Mercy or Mistake?

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Some readers know that Rocky is the reason that I became an accidental, full-time plus pigeon rescuer. She is the king pigeon that I would have turned my back on once I knew how to help them if I had chosen not to continue. She is the king pigeon that came after Gurumina.

I eventually adopted Rocky and, after a lot of heartbreak, she met Walter- her rock steady mate.

And for over three years now, I've been taking away their beautiful eggs, two about every 6 weeks, and replacing them with fakes for pigeon birth control. As the founder of MickaCoo Pigeon & Dove Rescue, I know only too well the importance of prohibiting breeding when there are so many innocent birds already here and in need of homes and facing euthanasia for the lack of them. But how to explain it to the birds? Rocky & Walter (and all the the birds) hate when I replace their real eggs with fakes. They hate sitting on unhatchable wooden eggs cycle after cycle.

So, this mid May, rightly or wrongly, I left Rocky & Walter's real eggs in their nest. It was not an accident. I knew they were there. And while I hoped they might prove infertile, I knew that was unlikely and that babies would hatch. Worse than "Oops Babies", these would be deliberate. I thought of them as "Mercy Babies". But I'm not sure if allowing them to hatch is a mercy or mistake on my part.

On May 29th, Rocky & Walter's eggs did hatch.

Pigeon cocks are devoted fathers and Walter has been very committed.

Walter

Rocky

But I have been once again surprised by pigeons because Rocky & Walter appear no where near as delighted with their babies as Santino & Charlie were in 2009 when I did have a pair of genuine Oops Babies hatch in my coop.

Santino & Charlie didn't leave their babies alone in the nest for the first couple of weeks while Rocky & Walter have been only visiting intermittently since the babies were only a week old. They've done a wonderful job caring for them but seem much less interested and thrilled than Charlie & Santino were.

Babies out of the nest for a moment while I clean (under Walter's careful supervision)

Babies home alone in their nest box

The family



On the morning of June 26, the day the babies that I call Junior & Sweets were 4 weeks old and would typically be sold and butchered as squab, I woke up to a different kind of horror. (WARNING: Images of an injured baby pigeon to follow.)

That morning, before I came out, Junior had come out on the "porch" of his (gender still TBD) nestbox and either jumped or fallen off. He landed in front of Frances & Country's nestbox (the bottom floor of the tower) and I believe went in mistakenly.

I came out to find him trapped in their box. Unable to find the door, he was stuck trying to get out through the bars and was seriously injured by the adult birds for trespassing. Country pecked his flank (on the inside of the box) while Frances, I believe, attacked his head which was poking out.

Amazingly, he has survived and is healing. For now, I've locked them in their nest box and only open their door when I'm there to supervise.

I've yet again been surprised because Rocky, the injured baby's mother, has to be kept out of the nest box. She attacked Junior as if he was an intruder while his father Walter has continued to parent him. Walter flies in to the nest box to feed the babies every time I open their door.

Rocky, not the pij mother I expected her to be

Sweets

Junior

Walter (with glands swollen from feeding the babies)

Thankfully, Sweets has remained very loving and gentle with her sibling, Junior, despite his disfiguring injuries.

The amazing rate at which baby pigeons grow also gives them tremendous healing abilities. These two pictures were taken less than 24 hours apart.

Junior's behaving normally, is continuing to develop and is beginning to self-feed. I'm hopeful that he will make a full recovery from this terrible ordeal. This experience was very different for me than with the Oops Babies in that they never left their nest (whether accidentally or on purpose) until they were much older and they were also much more closely supervised by their parents than Junior & Sweets have been.

I am still conflicted as to whether the mercy of letting Rocky & Walter finally raise a pair of babies after more than three years of trying outweighs the mistake of adding to the numbers of domestic pigeons. There are more waiting in shelters right now to come into MickaCoo's care and I will need to work extra, extra hard to ensure that the lives of Junior & Sweets don't cost other birds' theirs. I still say, don't breed, don't buy- adopt.

7/6/11 UPDATE:

The mercy babies, Sweets & Junior, have been doing well and have almost transitioned out of their nest box and into the aviary proper full time. Their parents are eager to have them out of the house. Walter will still feed them now and again but Rocky has just about run out of patience.

Sweets & Junior

I spent the long holiday weekend running back and forth every few minutes out to the aviary to check that the babies weren't getting injured during their forays out of the nest.

Junior and Rascal watch as Derby teaches Sweets a hard fact of life

Dad Walter comes to the rescue and provides some comfort food to Sweets

Junior has healed incredibly well from his injuries and is even regrowing feathers in the places where he was raw and bald.

While Sweets & Junior hang on to their babyhood, Rocky & Walter are back to courting with all thoughts on the next eggs to be laid.

Sweets & Junior out and about

I'm able to relax a bit now that I know the babies can get out of scuffles with adults and retreat to the not-for-much-longer-available safety of the nest.

In this sequence, Rocky struggles to physically prevent her baby Sweets from coming back in to the nest box.

Ultimately Sweets makes it back in. This time.