I thought I would share the story of my scruffy pigeon with you all, and I would be interested to know if anyone has had a similar experience.
Had a pair of squabs in my pigeons nest. One was falling behind and got much smaller than its brother at a couple week old. So I would hand feed it extra food, and also remove the bigger squab until the parents fed the smaller one first, so its crop filled up.
This helped, but he was still lagging behind. At the stage his nestmate fledged and was fully feathered, feeding himself and stopped begging for food, the runty one was still being fed by its parents, and was still growing feathers, and could not fly. It was almost bald under its wings on its back.
This is never happened in all my year of keeping pigeons. He seemed like he was in slow motion for his development. It took him weeks longer to fully feather out than normal.
Its several months on now... his brother looks big, sleek and healthy adult, but he looks very messy. His feathers are all ruffled and scruffy. He still has his baby face and pink beak. He still makes the sound of a squeaker.
He got really greasy looking feathers and bald batched either side of his chest for a long time (although now this has gone).
The funny thing about this little scruffy guy is he acts like a little devil. He is really fierce and not frightened of the other birds. He will attack my dominant cock bird and try to fight him, and whack any bird that comes too close to him with his wings. If I try to touch him he will latch onto my hand with his beak and not let go, growling at me like a dog!!! He can get any perch he wants, by pushing the bigger adults off and chases the other birds from the food.
Maybe there was something wrong with his genetics to stunt him. He eats and poop normally, and can fly well. He looks so strange to my other pigeons.. being so small, long in the neck, skinny and scruffy feathers.
He is also much smarter than the other birds. He is very intelligent. He was the first one to learn how to use the pop hole, the fist one to figure out how to use the newly installed bob wire trap door, the first one to learn the food call to come back into the coop, and the only one that chases away the sparrows.
Anyone else has a pigeon turn out like this? Do you think when he molts into his adult feathers he will look better?
I de wormed him and treated for internal parasites. Can't find anything to suggest he has a disease.
I have got quite attacked to this quirky little guy.
Had a pair of squabs in my pigeons nest. One was falling behind and got much smaller than its brother at a couple week old. So I would hand feed it extra food, and also remove the bigger squab until the parents fed the smaller one first, so its crop filled up.
This helped, but he was still lagging behind. At the stage his nestmate fledged and was fully feathered, feeding himself and stopped begging for food, the runty one was still being fed by its parents, and was still growing feathers, and could not fly. It was almost bald under its wings on its back.
This is never happened in all my year of keeping pigeons. He seemed like he was in slow motion for his development. It took him weeks longer to fully feather out than normal.
Its several months on now... his brother looks big, sleek and healthy adult, but he looks very messy. His feathers are all ruffled and scruffy. He still has his baby face and pink beak. He still makes the sound of a squeaker.
He got really greasy looking feathers and bald batched either side of his chest for a long time (although now this has gone).
The funny thing about this little scruffy guy is he acts like a little devil. He is really fierce and not frightened of the other birds. He will attack my dominant cock bird and try to fight him, and whack any bird that comes too close to him with his wings. If I try to touch him he will latch onto my hand with his beak and not let go, growling at me like a dog!!! He can get any perch he wants, by pushing the bigger adults off and chases the other birds from the food.
Maybe there was something wrong with his genetics to stunt him. He eats and poop normally, and can fly well. He looks so strange to my other pigeons.. being so small, long in the neck, skinny and scruffy feathers.
He is also much smarter than the other birds. He is very intelligent. He was the first one to learn how to use the pop hole, the fist one to figure out how to use the newly installed bob wire trap door, the first one to learn the food call to come back into the coop, and the only one that chases away the sparrows.
Anyone else has a pigeon turn out like this? Do you think when he molts into his adult feathers he will look better?
I de wormed him and treated for internal parasites. Can't find anything to suggest he has a disease.
I have got quite attacked to this quirky little guy.
