Pigeon with clipped wings

This is Venus, my newest arrival:



And now, that you have seen that she's alright, I can tell you the drama that preceded her arrival.

My friend Lidia, who also brought me George, said that her friend had found a pigeon with her wings cut off and couldn't care for her, so I said I'd have her.
When she was brought over this evening I realised, to my immense joy, that she was fine, but clipped.

She was a bit frantic during the journey, but as soon as she arrived she was fine. Didn't object to my examining her, and eyed me with curiosity but no fear. The only unusual feature I found was an overgrown and rather curved upper beak, but she seems to eat alright. And she's not thin.

She settled in the hospital cage with no fuss and has been looking around with curiosity.

She's a little beauty! The photo doesn't do her justice by far, but I only took the one to avoid disturbing her. She has a very proud bearing, like I've seen in some show pigeons. I wonder where she escaped from...

What a beautiful bird, Teresa.
Her head looks to be that of a racer.

Once she has settled in are you going to try to file her beak a bit?

Very pretty, and does look like a homer. Definitely needs that beak trimmed.

I am really anti clipping a bird's wings.
Who knows why this bird was found in the 'wild'. Could have been an escapee or someone could have released it.
But by having it's wings clipped, the outcome could have been much worse for this little one.
Thankfully, it wasn't.

Please keep us posted, Teresa.

Lovely looking pigeon, Teresa! I agree with the others, it looks like she has the roman nose of a homer/racing pigeon.

It's very strange that her wings were clipped. In my opinion if her beak doesn't grow any longer and she is eating fine with the length it is at at the moment, then I wouldn't clip or file it down.

Please keep us updated with more photos once she's settled in.

Filing down the upper beak would make it better for the bird, and let her eat more naturally.

NiteOwl wrote:

Filing down the upper beak would make it better for the bird, and let her eat more naturally.

I thought about that, Jay, but I was hesitating because I read somewhere that it would grow even more if it was filed. Do you think that could happen? At one point, Sammy's beak grew a lot but stopped after a while. Then it gradually diminished again with wear.
Would a pigeon be even remotely interested in cuttlefish 'bone'?

What I have done in the meanwhile is give her deeper food and water containers than I normally use.

If she is a racer, then the mystery deepens... it doesn't even begin to make sense to clip a racer's wings... unless she was just used for breeding.
She can't fly higher than a couple of feet. It's hard to imagine she would have staged a successful escape. I've been wondering whether the breeder decided she was 'faulty' because of her beak, and let her go.
I don't know if there is a pigeon breeder/keeper nearby, but I have seen locally lots of feral pigeons with fancy features: tufted heads, feathered legs, striking colours and huge ceres. Some have snap-on bands with no ID or makeshift bands (i.e. plastic ties).

She's been producing picture-perfect poops, and today she's been feistier, growling at me when I change her water, etc. It's a great sign, but of course I'm keeping her in quarentine.

About how she was found: Lidia's friend and her husband were driving by the park when they had to stop because there was a pigeon in the middle of the road, and she wouldn't move. So the lady got out of the car and clapped her hands to shoo her. When Venus tried to fly she wasn't able to, and the lady realised that her wings were amiss. So she scooped her up, took her home, and the rest you know.

Filing doesn't make it grow more. It might grow back again, but it wouldn't grow more because of the filing. Many people have birds beaks trimmed if they overgrow. I just think the bird would be more comfortable with it and it would make it easier for him.

NiteOwl wrote:

Filing doesn't make it grow more. It might grow back again, but it wouldn't grow more because of the filing. Many people have birds beaks trimmed if they overgrow. I just think the bird would be more comfortable with it and it would make it easier for him.

Thanks, Jay! I'll give it a try, especially because the end of the beak looks kind of thin and fragile, and filing sounds better to me than allowing it to break or snag.

PS. She's preening as I write!

If I'm not mistaken, Kim (Kippy) has put a couple cuttlebones in her aviary and her pijjies enjoyed investigating them.

If it's fragile on the tip, then it could break unevenly. I would just take off the end to where it should be. You don't want to cut it too far up and make it bleed. There are links on the web that explain about trimming a beak. If it isn't trimmed, it may just grow longer. Let us know how you do.

Thanks for the tip, Jay!
I've been out most of the day (still painting and decorating, yawn) so I'll look up the info tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

PS. Took a video of her exercising this morning, which I'll post soon. She didn't like going back to her cage afterwards -- gave me a swift wingslap!

Teresa wrote:

Thanks for the tip, Jay!
I've been out most of the day (still painting and decorating, yawn) so I'll look up the info tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

PS. Took a video of her exercising this morning, which I'll post soon.

She didn't like going back to her cage afterwards -- gave me a swift wingslap!

Looking forward to seeing the video.

Teresa wrote:

Thanks for the tip, Jay!
I've been out most of the day (still painting and decorating, yawn) so I'll look up the info tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

PS. Took a video of her exercising this morning, which I'll post soon. She didn't like going back to her cage afterwards -- gave me a swift wingslap!

That's funny! Sounds like Scooter. They just don't like going back into the cage. LOL.

Right... let's see if I can upload the pictures this time, without crashing the computer...

This is the promised video of Venus exercising. She can't get higher than two feet off the ground.



Beak, before filing:



Beak, after filing:



Her clipped wings, poor thing! The pink thing on her back is my thumb, not her skin!



Standing proud... and I'm starting to suspect she is a he... Swift name change required, if confirmed!

Oh poor darling! Those wing feathers have been butchered. Horrible.

Venus's beak looks lovely and hopefully it won't grow back too quickly. S/he is a goodlooking bird and I wish her a quick recovery!! Which will definately happen because she has such a wonderful pigeon angel to care for her.

Wow! beak looks great! good job. He'll be very handsome when the wings grow out. Good looking bird.

Thanks!

Now to find an alternate name...

What makes you suspect Venus to be a he?

That is really sad that she tries so hard to take flight only to be grounded withing a second or two.

You did a GREAT job of filing/trimming the beak, Teresa.

NiteOwl wrote:

What makes you suspect Venus to be a he?

I'm not sure, something about the posture and attitude, mostly, and the shape of the head.
He/she has a rather aggressive attitude towards any ferals that come into the room, bowing and coo-rooing too -- two of my girls mimic that to perfection, but not when they are in the presence of males.

AZWhitefeather wrote:

That is really sad that she tries so hard to take flight only to be grounded withing a second or two.

You did a GREAT job of filing/trimming the beak, Teresa.

It is indeed, but I was so relieved to see that it was only the feathers that were cut... it won't be long before the summer moult now, and I'm quite sure that come September, at most, Venus will be flying free once again!

Teresa wrote:

AZWhitefeather wrote:

That is really sad that she tries so hard to take flight only to be grounded withing a second or two.

You did a GREAT job of filing/trimming the beak, Teresa.

It is indeed, but I was so relieved to see that it was only the feathers that were cut... it won't be long before the summer moult now, and I'm quite sure that come September, at most, Venus will be flying free once again!

That will be great.
In the meantime she/he has a safe place to stay.

Teresa wrote:

NiteOwl wrote:

What makes you suspect Venus to be a he?

I'm not sure, something about the posture and attitude, mostly, and the shape of the head.
He/she has a rather aggressive attitude towards any ferals that come into the room, bowing and coo-rooing too -- two of my girls mimic that to perfection, but not when they are in the presence of males.

Well maybe it's time to come up with another name. LOL. Have you thought of any?

I haven't changed the name yet, because she's been very vocal -- and sounds like a girl, and the mirror test was inconclusive: she wingslapped it, but then again she wingslaps EVERYTHING!

The beak is still a worry, though. It grows alarmingly fast. I've had to trim it twice more since that first time, and the third trim was 2 days ago. If it continues at this rate I won't be able to release her, as she wouldn't be able to forage on the ground...