# Do pigeons eat a lot?



## Pirus (Apr 13, 2008)

This one I have rescued never stops! eat eat eat poop poop poop!

I have a dove and she only eats a few times a day, this guy when ever i put food in his cage just starts muching away.

Are pigeons notorious greedy pigs?


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## jbangelfish (Mar 22, 2008)

*Internal parasites maybe*

If he has worms, he may be eating more to compensate for parasites robbing him of the nutrition that he should be getting. Just a possibility.

Bill


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## Pirus (Apr 13, 2008)

I would see worms in his poop?


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Pirus said:


> I would see worms in his poop?


Not necessarily, depends on the type of worms.


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## Pirus (Apr 13, 2008)

Was also told he was quite skinny, may have had something to do with after the attack and not eating for a few days. How do you know if they have worms


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Pirus said:


> Was also told he was quite skinny, may have had something to do with after the attack and not eating for a few days. How do you know if they have worms


Their poop will be watery, they are lack luster and lack vigor and energy,they are skinny and eat all the time like your bird. They are nutritionally deficinient because the worms are getting the best of their diet.

You can have the droppings analyzed to determine if they have it, but all rescues should be wormed, it's just part of what a bird can pick up anywhere, and in the wild.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

If you have accurate scales, you could weigh him. We would be definitely concerned if an adult feral was below 300 grams, and we'd expect them to be somewhat more. The last squeaker I took in is now a young adult, but even his last 'squeaker weight' was close to 350 grams. The previous one was a hen, and her squeaker weight was about 320, as I recall.

John


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## Pirus (Apr 13, 2008)

His droppings seem firm, like a little ball, not watery.

When he gets his stitches out I will get some worming treatment to be on the safe side.


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## little bird (Aug 11, 2006)

Pirus said:


> This one I have rescued never stops! eat eat eat poop poop poop!
> 
> I have a dove and she only eats a few times a day, this guy when ever i put food in his cage just starts muching away.
> 
> Are pigeons notorious greedy pigs?


It has been my experience with ferals that their eating habits sometimes reflect their abundance of food. Ferals in my normal flock would wait for me to spread the seed and go about their meal in a normal manner. If one appeared in a frenzy to get every seed he could reach....often I could recognize the bird as a newcomer. I would assume that pigeons are like any animal that must forage for their daily food, and if food is scarce and they frequently go without finding anything....they will eat as much as they can possibly hold, because it may be days before they find food again. Your rescue may be such a bird and will continue to gorge itself even after you take all the precautions in case the problem could be worms, illness or whatever. I would ration his food to make sure he gets enough but doesn't overdo it and spread the portions out over the day so he learns there is more coming later.


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## warriec (Feb 2, 2007)

Change the diet to a pellet type diet. these are highly diegestable and easy on the system.

Could also be worms and many other things but i would first do the diet change and see.


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## jbangelfish (Mar 22, 2008)

*They don't eat much*

I think I read somewhere that a pigeon should eat one ounce of food a day. This of course, would be an average (feral or roller size) sized pigeon. Don't hold me to that one but I'm pretty sure I read it somewhere. I've never weighed feed to feed birds. It's best to give them what they'll clean up in a short period of time. I've seen from 5 to 20 minutes, I'll admit to giving mine longer.

You can buy pills that will worm a bird in one treatment and would certainly be a good idea for any new bird, especially a rescue or feral.

Bill


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## yellowking (Feb 25, 2008)

feral will eat more than domesticated pigeons because of the nature that they were brought up. the eating should slow down after you keep him for a while. make sure you have good healthy food, because it also need excersie and just like humans...too much food can cause problems. if you havent have pigeons before then yes they do poop a lot comapre to other animals.

AND NO THEY ARE NOT GREEDY PIGS.


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