settle down). But you said they have free flight in the apartment. Is that all the time? He should have his own cage that he can call home, and be allowed out for exercise and mingling for a few hours a day, but to give him full range of the house all the time, then you have created that part of him that is defensive when you enter what he perceives to be his area. Normally, a bird kept inside would be in a cage that he would see as his territory. But if he doesn't have a cage where he spends much of his time, then he sees the whole place as his territory, and it is very normal for a pigeon to protect their area. If the dove is a lot smaller than he is, then he could hurt her, as male pigeons can be quite aggressive with their mates. Better to pair him up with a pigeon. He may calm down with her eventually, but I would watch that he doesn't hurt her. Spiritwings idea of a slow release into the balcony flock would also work, but it has to be done slowly so that he can incorporate into the flock and learn from them. Just putting him out on his own, he probably wouldn't make it, as he has no way of knowing how to survive out there.


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## Siobhan (Dec 21, 2010)

He may just be having hormonal issues. An indoor bird doesn't go by the seasons but by the amount of light he gets. Try putting him to bed earlier in the evening -- and yes, he should have a cage of his own, not shared with his battered wife or anybody else -- and you can cover him and leave his cage covered until morning. Do this every night for a couple of weeks and see if that helps. I have an indoor pigeon who's the only pigeon (I also have parrots and a starling) and she's as affectionate as she can be, and is out of her cage all day and has free run of the birds' room. But every night, all the birds go into separate cages and are covered and left covered overnight to ensure they get enough darkness and good sleep to keep their hormones under control.


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