A few weeks ago, I went into our barn to get some straw for my geese. I noticed something moving on the floor of the barn - a very young pigeon. Way too young to be out of its nest. As we have stray cats in the area, I didn't want to leave it there to die. The nests were all very high up in the barn and I had no way of returning the baby. I took it out of the barn and looked it over to see if it had any noticeable injuries. Thankfully there were none! It could walk around just fine, but was weeks away from being able to fly. Still had a lot of baby fuzz on it too. Oddly enough, it seemed happy that I found it. So I took it upon myself to finish raising it in hopes of releasing it when it was old enough.
*I'll be referring to it as a "he" just for the sake of simplicity from here on out lol
I've been keeping the lil fella in a spare parrot cage in my kitchen. I've already got him eating and drinking on his own. I've taken him outside multiple times already, and he does fly, but prefers to just stay near me and walk around wherever I am.
We have lots of other wild pigeons in the area. I live on a 550 acre farm, and so it's a nice place for pigeons. I've kept pigeons before and re-released them. My dad once used to shoot them with a pellet gun and I would go find them after he went to work, put them in a cage, and take care of them until they were healed. (luckily my dad loves this pigeon, so hopefully this stops him from shooting them from now on) Those pigeons already knew how to survive in the wild though. I'm afraid mine will struggle. I know pigeons are social though, and maybe he would learn from them? Or at least that's what I would hope.
So will he be ok out there on his own? I honestly don't even know if he'll want to leave. I never ever once intended to keep him as a pet. I do love him, but I simply wanted to save him and release after he was ready to go. Any tips on making the release easier on him? I want to give him the best chance of survival possible.
*I'll be referring to it as a "he" just for the sake of simplicity from here on out lol
I've been keeping the lil fella in a spare parrot cage in my kitchen. I've already got him eating and drinking on his own. I've taken him outside multiple times already, and he does fly, but prefers to just stay near me and walk around wherever I am.
We have lots of other wild pigeons in the area. I live on a 550 acre farm, and so it's a nice place for pigeons. I've kept pigeons before and re-released them. My dad once used to shoot them with a pellet gun and I would go find them after he went to work, put them in a cage, and take care of them until they were healed. (luckily my dad loves this pigeon, so hopefully this stops him from shooting them from now on) Those pigeons already knew how to survive in the wild though. I'm afraid mine will struggle. I know pigeons are social though, and maybe he would learn from them? Or at least that's what I would hope.
So will he be ok out there on his own? I honestly don't even know if he'll want to leave. I never ever once intended to keep him as a pet. I do love him, but I simply wanted to save him and release after he was ready to go. Any tips on making the release easier on him? I want to give him the best chance of survival possible.
) :
And yeah, too young to let go yet. Are there some pigeons nesting in your barn where you found him? They could be his original flock. Maybe he could meet them.
for saving lil guy.
). He isn't even afraid of our cats either, which makes me think he'd be a snack real quick on his own. I was reading on some other forums and from what I read on there, it's really hard to release a tamed bird back into the wild once it's been domesticated since they'll not have any survival instincts...So I'm afraid I may have to end up keeping him. That isn't an issue at all, but it's sad because I had never intended to keep him as a pet, and just wanted to help the little fella out a bit. 
