Remember Davey pigeon’s foot injury? (See: Davey pigeon in care) Well, it healed up nicely, no infection or other complications, so we removed the stitches and put him back into Dora’s aviary. All the male pigeons came down to greet him and Davey got straight to work in establishing his territory after having been away for a week and a half.

Last week it was rather wet and windy so it was a relief to have Dora’s aviary cleaned and given dry bedding (the pigeons love fresh bedding. I love watching them pick up bits of straw to take to their nests). But of course it rained today so the aviary is a bit wet again. The pigeons don’t mind the rain to be honest (they do have shelter in the aviary). I often see them with their wings up to let the rain wash their “wing-pits”.

I went over to check for eggs to replace with fake ones and to do a quick visual check of all the pigeons in there. Everyone looked fine and healthy, which was of course a relief after the scare when Davey injured his foot.

I managed to take a few videos of Dora and the other pigeons for your viewing pleasure. As usual, Dora had fun attacking my fingers while her mate, Pidge, thought they were worthy recipients for mating.

Here’s a list of all the current resident pigeons (fancy or disabled) at my work:

I would like to thank everyone for their amazing support after reading my last post, Under attack.

THANK YOU!!!

You’ve all been wonderful and lovely in your comments and views. The world is a much better place with you in it.

While I know in my heart that I’m doing the right thing to provide a safe and loving home for Elmo and Georgie and no one will be able to convince me otherwise, I feel a bit sad that someone else disagrees so much. It’s silly, really, to get upset about it when I know that there will always be someone who will not be able to understand what wonderful creatures pigeons are. When I look at my two darling pigeons I cannot help but think, “Who in their right mind would want to harm them?”

Elmo and Georgie send everyone their love!!

This is one of my favourite photos of Georgie snuggling up to me (photo taken in 2008):

Revati and Georgie

Elmo has such trust in us that he’ll fall fast asleep without a worry in the world:

Richard and Elmo

We’ve recently had a few people (racing pigeon people by the looks of it) contact us on our YouTube account who are critical of us and our two tame, disabled pigeons, Elmo and Georgie.

We have been told to get homer pigeons instead since they are smarter and better looking than Elmo and Georgie (who are feral pigeons).

How superficial!! As if we care what pigeon is the best looking or the smartest. We love our pigeons because of their loving nature and amazing character.

We have also been told that our pigeons are not as happy as we think they are because they are ill.

Let me first state that neither Georgie or Elmo are ill. They both were affected by disease when they were babies – 11 years ago in Elmo’s case and 4 years ago in Georgie’s case – but are now perfectly healthy. However, according to one man (who has 34 years of experience keeping racing pigeons), our pigeons are not happy, we are spreading disease and we should euthanise them.

Our pigeons are very happy. I may not have decades of experience, but I do know my two pigeons. Georgie I have known since she was a baby; I’ve cared for her and learnt to read her behaviour and needs. Elmo is an open book. We can see the contentment and love in his eyes when he’s snuggled up to us – there is absolutely no doubt in our minds.

I find it hard to understand how anyone who views our videos of Elmo and Georgie can possibly think that they are unhappy. For someone who has 34 years of experience keeping pigeons he’s not very perceptive.

I will not engage in further conversation with these people since I have found them unwilling to listen, so I won’t get upset and drawn into a protracted argument, however, it does upset me to a degree to know that there’s someone out there who thinks I should put my pigeons to sleep because, according to them, they are unhappy and diseased.

One of the minor problems with keeping female pigeons is that they can lay eggs every month for the majority of their life. Since egg laying uses lot of energy and calcium it can cause a strain on the female’s body. It isn’t easy to stop a female pigeon from laying eggs every month. As far as I know, there is no hard and fast way to do so. Providing the pigeon with extra vitamin D and calcium, as well as proper housing and good quality food, will help with the stress of egg laying and incubating.

In 2009 my semi-blind pet pigeon, Georgie, laid a pair of eggs nearly every month. Then she decided to have a long break (she must have realised that her eggs are infertile and since I, her “mate”, was no help in incubating she decided it wasn’t worth the stress) and only laid eggs for a few months in a row before having another break. After another 6 month break, Georgie laid an egg on the 31st Dec 2011 and the second one on the 3rd Jan 2012.

She’s been working double shifts since I’m no help. Poor girl, she must get cramped sitting all day and night on her infertile eggs. I let her out of her cage for a stretch and a poo, since she holds it in when nesting, but otherwise Georgie spends all her time being the mummy she thinks she’ll be. It is sad, however, I haven’t been successful with finding her a male pigeon that likes her and even when I do, I wouldn’t let them incubate fertile eggs since there are enough pigeons in the world without me adding to the population. (We don’t have an aviary either so we wouldn’t be able to keep any babies.)

Georgie on her eggs

Georgie feels very safe in the new nest we got her (see Bedtime and new nest), however, I have to leave the whole thing in her cage when I leave for work otherwise she’d freak out since she doesn’t like her eggs and nest being moved about. It’s a bit cramped once the cage top goes on, but since she sits for most of the day it isn’t a problem (and it’s a temporary thing).

Cramped quarters

I have been going through the previous posts about Georgie’s egg laying, and it’s interesting to read about her nesting behaviour (and how my views change every time).

• Georgie’s maternal behaviour
• 16 days and counting…
• Oops, it’s eggy time!

Here’s Georgie a week before she laid her eggs, preening my arm in her loving way (it tickles!!!):

Last week at work I was informed that a lot of blood was found on the floor of Dora’s aviary. Trying not to panic (thoughts of dying and dead pigeons flooding my mind), I quickly went to her aviary to see what was wrong. Sure enough, there was a lot of blood soaked into the floor substrate and my eyes whipped about to every pigeon in the aviary to find who was injured.

Two possible causes for the blood came to mind: 1) a toe nail had broken at the quick or 2) a rat had bitten one of the pigeons through the wire. Where there is food there will inevitably be rats, and while I haven’t got a problem with wild rats at all (meaning that I don’t mind if they are about), aviaries do need to be rat proof to protect the pigeons in them. Dora’s aviary is rat proof, however, it doesn’t have a solid floor, only wire (something I would like to change), and the rats have started to dig underneath, trying to find a way to the food. As I stood in the aviary I noticed that a wire panel had seperated from the frame and a hole had appeared. My heart stopped. Had a rat gotten into the aviary and attacked one of the disabled pigeons? As I searched for the source of the blood my thoughts were running wild with dread. “Please, please, let them all be safe,” I prayed.

Then I saw Davey with blood on his foot (Davey came to the wildlife rescue centre in 2010 with a broken wing and he cannot fly). Upon inspection I found that the pad on his left foot had been sliced open, possibly from a rat bite or from cutting it on the wire of the seperated floor panel. The 20 other pigeons in the aviary were all unharmed.

So Davey was brought into the Intensive Care Unit (I.C.U.) for treatment. We cleaned the wound and attempted to bandage it, however, it kept bleeding. We booked an appointment at our local veterinary surgery for them to suture the wound. Here’s the result:

Foot stitched up

Davey pigeon is on pain relief and antibiotics, and thankfully the wound is clean and healing nicely. Here’s the boy after his trip to the vet:

Davey pigeon in care

I managed to fix the floor panel after ensuring that there were no rats in the aviary, as well as checking for any other holes. Davey doesn’t have a mate so there is no one pining away for him while he’s away from the aviary. He seems quite content in I.C.U. – cooing and dancing for the female pigeons he can see in the other cages. He’s got a very loud voice and I can hear him talking when I walk past I.C.U.

I’m sure, in a week or so, Davey will be back in his aviary.

Ps. My pigeon is quite ill but still very feisty. (Read about it: Personal rescue)

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas this year. We certainly did. Elmo and Georgie helped decorate the tree by flying up to the top to place the baubles and the star. … Just kidding. Our two pigeons cannot fly that well.

We placed Elmo and Georgie’s presents under the tree and they were certainly intrigued by the shiny packages.

Georgie and Elmo's Christmas presents

Georgie taking a closer look!

Elmo is curious too!

Here’s the boy opening his present:

We thought it was the perfect gift for Elmo because it moves about and is soft so he can preen it (or peck it if he so pleases!). Elmo sure had fun with the yappy puppy!

Georgie received a soft cuddly hedgehog to have in her cage so she can preen it (since she loves to preen fluffy things). Sadly, Georgie doesn’t like the camera so she rarely lets me take any video of her.

After we had all opened our presents and there were boxes, wrapping paper and bubblewrap everywhere, Georgie decided to have another look in case we’d missed anything. She loved the bubblewrap!

We wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Richard received a surprising gift from his Secret Santa at work, and he couldn’t wait to show them to Elmo when he got home. Meet Fergie and Scarlet, the newest members of our pigeon family:

We think they’re awesome – a lovely Christmas present! – however, Elmo wasn’t impressed at all:

Georgie didn’t like the sound they made so she ran away whenever she heard them near her.

Georgie pigeon meets Fergie

We tried again to introduce Scarlet and Fergie to Elmo without him pecking them.

Elmo pecking the toy pigeons

Richard calmed Elmo down and then placed the toys near him in his nest, and Elmo tolerated them while he cooed and twitched to Richard:

We’ve already learnt that Elmo does not like any other pigeons in the home (our attempts with Dora, Minnie, and Button have all been a failure), so we really should stop collecting other pigeons (even inanimate, or in this case, animate ones). But I cannot help myself. Pigeons are simply too adorable.

Many of you may already know that I work at a wildlife rescue centre, and as a result, I have cared for many injured and orphaned pigeons (in fact, woodpigeons are the second most common animal we have brought in – over 410 this year! – hedgehogs being the first). My love of pigeons was sparked from hand-rearing the orphaned feral pigeons, and both Elmo and Georgie were first taken to my work before we welcomed them into our home. So while I’ve helped rear and rehabilitate hundreds of pigeons, I don’t often find ones that need rescuing.

In the past few months, however, I’ve found two feral pigeons that needed rescuing. One was walking slowly across a road in town and the short steps it was taking caught my attention. I could see that something was wrong, and as I approached the pigeon it didn’t have the strength to fly away. I picked it up and took it immediately to work. The poor pigeon was painfully thin and sadly died the same day. I had found it when it was at the end of its life. It is always sad when a rescued animal dies, however, at least the pigeon was in a safe and warm environment in its last hours.

The second feral pigeon I found was standing one morning by my car as I was preparing to leave for work. It didn’t fly away when I approached it and was clearly in need of rescuing. Once at work, I could see that the feral was thin and had a puncture wound by his right wing. He’s in a warm cage and receiving the medication he needs, and hopefully, in a few weeks, he’ll recover and be released. Fingers crossed.

The second feral pigeon in need

We have a friendly cat visiting us now. He turned up one day, meowing at the door and since we mistakenly fed him, he’s turning up every night for a meal and cuddles. (Ok, I admit it, it was deliberate. We knew if we fed him he’ll keep returning. We simply couldn’t help ourselves. The cat is so friendly and adorable!)

Meet "our" cat.

I’ve been trying to get a good photo of the cat, but the flash is so harsh. I’ll keep trying.

I borrowed a microchip scanner from work to see if the cat has a microchip (since he hasn’t got a collar on), but the scanner didn’t pick up any. Since the cat is in such good condition and is of a good weight, I don’t think he’s homeless, however, his hunger worries us a bit. But then again, cats can be just as greedy as dogs!

We let the cat in a few times with the pigeons safely away just in case, but the cat doesn’t like it if I close the door. He needs the option to dash out if he wants. He’s a bit wary but loves his evening meal, and once we start stroking him he usually wants to cuddle up onto our lap. After a while he gets up, goes out, and disappears into the darkness.

The cat comes into our flat

I want to call him “Sir Drools-a-lot” since he is a drooler. I’ve never known a cat to drool so much. Every time he lovingly head butts my hand (to scent mark it. I’m no fool; I know why cats rub), he leaves a little wet patch. Yuck. And when he sat on my lap the other night, he left a puddle on my leg.

Last night we let Elmo meet the cat. In a controlled manner and under strict observation, of course. We cannot risk the cat attacking our beloved pigeons. But the cat wasn’t interested in Elmo at all. In fact, when Elmo flapped, the cat ran away. Elmo, on the other hand, wasn’t impressed with the intruder. Richard was stroking the cat, who was lying down on the floor, and Elmo walked over and tried to peck the cat. Elmo has no predator awareness instincts; he thinks he’s the king of the house and no one tells him what to do.

Elmo and the cat

In the above photo, the cat is having his dinner while Elmo checks him out. When he was finished and walked away, Elmo went over to inspect what the cat had left (first time he left anything):

Elmo inspects the cat food

Even though I know that there are people who have pigeons and cats living together, I don’t think I could do that since you cannot trust the two together. You’d never be able to relax and would always have to keep an eye on them. I have enough trouble keeping an eye on Elmo and Georgie together since Elmo doesn’t like Georgie and will attack her if she gets too close to him. However, the cat is so lovely and I’m sure he’ll continue to visit us. I hope we find his owner just so we can sleep in peace, however, if the cat is homeless then we’ll have to find him a good home.

Today our darling Elmo boy is 11 years old. Can you believe it?!

“Happy Hatchday, Elmo!!”

We’ve had Elmo for 3 years now, however, it feels like we’ve known and lived with him for longer. He’s such an integral part of our family that it’s hard to imagine what our life was like before him.

We woke up to a very happy pigeon on the bedside table, cooing and wing twitching with joy as he saw that we were awake and available to give him his morning hug. Then it was time for his presents: A knitted pigeon and a jar of pine nuts!

Elmo's hatchday presents

Elmo received a card from his original mum, as well as a card from us. I knitted the pigeon for Elmo (the pigeon is Cooey pigeon from Stitch London) and I think Elmo enjoyed playing with him (*ahem* pecking him *ahem*) very much, as you can see from the video:

We’ll be showering Elmo with even more love and affection today, and I’m sure he’ll be sick of all the cuddles and treats he receives by the end of the day.

Elmo tucking into the pine nut jar