Will my pet wood pigeon survive the winter?
Posted by: fatcat on 19 September 2013
For the last 3 months we've had a wood pigeon virtually living in our garden. Every morning my wife puts seeds in the garden, every morning he's sat on the roof waiting. If I see him walking around the garden I give him half a slice of bread, recently he's started attracting my attention, by either walking up to the window if I'm standing at the window, or sitting on the fence where I can see him from my TV viewing chair. As he's my pet, I obviously feed him.
At the weekend I took a few photos and discovered why he virtually begs for food, his lower beak is missing. Will he survive in wild bird seed and bread.
The good news is I get a nice prawn salad for lunch.
Mista H
Do you really think it's sensible eating prawns that have been out of the fridge overnight.
Thanks mista h, at least i didn't call him, Pie 
How is Cooper today?
Debs
Mista H -
Debs gave some great advice. All I can add is: be patient. Our cat Smudge was a rescue who had a pretty tough life -- the smallest of a litter of six found at a construction site with the mother dead. Taken in by a foster mom, she escaped and lived on her own for two years before winding up under our deck about ten winters ago. Once we caught her, and brought her in from the cold, it took almost two years for her to become sociable.
I may not have thought so at the time, but now I realize it was worth the wait. Best of luck with Cooper.
Hook
Wonder why my pictures sometimes disappear from forum threads? Oh well, will try again..
This is our Smudge. A decade after being brought in, she's still a wild girl at heart, and will bite or scratch if overstimulated. But most of the time she's pretty sweet...
Thanks mista h, at least i didn't call him, Pie
How is Cooper today?
Debs
Last nite he had 2 bowls of the same Purina fish selection + kate put down a bowl of expensive wild FRESH salmon(which was meant for us). This morning the Purina was gone and the expensive salmon not touched. This afternoon i stretched my arm down the back of the sofa and he allowed me to stroke him for 10 mins.
Nice looking Moggy Hook,the face of an Angel !!
Mista H
Careful there H.
Could be making a rod for your own back with hand cooked food.
Every chance your cat will refuse "normal" cat food if it develops a taste for the finer things!
+1
My wife works in a butchers so our cats get loads of fresh meat offcuts.I came home the other day to find a nice fillet steak in the fridge.Cat's got the steak I got ham egg and chips.
I think an update on Cyril is due Fat Cat !!
Mista H
Cyril seems to be doing fine. Over the the last couple of weeks we've only seen him 2 or 3 times, although we went on holiday for a few days last week. He turned up this morning and as you can see from the photo's he doesn't look undernourished.
Not good news on the cat front, he was killed on the main road last week. We didn't think he went near the main road as it's about 250 yards away, although the fields and hedgerow across the road must be a good hunting ground.
Glad to hear Cooper's come out and established himself as No.2 in your household pecking order.
I was having a senior moment with regards the distance, it's 250 yards if you keep to the pavement, turning a couple of corners. Probably 120 yards as the crow fly's or a cat walks.
We didn't find him. Somebody took him a local vet on Wednesday morning to find out if he'd been chipped, they'd found him dead in the road at 7.30 pm on Tuesday. The vet identified him from the chip and told us where he'd been found. I suspect the very stormy weather last Tuesday contributed to his getting run over, I've watched him cross the road near our house, he just wanders into the road without looking, relying on hearing to warn of danger. He probably didn't hear the car coming due to the very strong wind.
Thanks for the photo comments. I'm not a pro, not even a competent amateur, I rely on taking a lot of photos in the hope of getting a few good ones. I was testing out an old 200mm Takumar lens I recently bought, manual focus, manual aperture and speed setting. The rooftop shot was done with a tripod, the ground shot hand held.
The TV aerial hasn't been used for years, except as a pigeon or dove perch.
It's the lime green shirt today. Unfortunately mummy Blue Tit turned up this morning. She doesn't look very pleased. Sadly, I don't suppose Steve'll be posting on here for a while.
I am a little concerned, the good Dr does not seem to have posted since this picture appeared!
Graham 