Found A Pigeon

[Brandy52000]

Hello! My husband found a pigeon while he was at work today. He found it out in the parking lot where he works. He went right up to it, and it didn't fly away. Knowing that I am an animal lover, he calls me and tells me he found the pigeon and put it in a box, and asked if I wanted it. I told him I did, in fear that the pigeon would be killed around all those cars, children, etc... So, I now have this pigeon. I put it in a 75 gallon tank with wild bird seed and a dish of water. I never had a pigeon before, so is the wild bird seed good food? Also, is a 75 gallon tank a good home? I do have finches, parakeets, and cocketiels, but never had any pigeon experience. Any advice would be great. Thx!

[fred2344]

Hi,
The two of you are marvelous people for trying to save the life of this bird. If the bird is young and makes it through, you will have a pet that is as smart, loving and affectionate as any of your other birds.
The tank is fine.
Wildbird seed is also fine but is the bird eating?
There has to be something wrong for the bird to have been simply sitting there. It could be a youngster in a state of starvation. If it is too young, it may not know how to eat yet so it is crucial for you to know.
Observation is going to mean everything here so please give as much information as possible but if the bird is not eating, hand feed about thirty pinch fulls of seed. Discard any sunflower seeds in the mix. If this is a young bird, sunflower seeds might obstruct the system.
Put seed in the back of the mouth and the bird will do the rest. Pigeons swallow seed whole. Afterwards, put the beak into the water for a second and see if the bird drinks on its own.
If this is a case of starvation, droppings may not start for at least 3 hours after there is food in the crop. If that is the case, droppings will be green and watery at first. It could take more than a week for them to normalize. Of course, none of this is germain if the bird is eating on its own.
There are many other possibilities for this bird being alone in the parking lot and that is why I hope you come back and give updates on what is going on.
Above all, isolate this bird from your others for at least 60 days and disinfect your hands everytime you handle it. That is just plain common sense.
Again, I urge you to update us often.

[fred2344]

One other thing:
Starved pigeons sometimes throw up food. Sick pigeons can also throw up food so if this bird does that, stop the seed, soak Purina Puppy Chow and feed about 15-20 pieces and see if that more easily digestible food will sit better in the bird.
Even a healthy but starved bird can throw up food for a 2-3 days so as I mentioned in the earlier post, observation is everything.