Oh no, they're eating my house!!!

... and I have the evidence!

You may remember that I said Sammy was teaching Pippin to pull out the putty from between the floor boards...



... and that Piper and Hercules found my stone walls much tastier than their grit...



Well, here they are in action, pecking at much the same spots of the same walls! Piper even has a brief go at the ceiling!!! :eek:



And Hercules got interrupted by Sammy, who very likely was telling him to try the putty!

Oh dear!! They're all in on the action now.

They don't need an aviary, they need a nuclear-proof bunker!!!!

Teresa wrote:

They don't need an aviary, they need a nuclear-proof bunker!!!!

Oh no! And here I have been telling people that one of the benefits of having pet pigeons is that they don't destroy the house like other pet animals do (e.g. rodents and cats). How wrong am I??!!

Mystery solved!

They weren't being destructive, they were looking for sources of salt! Look at this:

http://www.pigeonangels.com/pigeon-and-dove-illnesses-injuries-their-symptoms-and-treatment-f11/salt-deficiency-t2273.htm#33557

Wow - Teresa, I am glad you found the reason. Although it sounds funny when they start demolishing it is not very funny at all.

Btw - when I am ordering seeds for the pijjies I always add some "pigeon stone" (literal translation) which is a conglomerate of various minerals and looks like a small red brick but it degrades into kind of course sand when you scratch at it. I always add this to the grit as a whole so that the pijjies can peck at it and I have realized that it tastes slightly salty. Maybe you can get this in your area. Breeders must have supplies like these. If you like I can send you a pic so you can see how it looks like.

Teresa wrote:

Mystery solved!

They weren't being destructive, they were looking for sources of salt! Look at this:

http://www.pigeonangels.com/pigeon-and-dove-illnesses-injuries-their-symptoms-and-treatment-f11/salt-deficiency-t2273.htm#33557

Thanks for posting the link, Teresa.

pigeonwriter wrote:

Wow - Teresa, I am glad you found the reason. Although it sounds funny when they start demolishing it is not very funny at all.

Btw - when I am ordering seeds for the pijjies I always add some "pigeon stone" (literal translation) which is a conglomerate of various minerals and looks like a small red brick but it degrades into kind of course sand when you scratch at it. I always add this to the grit as a whole so that the pijjies can peck at it and I have realized that it tastes slightly salty.

Maybe you can get this in your area.

Breeders must have supplies like these.

If you like I can send you a pic so you can see how it looks like.

The pijjies do love these.
I know they are available here in the states from the pigeon supply companies.

A picture would be great for those who aren't familiar with them.

I bought this red-stone mineral block for Elmo to pick at and he loves it! It has a mixture of minerals and salts, and is a similar thing that Petra is talking about.

Revati, thank you - you were quicker than I - this is exactly what I mean!!!

pigeonwriter wrote:

Revati, thank you - you were quicker than I - this is exactly what I mean!!!

You're welcome! Glad it is the same thing. I didn't want to speak on your behalf.

Teresa...you probably can find what you need here...

http://www.superpombos.com/index.php

Thank you, Petra, Revati and Charis!

The stores where I buy stuff for my pigeons don't stock any mineral blocks for pigeons, but after seeing the picture I'll be able to describe to them what it's like.
The link is brilliant -- thanks, Charis! -- as it contains a lot of products I wanted to get hold of, including an all-round wormer equivalent to Moxidectin Plus and a very good probiotic+multivitamins, both made by Moureau!

But, in this case, I got no luck with the red-stone mineral block -- I tried all kinds of key words including 'grit', in English and Portuguese, and the search found no matching items! Also their 'about us' page has a blank where their address should be. But it's still a great find, and I'm going to open an account with them.

Can pigeons peck at those mineral blocks as much as they like or can they overdose? Sammy is a pig when it comes to eating grit, so would I need to withdraw it after a moment?

Teresa wrote:

Can pigeons peck at those mineral blocks as much as they like or can they overdose?
Sammy is a pig when it comes to eating grit, so would I need to withdraw it after a moment?

I used to have a couple of those and I left them in with the birds all the time. Not sure if I should have or not, but I did.
They didn't eat on them constantly, rather once in a while like they did with their grit.
With Sammy being so aggressive with the grit, perhaps you would need to limit her.

AZWhitefeather wrote:

Teresa wrote:

Can pigeons peck at those mineral blocks as much as they like or can they overdose?
Sammy is a pig when it comes to eating grit, so would I need to withdraw it after a moment?

I used to have a couple of those and I left them in with the birds all the time. Not sure if I should have or not, but I did.
They didn't eat on them constantly, rather once in a while like they did with their grit.
With Sammy being so aggressive with the grit, perhaps you would need to limit her.

That's what I thought too, but maybe she will become more moderate as she gets the salts she needs. There's also the fact that she lays eggs very frequently, because she is always stepping on them and breaking them. Pippin only lays every 6 to 8 weeks, so maybe that's why she didn't have a mineral deficiency.
Either way, neither she nor Pippin ever sit on the eggs, they push them to the side of the nest -- or push them off -- and then make themselves comfortable!

Teresa wrote:

AZWhitefeather wrote:

Teresa wrote:

Can pigeons peck at those mineral blocks as much as they like or can they overdose?
Sammy is a pig when it comes to eating grit, so would I need to withdraw it after a moment?

I used to have a couple of those and I left them in with the birds all the time. Not sure if I should have or not, but I did.
They didn't eat on them constantly, rather once in a while like they did with their grit.
With Sammy being so aggressive with the grit, perhaps you would need to limit her.

* That's what I thought too, but maybe she will become more moderate as she gets the salts she needs.

** There's also the fact that she lays eggs very frequently, because she is always stepping on them and breaking them. Pippin only lays every 6 to 8 weeks, so maybe that's why she didn't have a mineral deficiency.
Either way, neither she nor Pippin ever sit on the eggs, they push them to the side of the nest -- or push them off -- and then make themselves comfortable!

* This is very possible.

** That may be one reason she lays so often. Although by her own choice, her not sitting on the eggs would be like her laying them and then having them taken away. Maybe?

Teresa...she shouldn't be able to break her eggs by walking on them if the shells are strong enough. It sounds like she needs calcium/vitaminD combination. I would also have her checked to see if she has a coccidia overload.

fully to what Charis said. I have made a test with Emily's eggs and with Pina's after I took them off and replaced them by the plaster eggs. I tried to break them by taking them between my fingers. I had to apply quite some strength to break them so while a pijjie is stepping on them - what they do quite often- they should not break. Only during the last 2 days of incubating the egg shell could become fragile. So better leave them alone then.

Btw - I supply grit (with cod liver oil) plus course sand with oyster shell and minerals (meant for parrots) and chicken shells which I grind in a mortar regularly in a larger bowl outside of the boxes/cages so that they can eat it whenever they want to. Pina especially loves to eat the tiny pieces of chicken egg shells shortly before she is going to lay and short after she has laid. I supply that mixture also in a big bowl to the others on the balcony and they all love it - especially when they get a new load of freshly grinded egg shells. I grind them until they are no bigger than about 1 mm". If they are too large they don't like it. Probably they are getting stuck in their beaks then and they cannot swallow it.

I also agree with Charis, the eggs shouldn't break just from her weight.

We have people bringing us there egg shells, I microwave them for 2:00 mins. on high then use our old coffee grinder to do the work.

We also offer red mineral grit & oyster shell all the time.

Sammy (like the other pigeons) has red mineral grit and oyster shell available all the time, and crushed egg shells occasionally. When she was in my study she also had a calcium+vitamin D3 supplement, but since she's been on the veranda she gets the morning sunshine every day, so I withdrew the supplement. Do you think I should reintroduce it?

I could have been wrong about the reason why the eggs break, though. I saw her steeping heavily on them a number of times and thought that's how they broke, I didn't actually see it happen. But it's a fact that I keep finding the eggs broken. I'll have to test one of them to see how easy it breaks.

As for possible coccidiosis, my vets don't do fecals, but she was medicated for it less than 2 months ago. Her poops improved at the time, but there was no change in the egg breaking situation.

[quote="Teresa"]Sammy (like the other pigeons) has red mineral grit and oyster shell available all the time, and crushed egg shells occasionally. When she was in my study she also had a calcium+vitamin D3 supplement, but since she's been on the veranda she gets the morning sunshine every day, so I withdrew the supplement. Do you think I should reintroduce it?I could have been wrong about the reason why the eggs break, though. I saw her steeping heavily on them a number of times and thought that's how they broke, I didn't actually see it happen. But it's a fact that I keep finding the eggs broken. I'll have to test one of them to see how easy it breaks.

As for possible coccidiosis, my vets don't do fecals, but she was medicated for it less than 2 months ago. Her poops improved at the time, but there was no change in the egg breaking situation.[/quote]


Yes, do start her on the supplement again. It isn't enough that they have sun...it needs to be direct sun as in outside with the sun shinning on the feathers so the bird can soak it up.

When you treated for coccidiosis, did you repeat the treatment in 5- 10 days? I would treat again.
Who does do fecals there?

Matilda wrote:

Yes, do start her on the supplement again. It isn't enough that they have sun...it needs to be direct sun as in outside with the sun shinning on the feathers so the bird can soak it up.

This is a very good point to bring up Charis, many people think that just because their bird sits in front of a window, glass or screened, that the bird absorbs enough vit. D.

In fact the glass and yes even the screens stop the uvb rays from getting to the animal. So many reptile owners think this way also. Our birds in the basement are provided with uvb lights all winter... its not as good as the sun but alot better than nothing.

That's right, Robin
I seem to recall that birds need at least 1 hour per day of direct sun to get enough vitamin D.