# Pigeon with full time job?



## tetra6708 (Apr 6, 2018)

Hi! I'm about to move out from my parents house, meaning I now have the freedom to get any pet I chose. I want a pigeon as a companion animal because they're so sweet and trainable. However I will be getting a full time job soon. Can I work full time and still keep a pigeon? I know birds need plenty of love and attention. Should I get two? Will the birds still bond with me even if theres two of them?


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Pigeons bond with each other if you have a pair. A single nonreleasable rescued pigeon can be happy if you give him or her hours of attention every day.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

I disagree that a lone pigeon is really happy. We like to think they are, but can they talk and tell us? It just isn't natural for a pigeon to live in a human world. The way they are wired, is that the most important thing to them is to pair up with another pigeon, and build a nest and raise babies. Alone, they will begin to view the human as their mate. That is not normal. With a mate, they can spend their days and nights with a pigeon. They can mate together and lay eggs in a nest they build together. They also share nest sitting duties and take turns sitting on the eggs, so they get a lot of time off the nest. They have someone there that they care very much for, and they are not alone all day. 

With a human, they may view the human as a mate, but they cannot mate with them, or build a nest with them, and if it is a hen, then she is then stuck sitting on the nest 24/7, as there is no mate to share that responsibility. When they don't hatch after the 18 days or so, they will start again and have more eggs. So between eggs they have some time out of the cage for exercising and a chance to enjoy just being a bird. Then after 10 days or however long that time may be, they will lay again, and then be stuck in the cage and on the nest with the eggs again. Sound like fun to you? 
People have come on complaining that their hen is in the cage on the eggs all the time, and they are not getting to enjoy them anymore like they used to. 
To take a healthy pigeon and put her/him in a life of confinement and being alone a good deal of the time is not fair to the bird. Sometimes a disabled pigeon must be kept that way, as you just have no choice, but even many of them can be with a mate or companion. Still not a natural existence, but at least better than alone.
People who believe that they are happy and fulfilled living alone with a human, well I think they just want to believe that. Makes it easier..................... doesn't make it so.


The bonding question was a good one. If they have a mate, they are less likely to bond with you, as they are not as needy as a lone pigeon. A lone pigeon must eventually bond with you or remain even more alone. I do have mated pigeons in my loft that will come to me and very friendly even though they are mated, but most were raised as babies or very young birds. An adult bird takes time to trust you and want to be friendly with you, and if mated it can be more of a challenge. But there is nothing wrong with just enjoying them for how they are. 
get him to trust you or bond with you, and if they are mated, though not impossible, it is more difficult.


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## Howl (Nov 9, 2017)

My pigeon was a sad one before I got her a pigeon mate, though I would not make generalization based on my limited experience. During some first few months that she stayed at my house and without a pigeon friend, she became so attached to me that if I left her alone for a couple of hours she would get frustrated and expressed it clearly enough that I felt so bad every time I had to leave her. Once she got a mate, she is not so close to me anymore, only plays with me when her mate sits on eggs  But I still find it very rewarding to have her and her mate in my home.


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