# Change in behavior



## nmillerhhi (May 30, 2008)

We have had Blessing, our white homing pigeon, for a little over 2 years. Some of you may remember her. She came to the front door and knocked repeatedly until we took her in. She was emaciated, missing a tail and mud spattered. She has done very well here and lives in a cage in the dining area where the mini dogs have their individual cages. 

She always sits on this basket sort of thing we wired to the corner. She likes sitting there and watches us while we watch TV and talk to her. She has perches and things in there. Her cage is an extra large wire dog crate we found at a yard sale and created a home for her in it. 

Last night and today we have noticed that she is no longer sitting on her basket but is sitting in the back corner of the cage on the floor with her face in the corner away from us. If we check on her, she will move but goes right back. Her poop is the same as always. She has not lost weight. One of her eyes was puffy but we have medicine we put in it that the avian vet gave her. She gets these now and then but it's been a few months since the last one. The medicine clears it right up

We are assuming that she is a she since we didn't have the vet do a DNA. We also don't know how old she was when we got her. She was not banded. 

Does any one have an idea of what this behavior might indicate?


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## Budd (Jul 20, 2010)

Hard to say what that problem is. Could be the begining stage of something bad happening inside. I hope someone on here has the info you need. Otherwise just consult with your avian vet.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Does she show any signs of possible illness such as being fluffed up when she is in the corner as you described, or does she crouch or lie down rather than stand? 

I realize she is a lone pigeon, but has she ever laid an egg? 

Does she get free flying time in the house?

John


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## nmillerhhi (May 30, 2008)

We've never had an egg. She doesn't get free flying time in the house but we take her out every day and hold and pet her. Sometimes she likes it. Sometimes she bites us. My husband's afraid she could hit a ceiling fan or something else could hurt her. She flaps her wings a lot in the cage, which is plenty large for that. When the weather is nice, we put her on a table or hang her cage from hooks in the ceiling on the deck. She loves that. We talk to her all the time. She cooes at me and makes grrr grrr grrr noises at my husband. 

She wasn't fluffed up and she wasn't standing, just sort of crouched. In fact, I wondered if she might be having an egg. However, today, she got back up on her perch and has been her old self. The medicine fixed her eye so it's fine tonight. We had her out this evening and checked her over good. Her weight is fine. She enjoyed her shower. She has bath water in her cage but seems to like a shower sometimes. 

Neither of us have ever had a pigeon. My husband has had experience with a lot of other birds though. Blessing just came to us and we took her in and have tried to do our best for her. I make her food out of dove mix with lentils, dried peas, some vitamin supplement pellets I found for pigeons at the feed store, brown rice (she loves this one particular multigrain brand) and barley. We certainly love her.


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## lindylou (Jul 25, 2009)

God bless you for showing such kindness to this little one. She is getting a little bit of "bird Paradise" with you both LOL. Keep up the good work.


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## nmillerhhi (May 30, 2008)

Well, we figured out the problem. Blessing is such a spoiled bird. She was pouting. She wanted more brown rice. She had eaten all of it and left the rest of her food. I put some in her bowl and she eagerly ate it up. I guess this explains why the day before she had been pacing back and forth on the bottom of her cage staring at us. She eats all the brown rice first and I often wait to refill her bowl until she eats some of the other stuff. I guess she got mad at me for it. 

This is the same bird who will moon my husband on occasion. Just turns her back and flips her tail up and down. Then I hear a shout of "Your buzzard's mooning me again!"


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## TerriB (Nov 16, 2003)

Glad it wasn't anything serious. Any change in behavior does make your radar go on alert!

When was the last time you treated this bird for canker/Trichomonas? Sometimes when a bird has growth restricting their throat or a sore in their mouth, they will insist on smaller seed. Just something to consider.

If it's been a while, you might also think about worming. A heavy worm load can definitely make a bird feel down.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

I would take a poop sample to the vet to be checked.


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## nmillerhhi (May 30, 2008)

Hmmm I've never treated her for anything but this occasional problem where her eye gets puffy. The medicine fixes it immediately. I figured since she was an only bird she was pretty safe from getting stuff wrong with her. I'll call the avian vet.

She has been back to her normal self since I started making sure she has her rice. She does eat the other stuff as long as she has rice too. The rice is bigger than the dove seed mix.

Oh, we watch all our pets carefully for even the slightest change in behavior. Besides our pigeon, we have a min pin, a mini dachshund, 4 adult chihuahuas and 4 baby chihuahuas. Two of the babies have homes waiting for them once they are weaned. 3 of the dogs are rescues from puppy mills that we've now had for nearly 2 years.


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## TerriB (Nov 16, 2003)

Wow, you really have a canine chorus! Good for you rescuing several dogs. We have two part-Chihuahuas which we got through a rescue group.

I'll have to offer my birds some rice just to see if they will try it.


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## nmillerhhi (May 30, 2008)

Blessing does not like white rice. She only likes the whole grain or multi grain brown rice. Multigrain is her favorite. We never find rice on the floor!! She picks through her food to get all the rice first. Most of the time she'll eat the other stuff but now and then she pouts if there's not enough rice.


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