AIBU to ask for help - lost homing pigeon?

[Periperipissoff]

Help me!

A homing pigeon has been hanging around for days, it's dirty, tired and soooo friendly.

It's beautiful, white with what looks like paint under its wings.

I read on here a while ago that if you report a lost homing pigeon they are collected and destroyed because obvs they aren't good homing pigeons anymore.

Is this true? Reading mixed reports about this online.

Sorry for using aibu for this but I don't know what to do. I don't want the little guy to get pts 😔

We had one land at the stables and heard the same about them being destroyed so we kept him
He stayed for about 10 months then just vanished off one day

My mum had a lady pigeon appear for ages, months and months, eventually another pigeon also lost appeared, a male this time. After a while they left together, sad to see them go but I hope they have a nice family.

We had a homing pigeon arrive at the yard, not as friendly as yours. We contacted the owner who said it would be too expensive to collect so he’s now the yard pet. Peter gets very well fed!

None of us know what we’re doing until we have a pidge and need to care for it. If he’s healthy then you’re onto a winner to start with, the ones I get are often at deaths door, and it’s complete guesswork as to what might be wrong with them and which of the myriad meds might help. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t 😞 but they’ve no other hope so it’s worth a try!

He’ll have a better chance with you than out on the street regardless.

Following on from my own post about having some knowledge of racing pigeons, many many years ago (30 odd), I did a temping assignment in London for a company who published books and magazines on racing pigeons. I thought it was going to be a boring short term job. It was anything but. I ended up being there for a long time and it was fascinating how much these people loved pigeons and I learned a lot. We used to get a lot of rescue calls because I guess people saw "pigeon" and thought we could help. This was years before internet was available. We could help with contact details etc but I did a fair few rescues, one from a roof in an office block on High Holborn! I was a very hands on temp! I've had an affection for them ever since so glad to help where I can.

I love this thread! We have a couple of ordinary town pigeons come to feed in our garden most days. They spend more time strolling up the path than in trees, so I nip out with the water pistol if one of the neighbourhood cats gets too close.

So not quite the outcome I wanted but think it might be best for Batman.

Vets say he's fine. No disease or signs of lice etc. Hes very underweight bless him

They know a few pigeon rescuers so asked if we wanted them to contact them for us. I wasnt expecting the vet to offer this tbh.

They said they know one definitely just has an open shed type set up where they come and go which they aren't enthused about for Batman. The others actually keep pigeons as a hobby so they (and me if im honest) think he would be happy with one of those if they can take him.

His little pigeon pants and pigeon conditioner food has just arrived too that i ordered just in case 🥺

A real head/heart situation 😔 I've asked the vet to do what they can to find a suitable home for him but if their contacts can't take him then he comes to us and we hope the intro with dog goes OK.

Aww bless. I do think that pigeon company is best for them if at all possible, even human bonded birds always choose another pigeon over their human in my experience. It’s nice to see them happy and living a little pigeon life though 💖

I’m sure there will be some very grateful beaks at your local park if you take your seed there 😊

Aww, fingers crossed for Batman! I'm kind of rooting for him to come to you, mind.
Finally managed to take a pic of our returnee ad visitor, so this is Bigfoot and Doveling.

I don’t think I’d be able to let him go after this!

Don't I've woke up this morning really regretful because I spent all last night on the Pigeonhub FB page 😩

I'm going to pop in the vet tomorrow, I need to make sure they've done an insurance claim for the dog, I'll casually ask how batman is doing, just out of curiosity you understand.....

In fact if he's still in there I will be bringing him home, he can't sit in there for days 😔

They are gorgeous 😍 I had no idea pigeons came in all different, err, types. I saw one on FB with curly feathers!!!

Awwww wee batman ❤️ just bring him home, you know you want to.

I love pigeons, I feed the local ones much to the excitement of my indoor cat. They're so sweet and intelligent.

OMG that's one fancee pigeon 🥰🤣

That’s hideous. There seems to be an underbelly of cruelty to everything human beings involve themselves in. Even people who, you would assume, have an affinity for animals. Every day’s a school day, as they say, but often in the worst possible way.

Your story is lovely, though! I thought pigeons must mate for life. There are a recognisable pair I’ve noticed for years, periodically pecking about together in the road outside my house!

@maudelovesharold I know, even I was shocked at the homing techniques. I’d already come to the conclusion that I didn’t like racing/home pigeons as a sport because if the dangers to the birds, exploiting them for money and the risk of increase to the suffering feral population when one (or more) inevitably get lost or don’t want to go back to that life.

But I picked up a leaflet at a pigeon fanciers convention (which was actually brilliant despite not liking the sport 😩 there was so much cool pigeon stuff to buy) and it detailed all the ways to home birds and I was so upset! I couldn’t do that to my babies.

Bigfoot is almost definitely an escaped fancy. Much as some ferals do get feathery feet from past cross breeding it’s rare to see that sort of foot-featherage in a feral (if ever!)

Best keep a close eye as it was probably not raised in the “wild” and won’t know how to look after itself ☹️

Double thanks to you for looking after pigeons and for being a responsible cat owner 💖

I have a small dovecote on the front of my house now and they have a couple of tablespoons of food whenever they are sitting waiting for it. Don't like to put too much out as the local feral pigeons and collared doves have cottoned on too!
But yes, I try and do all I can to make sure they're okay.

❤️🥰

I talk to my pigeons and have been caught by my neighbours on several occasions. Some of today's conversations went something like this:

Hello my wee chookies, breakfast time. Oooh look at you (massive pigeon with a leg ring), you're a big handsome lad. The lady pigeons will love you.

Right you, ya bastards (to the magpies) stop pulling her tail. Go on beat it.

Right lads and lassies, it's not a knocking shop (to a couple of birds getting amorous) get a nest.

And then to my cat about 100 times a day - pigeons are friends, not food!

Keep us updated about Batman ❤️

I used to talk to my resident wild pigeon, too. They can recognise faces and he came to know and trust me. When he had a child he let me watch him feed it. Sadly it had broken a wing on coming out of the nest (which I didn't know at the time, because they will leave the nest and be fed by a parent on the ground for around 2 weeks before being able to fly). I couldn't tell anything was wrong. However 2 weeks came and went and baby pigeon (who was quite large by then) started to look odd because it couldn't stretch out one wing. My DP and I decided to take the baby to the wildlife hospital, to see if it could be treated. Sadly it could not and it was put to sleep (a far better alternative than what would have happened).

Poor father pigeon clearly wondered what had happened and it was heartbreaking watching him call out and look for baby pigeon. I had pictured him introducing his child to the bird bath. "All this is yours, son/daughter" but that never happened, sadly.

This is such an ace thread. Any update on Batman @Periperipissoff 🥰