[Alya_Sherlock]

Hello everybody, first time here! I need expert advise on something. I adopted a male pigeon from my local shelter last February. At the shelter I was told they had him since he was a baby, they hand fed him and they weren't sure about his actual age but not above 1 year old. He is white homing pigeon. His name is Mr President but we tend to call him just Pigeon. He warmed up to us pretty quickly, sat on us, liked to hang out with me and my husband and slept on top of us. But for the past maybe 6 month he started hating me. He only hangs out with my husband now and me he only pecks and coos at me. I feed him unsalted crushed peanuts regularly, but as soon as my palm gets empty he pecks me. If i put my hand near him he pecks it but as soon as my husband does the same he just dances a little or walks away. What did I do wrong? He is aggressive around his cage and his food bowl and coos at places he tries to claim as his. I tend to think that my pigeons pecking order is: My husband, then pigeon and only after pigeon is me. How do I show him that it is MY food and i choose to share with him and not that he pecks me and takes food away? I just wanna give up and bring him back to the shelter but my husband adores him so i want to try to make it work. Any advise is welcome!

 

[Marina B]

You did not do anything wrong! Sometimes when raised from babies, they do get human imprinted. He has chosen your husband as a mate, so unfortunately that is just something you have to live with. You can always adopt a female for him, and hopefully he will rather fall in love with her and not with your husband. You will then just need a lot of time to slowly introduce them to each other, and your husband will have to keep his distance.

 

[bootface]

Pigeons are going to defend their territory, regardless of the “pecking order”. It is his space and food. You can try putting food in the bowl whenever you reach in, but hands are scary and I don’t expect pigeons to like them reaching towards them.