# Advice for an aggressive bird?



## lippylibrarian1 (Dec 16, 2006)

Hello! I adopted a white homing pigeon in August that was about 8-10 weeks old, in the hopes of making him (her) an educational pet to take in for school visits. (I am a children's librarian.) I keep him indoors in a large wire dog kennel. I am assuming this is a male pigeon, but truthfully am no expert! At any rate, I have spent a lot of time feeding, and bonding with Buster. He was doing great, and would sit on me, and let me stroke him, and when I was on computer, would lie at my feet and roost. But slowly, he has become more and more aggressive. He has always chased and pecked at my indoor cat when it would come to sit by me, but now he puffs up and pecks at my hand when I try to touch him. I've read that they are protective of their cages, so it doesn't bother me to have him attack when I clean his cage, but I am so disheartened that he's doing it when he's out of the cage. My thought is that I will put him outside in the spring in a coop and get him a mate. Does anyone have any advice? I appreciate your help--Amy


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

Unfortunately, some of them are a bit on the enthusiastic side. I don't know what you can do to actually curb that, either. It might be best to get the mate and then use the mate for the educational pet although sometimes they calm down a bit when they're taken to completely new settings. You might be able to acquire a much tamer bird from someone on the board here depending on where you're at.

Pidgey


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## Victor (Dec 18, 2004)

Hello Amy and welcome to Pigeon Talk. I can fully understand your frustration with your pigeon,Buster.

Working with children at times myself, I can appreciate your concern with Busters little problem.

I have 6 pet pigeons, of which three of them I adopted here from members on Pigeon Talk.

My first male pigeon my wife and rescued named Tooter was a single pigeon we had after we rescued him from being shot a couple of years ago till he had an encounter with a hawk last December. Well, anyway, he was gone for almost 8 months and mysteriously came back home to us. He is a joy, but he is very aggressive with the other males in the coop, so I have to keep him isolated and allow him his own private flight time till I can section of the coop later on. Some males, are just naturally, as Pidgey said,"enthusiastic".

When I have kids over for a presention, I have to be careful when handling Tooter. He loves me to death but will beat me up when I reach inside his quarters and he will attack the other boys.(ahh the bird ones that is)


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

lippylibrarian1 said:


> * He was doing great, and would sit on me, and let me stroke him, and when I was on computer, would lie at my feet and roost. But slowly, he has become more and more aggressive. *He has always chased and pecked at my indoor cat when it would come to sit by me, but now he puffs up and pecks at my hand when I try to touch him. I've read that they are protective of their cages, so it doesn't bother me to have him attack when I clean his cage, but I am so disheartened that he's doing it when he's out of the cage. My thought is that I will put him outside in the spring in a coop and get him a mate. Does anyone have any advice? I appreciate your help--Amy


Hi Amy,

Welcome to Pigeon-Talk,

I appreciate you sharing our beloved pigeon species with the children. There is not enough positive education on these wonderful birds.

This bird is still doing great, he is just a normal male pigeon that is growing up and claiming and protecting his territory. It is actually a compliment that he pecks at you, as he considers you his equal and is comfortable around you.

I still would not give up on him, as my pet bird, Skye has his moments when I intrude on his privacy, but when he is in neutral territory he can be quite sweet and loving, especially if I promise to give him a peanut.

Perhaps a female pigeon companion may help, to keep him company and to use her as the educational pet, they are usually the more gentler creature. But he may become less tame once his attention is focused on the hen.


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## Cricket (Sep 1, 2005)

I have recently been told that the White Homing pigeons have a running history of being (sometimes) more agressive or bully-ish. I have a White one who is KING of all there is to have in the loft! Having a mate has only increased his attitude and his need to let everyone else know he is serious and means business. Everyone else, that would be 5 others, have bowed down to his Royal High-arse and taken a beating more or less. Well I got tired of it and was told to try tieing his legs together where he can stand normally, fly normally, land normally, basically do everything he needs to do except take a fighting position. He can't put one leg back to get the momentum behind a wing slap or serious peck. It sounds mean, but to watch him terrorize the rest of the loft and not be able to do something was just awful. Once he had been "tied" the loft began functioning normally. The others were able to rest and when necessary, able to fight back and actually have an effect! It was amazing! When I took the ties off, everyone else had already established their spots in the loft and now my White Homer seems to respect their spots. So far so good and if he needs to be re-tied, I will do it in a heartbeat and without hesitation! I used snap bands with a thick rubber band twisted between the bands. Twisted so he wasn't likely to step into the loop or get caught up on anything, which he didn't. Wonders I tell you! Don't know if this would help your situation, but I felt I should share my experience here. Good luck.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Cricket said:


> I have recently been told that the White Homing pigeons have a running history of being (sometimes) more agressive or bully-ish. I have a White one who is KING of all there is to have in the loft! Having a mate has only increased his attitude and his need to let everyone else know he is serious and means business. Everyone else, that would be 5 others, have bowed down to his Royal High-arse and taken a beating more or less. Well I got tired of it and was told to try tieing his legs together where he can stand normally, fly normally, land normally, basically do everything he needs to do except take a fighting position. He can't put one leg back to get the momentum behind a wing slap or serious peck. It sounds mean, but to watch him terrorize the rest of the loft and not be able to do something was just awful. Once he had been "tied" the loft began functioning normally. The others were able to rest and when necessary, able to fight back and actually have an effect! It was amazing! When I took the ties off, everyone else had already established their spots in the loft and now my White Homer seems to respect their spots. So far so good and if he needs to be re-tied, I will do it in a heartbeat and without hesitation! I used snap bands with a thick rubber band twisted between the bands. Twisted so he wasn't likely to step into the loop or get caught up on anything, which he didn't. Wonders I tell you! Don't know if this would help your situation, but I felt I should share my experience here. Good luck.



You show em' who's the boss girl!!!  Really, glad that worked. I've got a bully right now that I may have to try this with. He has taken two nest boxes and I have to go out every night and pick one bird up off the floor after dark and put him in his box. What's with these bully birds???


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Hi Renee and Cricket,

I understand the concept (BULLY), as I have a white king who is a terror to his own mate, and he is relentless at the community feeder. White Kings are definitely more aggressive by nature, but I'm wondering if that is the case with every whitepigeon. I have several and they are not bullies.

Amy's bird seems to be just young and coming into his own and protecting his territory, hopefully it is just growing pains, and not him being a bully. I'm sure Amy will find out when she does get another bird.


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

Amy, the only thing I can suggest is to handle him often whether he bites or not. He is probably young and still needs to mature a bit more.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Trees Gray said:


> Hi Renee and Cricket,
> 
> I understand the concept (BULLY), as I have a white king who is a terror to his own mate, and he is relentless at the community feeder. White Kings are definitely more aggressive by nature, but I'm wondering if that is the case with every whitepigeon. I have several and they are not bullies.
> 
> Amy's bird seems to be just young and coming into his own and protecting his territory, hopefully it is just growing pains, and not him being a bully. I'm sure Amy will find out when she does get another bird.


No, the birds color has nothing to do with it. I've got a bully in every section of my loft...........all three are red cocks...........I do agree however, that Amy is dealing with a young bird and he may or may not grow up to be a bully. He's just feeling his oats so to speak right now.


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## Pidgey (May 20, 2005)

I might have to give that deal with the legs a shot, Cricket. I don't suppose you could take and post a picture of that apparatus that you mentioned, couldja'?

Pidgey


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Lovebirds said:


> No, the birds color has nothing to do with it. I've got a bully in every section of my loft...........all three are red cocks...........


Absolutely, I have many bullies of all colors and one is red. I was saying that it seems to be the White King males (the breed) that carry that trait, not necessarily all other white birds as my other white male birds are mild in nature.


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

Trees Gray said:


> Absolutely, I have many bullies of all colors and one is red. I was saying that it seems to be the White King males (the breed) that carry that trait, not necessarily all other white birds as my other white male birds are mild in nature.


All my Kings are aggressive, including the girl Kings. I guess they have it in their genes.

Reti


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## Cricket (Sep 1, 2005)

Renee, you SHOULD try this!!! It worked soooo well and sooo fast! It was an awesome idea and recommendation by a special Pigeon Pro I just happen to know! (hee hee) Pidgey, I'd be happy to take a photograph... but it will mean a temporary re-tie! ha heh... (evil little laugh)... I will do that as soon as this chaotic holiday rush week has waned. I am gone early and home after dark and I miss my pigeons terribly! Not enough daylight! But I promise to post a picture of how I did it. I first used a cheap necklace and cut it to length, but he somehow managed to break it. The rubberband worked the best! It has been at least four or five days since the ties were removed and things are still as they should be... I hope that this young white homer Amy is dealing with will sort it all out and overcome this current issue. Bullies stink in any species!


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Well, I just might have to get out the ol' rubber bands. I've had a lot of trouble moving the 2006 cock birds into the old bird racing loft. It got so bad, I had to pull out ALL of the old cocks, move them to the other loft and let the younger cocks have the loft for about a week. Then every day I would move one old cock back over to the loft. All was going well until I move this silver cock back. He WILL NOT let one of the 2006 cocks have the box next to his. He thinks they both belong to him!! It's funny how they know who they can bully. He doesn't mess with the 2005 cock that is on the other side of him. Just the young one. I've had him locked up all day. Let him out this afternoon and he went to get a drink of water and straight up to the box next to his and began fighting and throwing the young one out. So.......he's locked up again tonight.


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## Cricket (Sep 1, 2005)

Do it Renee, you won't be sorry... and the younger bird will have the upper hand for once and get some confidence for the future around that Silver Bully. He will be knocked down a notch or two and be a better bird in the end. If we could all just get allllooooooooong!!! Space or territory wars are not welcome in our lofts! Don't they get it? Good luck and let us know how it goes or as it goes!


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

You are SCARING me........you like this TOO much......... 
JUST KIDDING.............


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