Um... so I have this pigeon. Help?

[pony]

I gave it some thought, and decided to just stick with single kernals. (the decision based on my poor luck with pasty stuff earlier.) I just got another six kernals down him, and he didn't struggle as much this time.

I'm off to bed now, I'll check his crop first thing when I get up. Hopefully it will have emptied normally. *fingers crossed*

Goodnight, and thank you again!

[pony]

I checked him over when I woke up today, and his crop seemed to have emptied just fine, so I went ahead and fed him again. It was a bit easier this time, he didn't fuss too much. I got almost a tablespoon of corn down him.

I have to work tonight, but I'll pick up puppy chow on the way home and see if I can get some of that into him.

Poops are still watery with green sludge, and boy does he poop a lot. He's a pooping machine!

[cyro51]

LOL, fortunately pigeon poop is just about the best compost there is so I scape it all up and put in in a composter...but I don't think any pigeon could poop more than my very own Sir Poopsalot!

Cynthia

[pony]

Sir Poopsalot? *laugh* That's too cute.

I live in an apartment, so I don't have much use for compost. heh.

I just got home from work a little bit ago, and gave the puppy chow a try. I let it soak up some water, then we went to it. He fussed a bit before I got started, but once I started feeding it to him, he mellowed out. I got a good tablespoon down him with relative ease. *whew*

I wish I had a scale so I could do weigh-ins, but such is life.

[vgri]

How is your pooping machine doing Pony? You can't leave us with no updates!!
Violeta

[pony]

Hey, a girl's got to sleep, ya know!

Oliver's doing well. I think he's figuring out how to eat on his own! He's been picking at the seeds in his dish, and I'm pretty sure he's eaten some. (kinda hard to tell, since he winds up spilling them and pooping in them at least once a day) And his poop is getting a bit more solid now. Yay!

I wish I was better at judging the state of his crop. My fingers just don't seem to be very smart when I'm trying to feel what's going on there. *sigh*

I soaked some puppy chow and put it next to his seed dish. If he eats some, I won't hand feed him before I leave for work in an hour and a half. If not, I'll make sure at least a few pieces get down him.

I really wish I had more time at home, the poor little guy is alone an awful lot. But my schedule is rough. I work six nights a week. I'm doing the best I can for him, though... and he seems to be coming along well.

[vgri]

Wow! Six nights a week must be very rough! What a lucky guy Oliver is: You are making time for him in spite of the fact you are so busy. We are lucky too: thanks for taking the time to post for us!
Violeta

[pony]

Aw heck, what was I gonna do; let him become cat food?

(I feed those darn feral cats, too. They don't need pigeon for dinner!)

He didn't eat any chow before I had to leave for work, so I fed him some. When I got home, he had spilled his seed all over the place again, so I couldn't tell if he'd eaten any. (I wish I had non-tippable dishes, but I don't have anything that is right for the job.) I fed him some more puppy chow a little bit ago.

On the 'very good news' front, his poops are now what I would call "perfectly normal". Good sized, back to the right colors, and nice and solid. Yay! (Good heavens, who'd have ever thought I'd get excited over pigeon poop?)

[cyro51]

Yayyyyy!! Healthy poops are always good news!!!!


Checking the crop is actually a lot easier said than done. I can tell when a pigeon is absolutely starving and his crop is empty and I can tell when the crop is full, but when I am hand feeding I have great difficulty working out whether he has eaten any extras just by feeling the crop, so I have to go by the poop count ! I also do things like put down 5 peanuts only and wait to see if they disappear.

Cynthia

[pony]

I left some puppy chow out along with the seeds for him when I went to bed, but as usual, he spilled everything and mushed it all up walking in it, so I couldn't tell if he'd eaten anything or not.

I finally found something that might not spill so easily, it's the top of a plastic pitcher, and it's pretty stable. I put seed and a little puppy chow in that, we'll see what happens. I did hand feed him today just to make sure he had something in him.

He's been practicing his flying, which on one hand is a good thing, but it's a bit of a problem as well. My boyfriend is really unhappy with the thought of pigeon poop all over the apartment, and I can't say that I blame him. It's also bad because we have a lot of breakables sitting about, and no way to secure them. I'm going to have to shut him in the downstairs bathroom when I go to work so he doesn't run amok. (I tried covering his basket the other day to keep him in it, but he really freaked out.)

I'm happy to be helping the little guy, and I wouldn't change my mind if I had the choice to make over again, but I sure hope he gets into shape for release soon. He's using up all of what little time and energy I have. *wilt*

[cyro51]

Your boyfriend has been so patient, I think he is being very reasonable on this point.
I have a pigeon and a dove in my bathroom at night, it is the easiest room to keep clean. But please remember to keep the lid of the toilet down, pigeons have been known to fall in and drown. And remove any breakable bottles with contents that could be toxic to pigeons. I found my nail varnish remover broken one day...no harm done that time but it coould have been fatal.

Off to work now!

Cynthia

[pony]

Yep, I had the toilet closed, and there was nothing at all sitting out.

I got home to a completely poop-spattered bathroom. He's obviously been practicing the flying. In fact, now every time I get hear him, he flips out and flies around like a mad bird. He seems to have gotten the hang of it quite well.

I'm starting to think he's perfectly capable of eating, but is refusing to do so because he hates being in captivity.

Now I need to decide if I should just let him go outside here, or haul him back down to work, where I got him. The biggest problem with taking him back there is that it's long past dark when I get there. It's not possible for me to get there before sunset, either. I don't know if he'd have trouble seeing/flying after dark or not.

Argh. I don't want to set him loose too early, but the way he freaks out and flies about in a frenzy whenever I come near him now, he's going to get hurt.

What do you guys think?

[cyro51]

If he is a feral pigeon then I don’t think that being in captivity would in itself prevent him from feeding himself. I wouldn’t release until I was certain that he could feed himself and compete for food.

They are a bit naughty about being caught when they are flying free in the house. That is good, they learn to avoid predators that way. I worry about getting them agitated, when they start to pant in fear I leave them alone to recover. It is easier to wait until after dark to catch them.

Pigeons go to bed long before dark, so setting him free after dark, or even late in the afternoon, is not advisable. He might panic, get disorientated, crash or roost in a dangerous place.

He should be released into a flock in a quiet area where there is known to be food and water available. Ideally he should be taken to the release spot early in the morning and given a chance to get his bearings before release, although this has never worked for me as pigeons get so excited when they see a flock of their own kind.

I try to release early on Sunday mornings when it is quieter, I take the pigeon in a cat carrier which I set on the ground and let them step out in their own time.

Cynthia

[pony]

Good Lord. I just -tried- to hand feed him. I had to stop because he was fighting so hard I couldn't hold him without hurting him. (using the towel trick)

I've never had a rescued animal react this way to me. He just gets more and more freaked out by me trying to pick him up or touch him at all. I don't get it. I've been totally gentle with him, I talk to him in a quiet tone constantly, I've never been anything but sweet to him, but he acts like I'm a scarier monster every time he sees me.

He's even started pecking and biting when I put my hand near him, which of course doesn't hurt a bit, and I don't react to it at all. I just keep my hand there and keep talking to him until he realizes it's not making me go away.

Am I doing something wrong here, or did I just rescue a particularly difficult bird?

And how do I get the little poophead to eat if he won't let me hand feed him without breaking a wing or something? I even tried cooking up a stew of puppy chow and seeds, but no dice, he's not interested.

Gads, this is exhausting. I'm up way past my bedtime dealing with this stuff. Any ideas, anyone?

[pony]

Holy Toledo, I think I'm going to faint from shock. The tricky little bugger ate some seeds! He did!

I rearranged things in the bathroom a bit so his dishes were away from his basket. I refilled the seed and water dishes, put the "stew" there just in case he changed his mind, and when I checked in on him, he had definitely eaten some seeds.

I should have been in bed two hours ago, but I've been anxious over mister birdbrain. Now I know he's eating, I'm going to bed.

*collapses with relief*