Injured pigeon not eating

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohsx8t7O760&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
the first video called "my pigeon lexxi" is me and her i did the "bobbing my fist" thing. its where i put my fist up and down and she copied by bobbing her head too.

zomg fishies wrote:

a friend told me that about 3 times or more a day what you do is put your hand under them and over the eggs so that she thinks you have taken over nesting duty and will go eat drink and relieve theirself. actually i feel bad for muffins because foofie seems to have lost a little bit of love for her and rarely if ever sits on the nest so to do her stuff she leaves the nest empty then comes back when shes done. i think foofie may be a girl, they never mate yet they feed and preen and cuddle each other at night.

The hand over the eggs doesn't work with all of them.
Do they have eggs? If they don't have eggs, then the male doesn't spend time on the nest. No need to.

Thanks for sharing the videos with us, AnnMarie.
I can tell there is quite a bond between you and your beautiful birds.

Dear zomg fishies,

zomg fishies wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohsx8t7O760&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
the first video called "my pigeon lexxi" is me and her i did the "bobbing my fist" thing. its where i put my fist up and down and she copied by bobbing her head too.

This video is fantastic! I especially loved the end of the video where Lexxi flies from the roof to your shoulder and back. It is smply amazing!
Thank you for shooting and sharing the video.

Dear NiteOwl,

NiteOwl wrote:

Well if she should choose you as a mate, then she'll start laying eggs for you,

You got me quite confused here. Can a female pigeon lay eggs even without physically mating with a male pigeon? Or do I get something seriously wrong?

Many Thanks.

yes, pigeons lay eggs even if they havent mated, they will just be infertile. and yes muffins and foofie have eggs although they are fake atm, i switched out the real ones.

Ghanima, if you dont already, you can put a nest with clean hay in it in the cage for her. even before me and lexxi got close she enjoyed building the nest to her standards and sitting in it. i always felt a nest makes a pigeons cage more homey.

Ghanima wrote:

Dear zomg fishies,

zomg fishies wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohsx8t7O760&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
the first video called "my pigeon lexxi" is me and her i did the "bobbing my fist" thing. its where i put my fist up and down and she copied by bobbing her head too.

This video is fantastic! I especially loved the end of the video where Lexxi flies from the roof to your shoulder and back. It is smply amazing!
Thank you for shooting and sharing the video.

Dear NiteOwl,

NiteOwl wrote:

Well if she should choose you as a mate, then she'll start laying eggs for you,

You got me quite confused here. Can a female pigeon lay eggs even without physically mating with a male pigeon? Or do I get something seriously wrong?

Many Thanks.

Hi Ghanima,
Nope!! You didn't get anything wrong. As AnnMarie has stated, pigeons can lay eggs without actually mating.
That's how we found out our blind Rae Charles was a hen. All her actions indicated she was a male and then one day I found an egg in her cage.
The proof is in who lays the egg.

BTW: She still continues to coo, dance around, bow her head and fan her tail when Chuck or I walk into her room and just call her name.

Dear AnnMarie,

zomg fishies wrote:

yes, pigeons lay eggs even if they havent mated, they will just be infertile. and yes muffins and foofie have eggs although they are fake atm, i switched out the real ones.

Ghanima, if you dont already, you can put a nest with clean hay in it in the cage for her. even before me and lexxi got close she enjoyed building the nest to her standards and sitting in it. i always felt a nest makes a pigeons cage more homey.

Thank you for the information about the eggs. This is very interesting. And yes, our little lady has a nest with a soft towel in it. She doesn't spend much time in it though. She usually prefers to perch on her bar. But she sometimes sits on the nest, too. I put pine needles and small tree branches in the cage so that (if she wants) she can decorate the nest but she wasn't very much interested in decoration. Instead she preferred try and break them in small pieces and make a big mess around the cage.

Dear AZWhitefeather,

AZWhitefeather wrote:

That's how we found out our blind Rae Charles was a hen. All her actions indicated she was a male and then one day I found an egg in her cage.
The proof is in who lays the egg.

BTW: She still continues to coo, dance around, bow her head and fan her tail when Chuck or I walk into her room and just call her name.

This is lovely. Kader did the same to us once, too. At that time I suspected her to be a he. But then all her male admirers started to try and win her hearth. Then I became sure that Kader is a she.

Best Wishes.

zomg fishies wrote:

yes, pigeons lay eggs even if they havent mated, they will just be infertile. and yes muffins and foofie have eggs although they are fake atm, i switched out the real ones.

Ghanima, if you dont already, you can put a nest with clean hay in it in the cage for her. even before me and lexxi got close she enjoyed building the nest to her standards and sitting in it. i always felt a nest makes a pigeons cage more homey.

Yes, a nest is nice. They should have a nice shelf to sit on, and a nest if they choose to use that. Nice for them to have options. Some may like one, and some the other.

[/quote]
Hi Ghanima,
Nope!! You didn't get anything wrong. As AnnMarie has stated, pigeons can lay eggs without actually mating.
That's how we found out our blind Rae Charles was a hen. All her actions indicated she was a male and then one day I found an egg in her cage.
The proof is in who lays the egg.

BTW: She still continues to coo, dance around, bow her head and fan her tail when Chuck or I walk into her room and just call her name. [/quote]



That must have been quite the surprise. LOL.

NiteOwl wrote:

Hi Ghanima,
Nope!! You didn't get anything wrong. As AnnMarie has stated, pigeons can lay eggs without actually mating.
That's how we found out our blind Rae Charles was a hen. All her actions indicated she was a male and then one day I found an egg in her cage.
The proof is in who lays the egg.

BTW: She still continues to coo, dance around, bow her head and fan her tail when Chuck or I walk into her room and just call her name. [/quote]



That must have been quite the surprise. LOL.

[/quote]
Yes, it sure was.

Dear All,

I am sorry to bother you again but I think Kader might have a problem. Her poop is too watery and she eats less than she used to. As I type now, she is consuming a large amount of grit. I never saw her eating that much grit before.

I checked her crop and it felt as usual. However, I am not sure that it means she is OK because, since she never eats much, I never had a chance to feel her full crop. So, I don't have a good experience in how a normal crop feels.

What do you think? Should I give her some metronizadole?

Best Wishes.

You don't want to give her meds unless you are sure she needs them. How long have her poops been off? Can you post a pic so that we will have a better idea? When birds consume a lot of grit, that can make them drink more, and her poops could be more wet. Hard to say how much grit you mean that she is eating, or how little seed.

Is there any way you can get Kader weighed, Ghanima?
I agree, a photo would be very helpful.

Dear NiteOwl and AZWhitefeather,

Thank you for your answers. Here are the photos. You can see that the newspaper is noticeably wet, especially in the second photo.

NiteOwl wrote:

How long have her poops been off? ... Hard to say how much grit you mean that she is eating, or how little seed.

Well, it is difficult for me to say how much grit she is eating. She has a small dish of grit in her cage and every time I fill it up, she scatters the whole thing around the cage. So, it is difficult to say how much of it she is actually eating. She wasn't so much interested in grit before.
Her poops are watery for the last 48 hours now. However, the grit issue has been going on for four or five days.

I don't know it any of it could be relevant but here is what I did just before this has started: In her cage her water was standing right next to the window and was getting too warm because of the sun light. So I exchanged the places of water and grit. The grit issue started just after that. A few days later I planted some cabbage and lettuce in the balcony. She played around with the soil and with the plants. I noticed that she took a few bites of the lettuce. Her poops being watery started just after that.

AZWhitefeather wrote:

Is there any way you can get Kader weighed, Ghanima?

Yes. I will try to do it today.

Dear All,

I had Kader weighted. She is 262 grams, which is 10 grams down from last time.

Hi Ghanima,

I don't know how I managed to miss your last two posts... I just popped in to ask how things were going, and saw what you wrote about Kader's watery poops. I'm very sorry I wasn't around to reply.

How is Kader now, and what happened about the poops? Did you take her to the vet's?

Best wishes to you both. Please keep us posted.

Dear Teresa,

Teresa wrote:

Hi Ghanima,

I don't know how I managed to miss your last two posts... I just popped in to ask how things were going, and saw what you wrote about Kader's watery poops. I'm very sorry I wasn't around to reply.

How is Kader now, and what happened about the poops? Did you take her to the vet's?

Best wishes to you both. Please keep us posted.

Don't even worry about it. Kader is now in good shape. The watery poop issue disappeared a few days after my lasts posts. At that time I went for one of my travels and when I returned it totally slipped out of mind so I forgot to post it. I am sorry for that.

Nowadays we are having a new pigeon guest. This one looks like a wild pigeon but she has tags in her ankles and appears to be (perhaps a bit too much) human friendly. She keeps getting in our house and eating the food spilled in out kitchen floor (and therefore giving my husband the opportunity to joke about my housekeeping). Kader is very unhappy about this new pigeon. She chases the new pigeon out of the kitchen if she sees her there. Two times the new pigeon tried to enter Kader's cage but Kader is very good in defending her cage, too. I am worried about something violent might happen between them. I just hope that the new pigeon returns to her owner soon enough.

Best wishes.

Hi Ghanima,

Thanks for the update! It's great to know that Kader's poops are back to normal and she's herself again.
It sounds like your visitor is a racing pigeon who decided to take a break. If the new pigeon is very competitive and Kader is unhappy about his/her presence, then it's best not to encourage him/her to come into the house, as Kader is likely to feel threatened by the intrusion.

Give Kader a kiss from me!

Many thanks for the update, Ghanima.
I am so glad to hear that Kader is doing will.

Dear Teresa,

Teresa wrote:

Hi Ghanima,

It sounds like your visitor is a racing pigeon who decided to take a break. If the new pigeon is very competitive and Kader is unhappy about his/her presence, then it's best not to encourage him/her to come into the house, as Kader is likely to feel threatened by the intrusion.

Give Kader a kiss from me!

The new visitor seems to be determined to stay at least for some time more. She might have mated with one of the males in this region, although I can't say for sure. We named her Safinaz, which is the Turkish name for Popeye's girl friend Olive.

There is now a working solution between Kader and Safinaz. Every morning, we leave some food for Safinaz under kitchen table. She learned where the food is and everyday she eats it and leaves quickly. This way she stays off Kader's cage. Kader is now tolerating her presence in the kitchen. I took their pictures together but right now I am having problems transferring the pics to my computer. I'll send them later.

Best wishes.

That sounds like a very diplomatic compromise! And the name 'Safinaz' sounds a lot better than 'Olive Oil'!
I look forward to seeing the photos.

Appreciate the update, Ghanima.

Your compromise sounds like a very amicable one.

I'm glad Kader is being more receptive of Safinaz.

I hope you are able to get your photos transferred as we would love to see them.
Please keep us posted.

Dear All,

Kader is doing very well lately. She is very active and looks happy. However, she survived a very dangerous incident a few days ago, luckily without injuries.

Now that she is stronger, she sometimes tries to fly over to the furniture. We noticed this earlier but we really didn't think that she would be successful.

However, a few days ago, we went out to a friend's for dinner and we left her in the kitchen since she likes it there. Unfortunately we left a window open. When we came back Kader was missing. We realized that she somehow jumped off the window, down from the fifth floor and straight onto the street!

We immediately went down to look for her with flashlights (it was late) but we couldn't find her. Then we saw a neighbor who informed us that another neighbor has saved her from a cat attack. But he also said that she was injured. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to see her until next morning because she was put into a box and left in a local shop for the night and the owner has left until next morning.

As you can guess I had a very bad night because I was very worried for her and feeling guilty at the same time. When I went to the shop early next morning, I was a mess. I started crying even before the owner opened the box to show her to me.

When I saw her inside the small box, I started crying even harder because she looked just fine and I was so relieved!

Apparently the injuries that the first neighbor was referring to were her wing and eye which were already as they are. I took her home and examined her for hidden injuries. Amazingly, she didn't have any.

Now, she is doing well. She seems to stop her flying ventures (she didn't try since the incident) but we are extra careful now. It seems like we are going to have a hot summer!

Best Wishes.

Hi Ghanima,

Thank you so much for the update!
What a fright you must have had with Kader's adventure! I'm glad she wasn't seriously injured, but please put her on a course of Synulox/Clavamox/Amoxicillin straight away, as cat bites, even tiny little ones, carry bacteria that can kill a pigeon in a few days, often with no warning until it's too late.
I realise this may be difficult during the weekend, but that antibiotic is also used for humans, cats and dogs (the ones for cats are best, as the dosage is not so high), so it's available in most pharmacies.

Dear Theresa,

Thank you very much for the information. It has been a week (as of today) since the attack and Kader seems to be fine now. But I will give her the medicine. It is best to be safe than sorry.

Can you recommend a dosage? Kader is now about 280g (she finally started to put on some weight). Is for example, 20g ok for her? And how many days do you recommend?

Best Wishes.