Neo

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On Saturday I was contacted by SFACC about a skinny stray baby king pigeon that had been picked up but wasn't eating and had been recommended for euthanasia.

I went in on Sunday to pick him up. The shelter was closed to business for Easter but open to rescues and volunteers (of which there were many).

The baby king found as a stray is extremely thin (weighing only 334 grams) and dyed pink. That and his brown and white coloring are very evocative of Neopolitan ice cream. I've named him Neo. Somebody probably bought him for $5 and "released" him which is like torture for a domestic bird. Most die before they get rescued.

The poor little guy, only about 4 weeks old, still has a few gold baby fuzz threads. I think that he had kind of given up. Out on the streets alone, he would have been very frightened and lonesome in addition to hungry and thirsty and helpless. Once at the shelter, he had food and water and a mirror for company but I think he was just done in by his traumatic experience.

MickaCoo is short of indoor, supportive foster care spots and so I brought Neo home with me. I weighed and wormed him, snuggled him, took him outside to see the happy, healthy pigeons in my backyard coop (for encouragement), hand-fed him a bit and snuggled him some more. It appears to be working because he has started eating and is doing better already.

I'm going to try and spend extra time with Neo and build a close friendship with him. He's a sweet baby with a tender heart. He needs a friend and I need a pigeon ambassador to help me with this work. Lots of the people I know have amazing relationships with their pet pigeons. I'm always so busy dealing with lots and lots of pigeons that I haven't created that special bond with one. Neo is responding to my TLC. As he recovers his strength and health, we'll head out together to do pigeon PR. I wonder what color pants I should order for this little Neopolitan.

UPDATE: Tuesday 5/3/11

Neo is doing great. He's an opinionated and emotional bird. He loves oops baby dove Lily but thinks Tookie my green-cheek conure should get lost. He alternates between wanting to snuggle with me and wing pop me followed by some bites for emphasis. I'm going to put pants on him soon and he may come with me to this Saturday's fifth annual adoptathon at the Santa Clara Animal Control Authority.

5/19/11 UPDATE:

Baby king pigeon Neo and oops baby dove Lily are growing up and both are doing great. They are still close friends but Neo is so much bigger at 534 grams to Lily's 128, that I worry a bit about their continued rooming together now that they are both more active. Neo has really big feet and is a bit clumsy. He's always sweet to Lily but I have seen him step on her accidentally in his rush to stay close to his friend.

While I'm not a big fan of Neopolitan ice cream (two-thirds too little chocolate for my vote), it certainly is what comes to mind when ever I see Neo. His dyed-pink feathers will molt out over time and he'll be his natural brown and white self eventually.

Lily has been completely self-feeding for almost a week now and has taken at least two baths that I know of. She's learned to fly too.

And she's getting in her black ring. Her coloring is mostly brown with some soft blue-gray and a bit of white on the underside and her outermost tail feathers.

Lily loves her friend Neo but is also extremely bonded to me. Whenever she sees me she wants to fly to me and tease me to feed her even though I haven't hand-fed her for quite a while now. When I take her picture, I have to be quick because she flies to me and lands on my camera leaving me with a picture where she used to be.

When Lily was younger, I kept their shared cage space extremely simple to minimize the chance of her big friend Neo stepping on her or anything like that. Now that Lily is mobile and agile, they have perches and a basket to share.

Lily is an adventuresome bather but Neo not so much.

Originally, I hadn't intended to keep Lily and only handfed her for lack of a better option. Since she came along around the same time I decided to befriend foster pigeon Neo and groom him to be a pigeon ambassador (demo pij), it occurred to me that maybe they could be my demo duo, since it's good to take both a pigeon and a dove to adoption fairs and outreach events. But I'm not sure that that idea will really work. Typically I'd be taking Neo around on my shoulder because he's big and sturdy enough to wear pants and a harness but, so far, since that would leave Lily either home alone or riding along shotgun in a small cage, I've not taken either. I know they would each miss the other if left home alone and taking both seems less manageable. We'll figure something out. I am very glad that they've had each other as childhood buddies. They've been great company for each other and Neo taught Lily how to eat seeds. Eventually, I have a feeling Lily will be adopted, hopefully with a dove friend, and Neo will probably join the flock in my backyard coop and make new friends. But for now, they are an adorable couple.

6/16/11 UPDATE

Neo is doing great and growing up to be a very striking bird. He (?) is still very good friends with his little friend Lily the dove.

He is not a fan of wearing the pants.

He loves spending time out in the aviary, bathes with enthusiasm and is not always good about sharing lunch.

He's built long and solid with what seem to me to be really long wings. I think she's probably half racing pij and half king. He's heavily muscled and long-limbed and reminds me of a race horse.

Neo and Lily joined me on an adventure in Fairfax and had lots of fun together.

And now they are helping me with the Pepsi grant adventure. PLEASE click here to vote for MickaCoo AND text 106711 to 73774 every day in June.

Thank you!

6/28/11 UPDATE

Neo is doing great and is have a grand time hanging out in the aviary with his friends Isabella (young, single king hen) and Frankie (young homer) and with daily visits from Lily, his oops-baby dove childhood sweetheart.

He is still NOT a fan of the pants and was very sulky as a Demo Pij at an Adoption Fair event at the Walnut Creek Pet Food Express this weekend. He spent the majority of time hiding from the public and working on pants removal.