Help - What to do with our new "pet" bird!

[highguyuk]

Evening all,

For the past 30 hours or so, we've had a Pigeon (although, consider the Pigeon to be more like a rounder Dove shape) in our garden. Yesterday afternoon it sat outside in the rain getting wet and hadn't left by 11pm, so we picked it up and put it in a box in the garage with food/water etc. overnight.

We let it out this morning and we have been out all day. On return, we still have our pet pigeon in the garden.

He looks healthy, walking around the garden with ease and eating the seed we've given quite happily. The only thing he doesn't want to do is fly away - so we're assuming that a) he's too comfy or b) he's injured.

We're a bit concerned because our little dog can't go outside as she'll chase the pigeon so need to do something to speed up the process.

Any suggestions?

 

[Gramaisc]

Try the dog on the lead - it may alter the pecking order, if it becomes clear to the pigeon that he is no longer top dog.

 

[Lucy]

Has he got a tag?

 

[John Marwood]

@basil is the expert on this

 

[Glam]

Has he got a tag?

If they're tagged, you're best not notifying the owner, when they get it home, they will ring the poor birds neck. A racing pigeon is useless if it loses its way.

 

[highguyuk]

Good suggestion, but there's no tag.

 

[wmrcomputers]

If they're tagged, you're best not notifying the owner, when they get it home, they will ring the poor birds neck. A racing pigeon is useless if it loses its way.

Unfortunately this is extremely true

 

[Apricot]

A similar thing happened to me about 25 years ago. There were lots of semi-tame pigeons near my flat, I used to feed them sometimes, but one of them seemed unable to fly and stayed on the ground when all the others flew off.
He / she was so tame, I was able to take him to the vet, who saw no reason why the bird couldn't fly.
So I took him home and tried to 'encourage' him to fly by throwing him into the air, but that didn't work.
So I let him live in the hallway of my flat. He had a cardboard box bed, food and water, but most of the time the door was shut because I was out. My boyfriend (complete ****er, long before Mr Apricot) didn't like the pigeon and kept complaining about it. He said it was cruel to keep it inside, but I think really he just wanted to be rid of it. In the end, to my eternal regret, I put the pigeon outside and eventually it went away.
I wish I'd let it stay. I left the door open as much as possible, so if it had wanted to leave it had ample opportunity.

 

[Alee]

Is there a chance it could be a fledgling ? I had doves nesting on my sky dish ( currently nesting again!!) and I was amazed at how fast they grew . By the time they left the nest they looked like an adult pretty much

 

[Trumpet]

Has he got a tag?

ASBO pigeon?

 

[highguyuk]

To finish the story...

I spoke to the British Wildlife Rescue Centre (Amerton Farm) last night on Facebook, who said they could help and would take it in. We've popped around this morning and a very helpful lady said that the Wood Pigeon was young & undernourished. It had probably been abandoned by its parents, and that the youngster was probably waiting in our garden for its parents to return (awww).

Other than that, the pigeon was healthy and after a spell of being fed back up would likely be ok. They have a few birds in their at the moment of a similar age which would be useful.

So credit to BWRC (http://thebwrc.com/) and it's fantastic that this type of organisation is available, both to support wildlife and concerned "humans".