Reptile & Amphibian Forums

About a month and a half ago, my husband saved a baby pigeon from being killed. He brought the pigeon home and we have feed, watered and spoken to it. To see if we could tame it. About 2 weeks after saving the pigeon, we decided it was time to let it be free. We opened up the cage and the pigeon flew out----hung out around the area all day and when it started to get dark he/she came home. Landed at my husbands feet and let him reach down to put he/she back in the cage. My youngest son named the pigeon Sonic as the bird was becoming our pet. We keep Sonic in the cage at night. And let Sonic out about every other day. And Sonic keeps coming home. We know absolutley nothing about pigeons. We feed it bread and local bought bird seed. One day when it was starting to get pretty dark myself and my son sat on the back porch and called Sonic by his/her name to come. And believe it or not the pigeon came and landed on the porch rail right in front of us. He only let my husband pick him up one time. Since then we have to open up the door to our shed--where Sonic will go and then let us get him to put him in the cage. Is there any way to train the pigeon to come to us (within reach) or to get him to go back to his cage without us having to pick him up. I don't want to get to aggressive and scare him away. This is truely an amazing bird. We have ways of communicating with him/her and Sonic seems to understand. I really enjoy having Sonic around...How can you tell the sex of the bird? Anybody that has any info for me would be great. Thank you....Before I could even get this finished, Sonic went into the cage where he sleeps. TOO COOL! Still any info to help win Sonic over would be great.

Hi --

I hope you and Sonic are doing well. I'm glad to hear someone else is experiencing how great ordinary pigeons can be as pets. I rescued a baby also, and hand raised it, and she became extremely tame. She usually did not like anyone to reach out and pick her up but she would often sit on our shoulder, or head, or lap. It is pretty much impossible to tell male/female without a DNA test. Or like me, wait a few months; females will typically start laying eggs around 6 months.

Here are all the details about Moby, my pigeon

http://home.earthlink.net/~razhome/id12.html
(see also the "Head Shots" page.)

I would write more now, but I am really down this week because a falcon attacked and killed her the other day when she was sitting just outside my office window. She was just a week shy of being a year old. It is really great to let them fly -- they love it and I would never make her live her whole life inside -- but it is risky if there are hawks around. Where I work and live no one ever sees hawks; this was just a very sad fluke (a juvenile peregrine falcon, exploring new territory I guess).

I wish you the best with Sonic. They are incredibly sweet and interesting birds. Moby changed my life and made me a true appreciater of birds in general. She also was a great ambassodor for pigeons -- everyone who met her ended up feeling differently about them. If you have any questions, please feel free to write. I've dealt with a lot of the things that come up with a pet pigeon. (You will probably see her go through a little bit of a rebellious stage around 4-6 months.)

Raz

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