Second sick pigeon within one week, should I stop feeding birds, HELP???

[4life]

I posted earlier about a second pigeon I have coming here that is acting sick. I live in Chicago and we ground feed all our birds in the winter. We get sparrows, cardinals, Starlings, robins, and of course some feral pigeons. Last week I had a pigeon acting very odd. I ended up capturing it but it died overnight. Now one week later I have another pigeon acting odd again. All the birds fly off for the night when it starts getting dark here, like around 5 pm. Well this pigeon has decided to stay on my upper level back porch all night. It is a semi- enclosed porch so she is pretty hidden which is good and out of the wind somewhat. Also if any predator happened to come up there( cat or raccoon or whatever, she has a clear path to fly away), Still, this is odd as they usually always all fly off. She is acting like the other one did. I am assuming there is some sickness going around ( Maybe Canker ). My question is, should I stop feeding all my birds immediately in order to cease the spread of this illness should that be what the case is here? I hate to cut them cold turkey in the winter, but then again, I hate to see them all catching this and dying. Any thoughts? I mean they all drink out of the same bird bath so maybe that is how they are catching whatever this is?? Do some get exposed to it and Not catch it or get sick?

 

[laughingdog]

Some birds immune systems just run down, especially in winter, stopping feeding them in winter would probably kill all of them if they're mostly feeding at your place. Try cap full of bleach or apple cider vinegar per gallon of water put out. Put out more corn and or sunflower seeds etc for fat in winter, or if feeding pigeons more put out some layer feed made for chickens as this is what I use for sick pigeons that helps them a lot and cheaper than seed.

 

[4life]

Some birds immune systems just run down, especially in winter, stopping feeding them in winter would probably kill all of them if they're mostly feeding at your place. Try cap full of bleach or apple cider vinegar per gallon of water put out. Put out more corn and or sunflower seeds etc for fat in winter, or if feeding pigeons more put out some layer feed made for chickens as this is what I use for sick pigeons that helps them a lot and cheaper than seed.

Thanks. I feed then sunflower seeds as well as crushed roasted peanuts mix. I also was giving cracked corn but thought about cutting the corn out after reading it can grow mold in wet environments. Though I do not think we have any mold growth on the ground because they eat everything that we put down right away. We will sprinkle out the food 2 to three times a day. Would you add the apple cider vinegar to their drinking water?

 

[jak2002003]

From you posts it seems you have a lot of bird coming to feed.. and also a lot of mess and bird poop about.

This is a health hazard for the birds that come.. and any with a disease will spread it to other healthy birds from the close contact and dirt.

I advise you to clean all your feeders every few days... never allow any feed to lay around on the ground under the feeders.. you can put concrete under the feeders and sweep up the spilt seeds every day.... also this will not give rats or other vermin anything to come and eat... as they too spread diseases to birds.

Change the water in your bird baths every day.. scrub them down with a weak bleach solution.

It might be a good idea to only feed the small species of birds... in the hanging feeders.

Then feed the pigeons just at one time a day from a big tray.. and take this away after 10 minutes when they get full up. They they won't be hanging around all day pooping everywhere.

Its important not to have so much food about that makes the birds dependant on you.

 

[4life]

From you posts it seems you have a lot of bird coming to feed.. and also a lot of mess and bird poop about.

This is a health hazard for the birds that come.. and any with a disease will spread it to other healthy birds from the close contact and dirt.

I advise you to clean all your feeders every few days... never allow any feed to lay around on the ground under the feeders.. you can put concrete under the feeders and sweep up the spilt seeds every day.... also this will not give rats or other vermin anything to come and eat... as they too spread diseases to birds.

Change the water in your bird baths every day.. scrub them down with a weak bleach solution.

It might be a good idea to only feed the small species of birds... in the hanging feeders.

Then feed the pigeons just at one time a day from a big tray.. and take this away after 10 minutes when they get full up. They they won't be hanging around all day pooping everywhere.

Its important not to have so much food about that makes the birds dependant on you.

Thanks for the reply. We do ground feed in the winter,but there is never any food left after we feed them at the end of the day. The birds do poop all over the place( even when we had feeders). The pigeons literally come to our window and sit there and beg to eat all during the day.. We usually wean all our birds off when it gets warmer out. We were planning on weaning them in the next couple weeks. Not sure how to do this with the pigeons though. Now I have a sick one who is staying on my upper level back porch all day and night for the last 2 days. We had one other sick one last week that died. I am worried that they have some illness that is spreading amongst them. We do change our bird baths every day. Will the pigeons be okay if we stop feeding them, will they find food elsewhere?

 

[laughingdog]

stopping feeding when freezing especially may make many have to go off and die, as then most birds cannot get now enough feed anywhere else, unless your feed just the best in area. Well you can but you'll lose lots of birds.. You could slowely cut down feed and place only farthest away from your place.
Sadly the sick birds that die quick in nature, usually die slow when get fed enough, watered and safe, as many can breed out than can sustain in environment. I'm sad you are seeing down side of your bird watching, but you've brought your FAM and birds lots of joy too. Good luck that your sick pidgies were mates and flooks. I've known and worked in some of those area rescues and they are generally all good but pigeons still not too high listed and they're said rehabbed but put down (they cannot be legally rehabbed and released, but can be fed to other animals when healthy, or kept to breed feed for birds of prey etc, as I worked with DNR) but without treatent it'll die in bad days anyway.

 

[4life]

Dont stop feeding when freezing especially, as then most birds cannot get feed anywhere else, unless your feed just the best in area. Well you can but you'll lose lots of birds.. You could slowely cut down feed and place only farthest away from your place.
Sadly the sick birds that die quick in nature, usually die slow when get fed enough, watered and safe, as many can breed out than can sustain in environment. I'm sad you are seeing down side of your bird watching, but you've brought your FAM and birds lots of joy too. Good luck that your sick pidgies were mates and flooks.

Thanks for the response. Ugh, this has been utterly heartbreaking for me. We just captured 2 sick pigeons that were staying on our porch for the last few days and nights and are going to take them to this wildlife rehab over here this morning. They said they can examine them and find out what wrong and treat them if possible. They told us to pull up all food and water in case there is some sickness passing . It was awful, they stayed here begging for food all day. Every time we left the house they bombarded us. I feel like such a heel . Worse is when my neighbors came home the pigeons were swarming them too! This is not a good situation. We live in the city and a lot of people are Not pigeon friendly. I think it will be safer for them to go someplace else really as much as it breaks my heart. They are back here again hanging on our porch begging and swarming us when we open the door. Will they ever give up and try and find another place? I also worry that what is some jerk around the area here laid poison or something out, then It is really important for them to hopefully leave this area as soon as possible. I mean I don't think someone poisoned them because I think they would have died right away and not lingering for days. I think there is an illness passing between them. This is one of the hardest things I have had to do, I feel like such a mean person taking away their food and water like that, but at the same time, I don't want more of them coming down sick. Now we have to scrub the whole porch down with a bleach and disinfectant liquid, It is not good having their poop laying around especially if it is infectious to the other birds that are still hanging here. Another reason I hope they all fly off. This is so sad . Thank God it is going to be in the 50's today and 60's for part of the rest of the week here so it wont be as cold out.

 

[laughingdog]

I dont feed birds around my porch anymore because of poop prob n try not to feed songbirds at all.. Pigeons are anciently domesticated like straying n feral cats dogs etc, and tame back just as easy, easier I've seen even.

 

[4life]

I dont feed birds around my porch anymore because of poop prob n try not to feed songbirds at all.. Pigeons are anciently domesticated like straying n feral cats dogs etc, and tame back just as easy, easier I've seen even.

That makes sense as to why they are so friendly with people.