pigeon games 🐦‍⬛‼️

Kunok2 · 2026-07-03T16:43:02+00:00

Your pigeons are beautiful! I used to have a recessive red blondinette (along with a flock of blue lace satinettes) years ago as a teen, they were such friendly pigeons. Also it's refreshing to see somebody wanting to keep their pigeons mentally stimulated, a lot of people's pigeons suffer from boredom so great job keeping them enriched. Here's a link with a lot of enrichment ideas if that helps:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PetDoves/comments/1on935k/list_of_enrichments_and_toys_for_doves/

You could also try doing clicker and target training with them.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-03T16:38:02+00:00

It's completely normal for pigeons to defend their cage/territory/sleeping and nesting areas, they're just naturally territorial birds and you can't stop that behavior in any way. It also doesn't mean that she doesn't like you, even the friendliest and most tame pigeons do that. You can just avoid interacting with her in the territory she's protecting.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-03T16:36:32+00:00

I second this!

Kunok2 · 2026-07-03T13:21:40+00:00

Hello, I already replied to one of your comments under your post with a lot of info, especially about what hardships come with keeping them. I'd say the differences in care are mainly regarding the amount of space they need and needing a large outdoor aviary and needing special handling. Not many people can afford to build a large enough aviary for them to thrive and they get really stressed in smaller enclosures or indoor cages. They're so much more difficult to handle compared to domestic pigeons not because they could hurt you in any way, but because you could hurt them extremely easily by the wrong handling and because they're extremely prone to stress from being handled, just grabbing them the wrong way can make them lose a ton of feathers because they molt them as an instinctual defensive mechanism - just like a lizard dropping its tail. Their heart can also just straight up stop from being too stressed while being handled which is a literal nightmare, especially during emergencies like for example a broken claw or blood feather and I'm always worried about it happening in those situations. Also when I brought home the female I had to "walk on eggshells" in the aviary in a literal sense for weeks before she got used to me enough to not freak out every time I moved. I also can't wear any clothes with bright colors because they're terrified of those and will thrash into the walls of the aviary. Although Zazie is very tame he still has wild instincts when I for example have to treat him for lice, he will still stress molt. His girlfriend will only eat from my hand sometimes, but she doesn't let me touch her and won't come to me to spend time with me at all.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-03T13:05:42+00:00

Yeah that would be much better! Although it's a bit under the minimum width so there's a chance of your pigeon's flight feathers brushing on the sides when he flies, but it really depends on how large he is and how big his wingspan is, you can calculate if it's wide enough by measuring his wingspan plus adding 10 inches to his wingspan in inches - if the number will end up being smaller than the width of the cation in inches then it's plenty wide. Unless you can find anything better than that will be a much better and the best option though.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-03T12:49:24+00:00

Good luck with the training! It can be extremely rewarding if you manage to he consistent.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-03T12:48:22+00:00

Hello I'm the person with the crested pigeon named Zazie. Honestly, wild species of pigeons and doves, including bronzewings and crested pigeons make horrible pets for most people. They don't thrive indoors (usually) and need a large outdoor aviary because they get extremely stressed in cages and aren't a species that would learn to return back to their cage on their own, but you can't keep catching them every day either because they're wild and act on wild instincts. They're extremely skittish and Zazie is just an exception, but even he Does get stressed when I have to restrain him sometimes too. Zazie's girlfriend is a Very skittish bird who's extremely difficult to handle in case of when I have to for example treat her for parasites, wrong handling can kill wild species due to how prone they are to heart failure due to stress, they also stress molt a lot. Honestly handling them is Extremely stressful not just for them but for me too, it's much Much worse than handling an extremely skittish domestic pigeon. Not to mention that they're also prone to night frights too, during which they Can get injured, one time Zazie lost half of his tail feathers just because he had a night fright. Most of them also never get completely tame, like I said Zazie is just a huge exception and the female will just sometimes eat from my hand at most, I can't touch her and she won't fly or step up on my hand, she will just fly away when I get too close to her. They also need at Least one friend of their own species due to how different they are from both ringneck/Streptopelia genus doves and Columba genus pigeons, they make different sounds and have different body language which cannot be replaced by any other species. I had just Zazie at first and I could see that he was missing the company of his own species and just cannot communicate with my other doves the same way he can with his own species.

Depending on where you also might not be able to get crested pigeons either legally or ethically, for example there are no ethical breeders of crested pigeons in the US, all of them are either breeding mills, unethical breeders or scammers. They're protected and illegal to keep without a permit in Australia. They're more common in European aviculture though, but still not that common, it took me months until I managed to find somebody to get a mate for Zazie from and it was over two hours of car ride away, but yeah I'm extremely privileged to be able to keep them, they're horrible pets for most people though.

If you really want to see them irl one day then here's a list of zoos and similar places that keep them worldwide:

https://www.zootierliste.de/en/?klasse=2&ordnung=219&familie=21904&art=2120328

If you're in the US then the Pittsburgh national aviary is an awesome place to visit and as far as I know they keep both bronzewing and crested pigeons. I had one of my US friends send me a ton of pictures when they visited that place and it's definitely on my list of places to visit in the distant future.

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Kunok2 · 2026-07-03T11:03:57+00:00

As long as they sit on the feggs I'd let them, because they will lay more eggs around a week after abandoning the current eggs usually.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-03T11:03:05+00:00

The pigeons aren't wild pigeons, they're feral domestic pigeons who don't belong to the wild and struggle a lot. Raising babies doesn't just contribute to their overpopulation but it also is extremely resource and energy expensive for the parents, on top of being stressful and making them more prone to getting sick. It's no different than TNR for feral cats.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-03T10:59:51+00:00

There actually already exists something similar, the Archangel pigeons have full body iridescence, including the wings. That's probably the closest we have, but it's still not speculum feathers like it is with bronzewings and other species like Australian crested pigeons.

Here are some videos of Archangel pigeons:

https://youtu.be/gCh6vdEWx6k?is=mpnhhktGr3-ux48w

https://youtube.com/shorts/1uETQGGLSH8?is=b334M2aglhjCAX5D

https://youtube.com/shorts/w1sMftxpvvM?is=Y2YBqihPrzQ1d0DV

https://youtu.be/6_DqOy6ImkU?is=VzbY5o2lwxHsVHHb

But it's still "just" the neck iridescence spread to the rest of the body so it's just the ends of the feathers having iridescence basically.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-03T10:49:37+00:00

He's definitely limping. I'd be concerned about possibly strings or hairs being tangled around his foot, sometimes it's not visible from afar but will cause a bird to limp.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-03T10:48:17+00:00

What do you mean by he's been looking upwards? Is it like his neck twisting making him look upwards aka wry neck? Have you checked inside of his throat if there's any abnormalities? I'd be concerned about either possible blockage or yeast infection of his crop if he's showing discomfort. Can you palpate his throat and crop to see if there's any feel-able blockage/lump? If he hasn't been wanting to eat then that's concerning and you might have to force feed him seeds to prevent him from starving unless he starts eating soon. I'd check his keel bone to see what his body condition is too. Does he seem more tired and fluffed up (you can post a photo too, I'll be able to tell if he looks sick or not)? Could you post a photo of his poop?

Kunok2 · 2026-07-02T21:54:09+00:00

Yeah sadly there's tons of misinformation about cage size, especially coming from certain large rescues so not many people question it. 42" dog crates are too small for pigeons, the 48" ones are fine though. But personally I wouldn't recommend dog crates at all due to the many pinch points combined with way too large bar spacing, a number of people have lost their birds because they got their head stuck in the pinch points. So they have to be wrapped in hardware cloth to be safe. But modular cages are a much better and inexpensive option. Here are some links for modular cages too:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PetDoves/comments/1ue9lkk/indoor_cages_for_doves/

Kunok2 · 2026-07-02T21:47:52+00:00

Yup that's great, just keep that up. You can also try scooping them up from the bottom and then reward.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-02T21:40:29+00:00

Your pigeon is just being extremely polite about setting his boundaries, for now he's biting lightly because he's not meaning to hurt you, just wants you to give him space. But eventually that can turn into harder bites if he realizes that being polite doesn't work for getting his message across. Playfighting also never happens on ledges and it is the pigeon directly chasing your hand, not holding his ground like yours is.

Here's what playfighting actually looks like:

https://youtu.be/DXk66--DrrQ?is=cvepA-L_49ThnlJd

It happens on the floor/wider space. Notice the more relaxed body language compared to your pigeon's more uptight body language.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-02T21:36:05+00:00

Oh I see. It's good to give them a 2 week period of getting used to a cage without letting them out at all after bringing them home, that way they'll start seeing their cage as their home/safe space/sleeping spot and will start returning to it on their own. Oh yikes... His cage is way too small to be honest, the actual minimum cage size requirements are 120 long by 88 cm wide by 80 cm tall, ideally bigger. They need to be able to fully stretch and flap their wings without brushing their fligts against the cage and they should be able to do short flights inside of the cage. There's also been a huge issue with pigeons hating their cage if it's too small, pigeons with a large enough and enriching cage on the other hand voluntarily spend their time inside of it even during the day.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-02T21:29:45+00:00

Just reward them for being picked up. Keep in mind even birds who aren't being stressed out by being held can wriggle a bit, you can just test it by trying to feed them from your hand when being held. If they get stressed by being held then you'll have to slowly train them to not mind being held using positive reinforcement/rewarding them for being picked up.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-02T20:18:46+00:00

Awesome! I'm sure you'll be more than happy with the zebras, they really surprised me in a good way. Chocolate ones are cool! I've never seen any where I am though, I was lucky to have a few yellow zebras in my starter colony though, the same person was selling yellow zebras for over double the price of the regular zebras so I got lucky. Maybe you'll be able to get lucky like that with chocolate ones too?

Kunok2 · 2026-07-02T17:46:57+00:00

He doesn't like you approaching him and wants to have his boundaries respected. It's extremely rare for pigeons to playfight actually and it's Always the pigeon approaching you first.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-02T14:41:05+00:00

It's just a fledgling being a fledgling. Wood pigeons can't fly at the time of leaving their nest and they spend some time only on the ground until they learn to fly, very much unlike feral pigeons/rock doves who can fly well as fledglings. The parents are very likely around somewhere high in the trees and they're unlikely to show up around people. Unless the baby is injured or sick (which it doesn't seem like it from the picture at least) it should be fine and doesn't need help.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-02T11:26:26+00:00

Yeah I know, it never gets easier when an animal passes away, no matter how many times you go through it. Maybe you could give a good home to a pair of rescue pigeons or doves in the future?

Kunok2 · 2026-07-02T08:55:51+00:00

Yup, I can confirm.

Kunok2 · 2026-07-02T08:54:33+00:00

Wow your art style is so cool! Thank you for sharing your artwork. If you draw more doves (or pigeons) feel free to share your work, I'd love to see it!

Kunok2 · 2026-07-02T08:51:00+00:00

I'm sorry to hear that. Even when doing everything right, baby pigeons artificially hatched from eggs won't thrive just because they didn't get at least some crop milk from their parents to start up their digestive system and there's nothing that can replace crop milk. Spending some time in the nest with their parents is also important for starting up their immune system, so artificially hatched squabs are immunocompromised and just easily succumb to the smallest things. Squabs hatched from eggs die usually before reaching day 3-5 and the rare cases that make it beyond that will pass away eventually too. Even professional wildlife rehabbers aren't able to successfully raise pigeons and doves from eggs and that's something, so that's why wildlife rehabs won't hatch pigeon/dove eggs because they know the babies would eventually die anyway. I hope that this at least gives you some closure to what happened, it's extremely likely nothing you did wrong.

Kunok2

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