# Parents attacking babies...what should I do?



## irretractable (Jun 4, 2008)

I'm not sure what to do, if anything. I raised a pigeon and released her last summer. Now she's had two sets of babies on my balcony. The day she had her second set, the first set of babies were banned from the balcony (I'm guessing they're about 40 days old). Is this normal? One of the babies keeps trying to come back and eat (I put out seed), but the parents keep attacking him. Unfortunately, the baby keeps trying, and I'm afraid the parents are really going to hurt him - they're brutal, and it's really sad to watch. Should I do anything? There's not really another place I can feed the babies because I'm not supposed to be feeding them anyway (I put the seed out in the evening and bring it in in the morning because I was attracting a large flock when I fed them during the day - which doesn't go over well in an apartment complex.)


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

That's just what they do. The parents want to keep them from the new nest.
It really is heart wrenching to watch.


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## irretractable (Jun 4, 2008)

ok - thats good to know its "normal", but yes it's really sad to watch. The baby was really persistant, and, after about 40 minutes they finally let him eat. then he left...


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Could you maybe put 2 separate dishes of food?...far apart from each other?


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## irretractable (Jun 4, 2008)

That's a really good idea actually. I'll try that next time.


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## jameswaller (Nov 4, 2008)

yep!.when some children turn 18yrs.old then they get the same treatment,..30days from hatching to fully feathered and flying and the beatings start,it is the animal kingdom,..setup a separate area for the little one,but remember what will happen,..i got upset and built a very large cage/coup with exercise area,but then that got filled up-now what??,..sincerely james waller


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## Siam Sam (May 16, 2009)

We have a pair of pigeons that keep laying eggs on our balcony, too. The father, Big Pidgee, is very territorial and won't let any other pigeons onto the balcony, relatives or others. The squabs have all left on their own, but one did return after a couple of months and tried to move in. Big Pidgee fought a couple of big battles with him ("her" we'd thought, having named it Katie, but it must have been a male, due to its aggressiveness). We had to intervene and chase Katie away, and after a couple of times, Katie got the message.

The funny thing is Katie seemed to have hooked up with Sammy, from another batch and therefore Katie's sibling. But would they know they were siblings? Sammy watched the fights passively, so we think we guessed wrong on his sex, too.


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## Kancora (Apr 17, 2009)

Oh dear! We've got a second set of eggs due in 10 days and the older chicks still come back every day to be with their parents. We will be prepared for the scenes....


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

After 2 successful pairs of hatchings in my lightwell in the past 2+ months....I found mom sittng on a 3rd pair of eggs last week....had to put the k'bosh on that...I invisibly startled her with some noise and took the eggs away (eggs maybe 3-4 days old).

Family of 6 is very cute.... but quite large enough for now.....


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## Pisciottano (Aug 20, 2005)

irretractable said:


> ok - thats good to know its "normal", but yes it's really sad to watch. The baby was really persistant, and, after about 40 minutes they finally let him eat. then he left...


I had that situation on my balcony, dad would be very aggressive to the two chicks if they tried to eat from the same dish but mum didn't mind. I put out food for the parents on the balcony but also a dish just inside the apartment and the babies would come in to eat away from the parents. It worked fine. But I had had a lot of interaction with the chicks from the time they were born and they knew me well. They were ferals but semi tame. Good luck with yours. Gladys


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