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Hey guys,
I've spent the last several weeks using your forum postings like scripture, and I come to you now in seek of some guidance.
On June 5th (today is July 26th), I found a baby pigeon, estimated to be roughly a week old. Its nest was much too high to attempt placing it back, so I had to make the decision to care for it. Initially it wouldn't eat or drink so I spent more than a week carrying it with me in a small hamster cage and having to open its beak gently to supply it with food. For anyone wondering, during this time I fed it a special soft mixture blend of chicken feed starter, raspberies, canary seeds, and water- blended into a paste. Eventually she started pecking and learned to feed herself and drink water when needed. We eventually figured she was a female even though we had already named her Chuck.
My initial plan was to rehabilitate Chuck back into her initial flock. When she first started to attempt flight I began taking her back to where the flock was roosted, and her sibling and parents were there. They did not seem interested in her and she wasn't interested in them. Over a few weeks I continued to take her back, and even if she does engage with another pigeon, she will fly back to me if I begin to leave, and if the other pigeons take off she will simply return to me instead of following them.
Chuck has seemed happy and content. She eats well, flies, forages, coos, and seems healthy.
The last two or three days however she has begun pulling her feathers out and having little outbursts of biting me. Now, we play sometimes and she lightly pecks at my fingers and stuff, but this is full on furious biting. There have been no changes in environment and since she has started this behaviour I make sure no one is loud or goes near her until she flies over to see them as to not stress her out.
She is pulling her feathers out so much that her fan feathers are starting to thin and the place looks like a bird exploded. It is mostly the smaller down feathers but there have been flight feathers pulled out as well. I've not noticed any blood or mites.
I've been keeping her with me as much as possible which seems to alleviate her stress and the picking stops, however, like I said, she bites me sometimes now.
When she isn't with me, I keep her in the bathroom where she is free to fly and move around. This has been a temporary fix, and now that I'm realizing that she won't rehabilitate, I've begun building her an 8x10x8 flight cage with a roost outside.
I feel like I need to say that there are NO bird rescues within ten hours of me that would even consider taking her. I live in a rural part of British Columbia, Canada. I am prepared to keep her. I'm also okay with continuing to encourage her rehabilitation into the wild.
As I sit here typing this, Chuck is contently sitting on my lap bedded down. I love her and want what will be best for her.
My question is- why the behaviour? is it stress? isolation? am I doing something wrong? what can I do to fix this? I'm even open to getting another bird (budgie maybe?) for her once the flight cage is made, haha.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
I've spent the last several weeks using your forum postings like scripture, and I come to you now in seek of some guidance.
On June 5th (today is July 26th), I found a baby pigeon, estimated to be roughly a week old. Its nest was much too high to attempt placing it back, so I had to make the decision to care for it. Initially it wouldn't eat or drink so I spent more than a week carrying it with me in a small hamster cage and having to open its beak gently to supply it with food. For anyone wondering, during this time I fed it a special soft mixture blend of chicken feed starter, raspberies, canary seeds, and water- blended into a paste. Eventually she started pecking and learned to feed herself and drink water when needed. We eventually figured she was a female even though we had already named her Chuck.
My initial plan was to rehabilitate Chuck back into her initial flock. When she first started to attempt flight I began taking her back to where the flock was roosted, and her sibling and parents were there. They did not seem interested in her and she wasn't interested in them. Over a few weeks I continued to take her back, and even if she does engage with another pigeon, she will fly back to me if I begin to leave, and if the other pigeons take off she will simply return to me instead of following them.
Chuck has seemed happy and content. She eats well, flies, forages, coos, and seems healthy.
The last two or three days however she has begun pulling her feathers out and having little outbursts of biting me. Now, we play sometimes and she lightly pecks at my fingers and stuff, but this is full on furious biting. There have been no changes in environment and since she has started this behaviour I make sure no one is loud or goes near her until she flies over to see them as to not stress her out.
She is pulling her feathers out so much that her fan feathers are starting to thin and the place looks like a bird exploded. It is mostly the smaller down feathers but there have been flight feathers pulled out as well. I've not noticed any blood or mites.
I've been keeping her with me as much as possible which seems to alleviate her stress and the picking stops, however, like I said, she bites me sometimes now.
When she isn't with me, I keep her in the bathroom where she is free to fly and move around. This has been a temporary fix, and now that I'm realizing that she won't rehabilitate, I've begun building her an 8x10x8 flight cage with a roost outside.
I feel like I need to say that there are NO bird rescues within ten hours of me that would even consider taking her. I live in a rural part of British Columbia, Canada. I am prepared to keep her. I'm also okay with continuing to encourage her rehabilitation into the wild.
As I sit here typing this, Chuck is contently sitting on my lap bedded down. I love her and want what will be best for her.
My question is- why the behaviour? is it stress? isolation? am I doing something wrong? what can I do to fix this? I'm even open to getting another bird (budgie maybe?) for her once the flight cage is made, haha.
Thanks in advance for any advice!