Sammy Pigeon's progress

[Miloko]

Location: North Wales, UK

Hello all,

If you read my thread in the sick or injured pigeons section of the forum a month or so back then you'll know a bit about Sammy the Wood Pigeon. I took him in as a very young bird after he was run over by a car in front of our house. I nursed his injuries and hand fed him until he was able to eat and drink by himself, at which point, human tame and dependent on us he took up a permanent residence with us, free range in our bedroom (two cats prohibit him from free range of the whole house).

He really has progressed well from then on. Although he doesn't yet have many signs of adult feathering his eyes have changed colour from a soft and friendly dark grey to a rather fierce and imperious pale grey. His chest has a few pinkish hues coming along also. His wing feathers grew back twice. The first lot were twisted and mushed as if the feather buds had been injured when his first feathers were torn out by his car accident. They fell out of their own accord over the next week or so and some new, healthier feathers have replaced them. He flies VERY well. Even mastering the ominous hovering in one spot over our heads for a length of time which makes him seem very hawkish!

Our bedroom is adapted to be pretty pigeon friendly and I don't find him to be a lot of work to clean up after. He poops in the same two places so a couple of sheets of newspaper can be changed daily. he perches on his 'tree' when we're about so that he can watch us. His 'tree' is a cooler fan on a stand! His other favourite spots are overseeing us from the highest shelf and strutting about on the two windowsills, bird watching. He has some wooden perches set up as well, for when he feels like making use of them. At night he nestles on our wardrobe on the side nearest our bed and stares down at us until he drops off to sleep. He has a towel nest up there that he's fond of and I have given him an overturned cardboard box up there to make a hiding shelter if he ever feels the need. He obviously feels comforted by our company and if we don't leave the radio on very low through the night so he can hear human voices he won't sleep at all. Flapping about like a mad pigeon insomniac. He has also been known to sit and watch films on my husband's laptop, which is... strange but funny. Once or twice a week he has a bath in our bathtub in a shallow depth of warm water, which always freshens his feathers up a treat and gives him a lot of pleasure.

I am always aware, in the back of my mind, that he hasn't got an ideal wood pigeon environment. In an ideal world he would be out pigeoning around with his family and growing to maturity in the woods. Although it makes me sad to think of him being limited to a life with us, there are no alternatives. If I hadn't taken him in he would have died frightened and cold on the road that night, but by taking him in and making him human tame with a very long period of handling for his recuperation I have secured a domestic life for him possibly for the rest of his days. All I can do to comfort myself (and Sammy) is give him as much care and affection as any person can offer a bird. Occasionally he lets me know in his own way that he appreciates me making a fuss of him. Take this morning for instance, while I stayed in bed for a lie in and a good read for an extra hour, he watched me from his 'tree' and peered at me over a bowl of breakfast seed for a while. After I popped out to go to the bathroom and came back to climb into bed, there was Sammy! Stood next to my book and waiting to have a cuddle with me before I got up for breakfast!

As a wood pigeon he can be quite shy and aloof, but he is getting bolder with age! He now regularly pesters and attacks my husband (which doesn't hurt but does startle!), and it takes a lot of work for my husband to make peace with Sammy so that he can handle him and make a fuss. It's his way of letting my husband know he's not at the top of the pecking order any more I think.

One thing i do have a question about is this: He has a strange behaviour that I can only describe as narcoleptic or some kind of apnea. He'll just be going about his business when he'll fall asleep suddenly, dipping his head and closing his eyes as if he's going to tip over completely. He wakes just as suddenly, takes a quick breath and preens himself quickly as if he's not sure what he was doing. It's a long-standing behaviour that we have observed in him, nothing new. Unless someone here has any other ideas, I'm wondering if it's some kind of residual damage from being run over ( a knock to the head) or perhaps the reason why he ended up out of the nest so early in the first place, even before the accident. A disability he has maybe? A disorder of his little brain? His diet is good, he continues to eat fresh vegetables and wild bird seed mixed in with a little calcium powder and drinks well.

best wishes to Pigeon Talk's pigeon people from sammy and I.

Jess
xx

[Charis]

Hi Jess and thank you for the lovely up date.
I know nothing about Wood Pigeons and perhaps feefo can comment on Sammy's odd behavior. She and John know more about Wood Pigeons than anyone else I can think of.