Single Parent.. can it work?

[jak2002003]

One of my king pigeons was killed by a mongoose getting into their coop.

The next day its eggs hatched.

Now the remaining bird (female) is brooding and feeding the 2 little squabs.

Can I leave her to it?

I have no other pairs to foster the squabs to at the moment.

She is a big healthy aggressive bird.. She has access to seed and chick crumbs 24/7.

Thanks.

 

[Hokum Coco]

One of my king pigeons was killed by a mongoose getting into their coop.

The next day its eggs hatched.

Now the remaining bird (female) is brooding and feeding the 2 little squabs.

Can I leave her to it? Short answer; YES!

I had one small ♀ pigeon raise a single squab to adulthood.
Where there are two squabs in this case you may have to supplement the feeding regiment to help her out when the squabs start to get older.
Then you say she is a big aggressive pigeon.
I am thinking she may be able to handle it on her own.

Did you just loose the one bird to the mongoose??
I am hopping the mongoose does not become a repeat offender.

Wishing you;Good luck buddy!

 

[jak2002003]

I had one small ♀ pigeon raise a single squab to adulthood.
Where there are two squabs in this case you may have to supplement the feeding regiment to help her out when the squabs start to get older.
Then you say she is a big aggressive pigeon.
I am thinking she may be able to handle it on her own.

Did you just loose the one bird to the mongoose??
I am hopping the mongoose does not become a repeat offender.

Wishing you;Good luck buddy!

Thanks for the advise. She is top in the pecking order.. even I am below her... she does not hesitate to bite and hold on.. and also give me hard wing slaps in the face if I get to close to her when she is out and about in the loft.

Sadly I lost many pigeons. One day found a heap of 5 dead fancy pigeons in the middle of the coop. I found the mongoose had made a small hole near the ground in the wire netting and squeezed up between the brick base and the wood wall.. a very narrow gap.

I fixed it up.. and also re wired around the entire bottom of the coop. But 3 days later it found another way in and killed another pigeon. several bantam chicks and injured a fantail (which later died). This time it got in about halfway up in a narrow join in the corner.

I have concreted the entire bottom of the loft... double wired everywhere. Its been a week and the thing has not come back.

 

[Hokum Coco]

Sounds like that mongoose just kills for sport.
That is the worst kind of predator.
It is bad enough loosing one or two at a time.
Glad to hear you got things ship shape and the mongoose is not a problem any more.

I know about loss this year too buddy.
I was at 40 birds at one point then down to six after two raccoon attacks.
Then I left the coop open late one evening I went down to 4 birds after that senior moment.
One less raccoon after that episode the coon ended up on the wrong end of the rifle barrel that night.

 

[jak2002003]

Yes its heart breaking when something bad happens to our birds.

It has been very difficult for me to find the king pigeons and old Dutch Capuchines where I live. Its taken over 3 years to locate a male king pigeon. I had 5 hens and only one male!!! When they got breeding I was very excited. I planned to have a pigeon 'farm' going. My other fancy birds suffered sickness and had lots of treatment and TLC to finally get them back into shape. (they were sick when I bought them). Everything was going really well. Until that mongoose came along.

It kills the pigeons with bites to the neck. Then actually sucks out their blood but does not eat the meat. Like a little Vampire!!!

I don't blame it though. Its just doing what nature intended. I got a live animal trap and caught it. I was going to release it someplace far away.. but it looked so scared and pitiful. So I let it go again. At least they are good for killing poisonous snakes! Also I am sure if there is one about there are going to be a lot more.

I just have to make sure the coop and run are secure.. that means I am going to get someone to build a metal wire one for me... no wood or mesh. That will stop anything getting in.

This is what it looked like.. cute!

But it can also look like this next photo.....

Scary!

 

[Hokum Coco]

Looks like a close relative to our North American weasel or mink.
They have the same M. O. when it comes to being a predator.