Pet Pigeon Behavior, Aggression and why you SHOULDN'T imprint

This is a video on Loki's aggression. Not all imprints will behave this way, but this behavior is very common in male birds which leads to people not understanding them and these birds getting abandoned.

Sometimes especially with rescues or abandoned squabs its impossible to not have the bird imprint on you. You can help avoid behavior issues by having your pigeon socialize with pigeons in a loft during its fledging time.

Sorry if i rambled a bit i had a long day haha

[defaultmania]

Pigeon: beating the shit out of her hand.
Her: he is a very good boy, just a little confuse.
(Very relatable parent moment)

[hikingm]

i would never encourage pigeon imprinting because i understand it can make them more prone to pet abandonment. that being said, in my personal experience, imprinted pigeons are f*ing DELIGHTFUL. i adopted my imprint first after his eggs were abandoned by feral parents and didn't know any better so assumed his behaviour was normal. i've since adopted three more and while i love them deeply, they are almost boring in comparison not by any fault of their own but because they aren't insane. my little fella is so effing chaotic and silly. he coos almost 24/7 and greets every new object or person by humping it. he is constantly in a state of excitement and is almost always vibrating. man, watching him eat peanuts makes me cry laughing because he gets sooo excited and just shakes and eats them faster than you can hand them out and starts biting me if i can't get them out of the bag quick enough. when i took him to the vet, they had to put him in a holding bucket to weigh him because he could not behave. yes he is absolutely a handful but has brought more laughs than i'd have ever imagined. he is the star of our household and more like a fluffy little dragon than a bird. i'm grateful for him every day.

[hogonalog]

I just love MJ in the background watching this mess unfold. He may be a mess, but he's her mess.

[thevultureboss]

My pigeon does exactly the same. Every time I feed him and try to get close, he starts pecking me furiously. And until now I didn't know the reason. I raised him from a baby because he hatched in the cold in February and wouldn't survive outside even with his parents' care. Now I understood the reason for his behavior. Many thanks for the useful information in this great video.

[tuckercaldwell]

I have an imprinted female pigeon I handraised she's over a year old now. She had some brief socializing with a foster pair for her first couple months of life but always showed most interest in humans (particularly me). Her bond is incredibly strong and she can free fly outdoors. When she isn't on eggs she's very clingy and does display territorial aggression towards certain objects and be a bit sassy and standoffish but nothing I would consider outwardly unnatural other than the fact that she associates me an my family as her "flock". A lot of people I follow on IG with male imprint pigeons seem to try to mount everything too and be quite obnoxious lol

[gryph.feathers]

Another "person who has an Imprinted male bird" attesting to their spiciness! Our boy Pippin was 3 days old when his parents abandoned him, so our option was either "hand raise and risk Imprinting" or something more unfortunate. At 3 years old now, he's a much beloved pet, and everyone in the household understands that he's a little demon (affectionate), but it's not exactly what would make a desirable pet for the average household.

It's possible for them to live happy, fulfilled lives as house birds, but they are much bitier, slappier, feistier than a human socialized but parent-raised pidge.

[tracy]

I raised a male pigeon that imprinted on me. He constantly mates with my hand. I thought this was funny until my hand began to feel strange. I woke up one day to find that my hand had laid two eggs. Now I am rasing two pigeohands. It gives a whole new meaning to flipping the bird.

[greenbeans]

Doves can be like this too. I've seen many videos where the cocks aggressively bow and assert dominance over their owners. It looks cute because pigeons and doves are fat little fluff balls who make derpy cooing sounds, but these chunky birds can be very nasty. In fact, I have a male dove of my own and I thought he didn't love me because never exhibited this behavior towards me. Turns out Hershey only sees me as a human and respects my role as the boss. 😂 Thanks again for sharing this! I've never seen a pigeon as aggressive as Loki before! Good thing he's cute!

[themoonxchilde]

I adopted my boy this year who is just like this. Some lady found him as a baby, had no idea what she was doing. He was sweet and cute at first, and then he became an absolute behavioral nightmare. She couldn't handle him and surrendered him. He was been in and out of homes for 6 years and violently attacks other birds (almost killed one at his last home). It's just so sad knowing this could have been avoided if she just gave the bird to a professional. Anyway, this is his forever home now regardless of the constant biting, charging, and wing slaps- but it's still really heartbreaking.

[EvidentlyFire]

I sat watching this with my new pet pigeon on my shoulder. I rescued her from a London shopping center car park. She was star gazing with her head upside down. Ive had her three weeks and she still fits but shes getting better and we are fast becoming friends. Thanks for your video.

[davechristensen]

That was very educational. I have raised hundreds of pigeons, and they were very tame. But I never "imprinted" them. They did not think they were humans, so they were well adjusted. I like to watch people who have imprinted their pigeons as "mates". It's sweet. I did not know the consequences. It makes sense.

[angeliquesoon]

I have a rescued imprinted male pigeon who behaves very much like Loki at times. The really wierd thing is that he has a completely different relationship with my right and left hands. He absolutely HATES my right hand and will attack and bite it. He seems only happy with it when it is passive and he can perch on it. Perhaps it's some kind of dominance thing? He loves my left hand and likes to be petted and cuddled with it. It is the hand he is very soft with and will groom it. If tell him off with my left hand its almost like he listens and will back off. Sometimes I will have to use my left hand to defend my right hand. I'm not allowed to hide my hands either. That bothers my pigeon a lot. Pigeon psychology is very difficult. Sometimes I wonder if he thinks I'm 3 different people!

[PeeperSnail]

From what I’ve seen pigeon aggression is marked by the Wing Slap(TM)

[Hank..]

Not only is it important to avoid imprinting, but also it's important to know what you're getting into in general when taking in any animal. It takes a special kind of person to be able to handle this behavior, so it's important to know about it beforehand. That applies to all kinds of animals. A lot of them require special care or handling, and people need to know what they're signing up for so they can decide whether or not they can provide a good home.

[ivaniousivanious]

As a person who never had a pigeon as a pet, but only observed them on the streets, I could never imagine that such cute birds can ever be aggressive 😮

[lilyanne]

Wow. I just wanted to say thank you for caring for him despite his aggression. He's lucky that you two connected.

I don't know anything about pigeons, I'm a rat & reptile enthusiast, but this vid randomly appeared so I took a peek and I feel so sad for all the birds who don't end up in happy homes. It's so amazing of you to look after him.

This really warmed my heart and I hope you know how special it is that you do this. You really rock : )

Thanks for sharing.
Xoxox

[muitan]

I really appreciate you sharing your experience with Loki. He reminds me a lot of our male rescue. He is quite aggressive and territorial by default when at home, he is bonded to my wife and nobody else can pet him. His behaviour towards me is basically just like Loki's, except when he chooses to come and sit on my shoulder. Even then there is a 50% chance of a hard ear bite... However, this only applies at home. We are trying to get him used to people and the outdoors, and whenever we take him out to a new place he will cuddle up to my cheek and let me pet him. I wonder if it could be the same with Loki? When you keep these boys inside, they get stuck in their little territorial bubble where they are the kings. Always have to be the tough guy. But take them out of that bubble... Not so tough anymore. It can be different for different birds of course. There is also sexual frustration involved as well of course... I always feel that I wish I could understand our boy better. We are doing our best though and he seems happy most of the time. Best of luck to you and Loki ❤❤❤

[LoneIrbis]

I have currently 10 and up to 20 different pigeons within past couple years, and gotta say it's all highly individual. For example, I currently have a young (little under 6 months) black cock that looks very similar to your Loki, and he definitely has aggression issues. But he's not imprinted on me or any human, even though he's been raised by me in cooperation with his parents. His nestmate sister (aka his current wife) is absolutely nice tame girl, though can also wingslap on occasion. They were bonded ever since they were born and never apart for more than a night, and they never treated humans as potential mates, but only as a source of food and occasional nastiness like medications or being moved to other room for being too loud at night.

Another boy I had to raise pretty much on my own since his parents were newbies, did a poor job feeding and were plucking his feathers. So I kept him in separate cage since week 2, and he had issues with learning to feed on his own, so there was some extensive suringe and tube feeding, up to 1.5 months or so. And now he's the most tame of all male pigeons I ever had. He's not biting even in his cage (his wife does though, and she is also imprinted on me). And his guy only flies at me for pets, shoves his beak in my fingers and acts as if he's still a little baby around me. Imprintend to a point it was very hard to get him paired with his wife, but zero aggression. Maleness confirmed too, he could've been a father a few times by now.

Meanwhile his father is also imprinted, but up to 2 months age he lived and was born outside my window. Then I had to rescue him as he nearly froze to death. Next couple months he was a total vegetable, he didn't eat or drink on his own and learned everything from scratch. By the time he got better he already considered me his mate, apparently. And he has aggression issues, but it might be side effects of his brain injury. Other times he's a total loaf, but can flip into bity mood in a split second. He had a wife for a while, but was also aggressive to his mate, and she was plucking his forehead from anxiety, so I separated them, and now he's bonded to me again. Still aggressive on occasion, but that's ok. Not being dead is already a challenge for this guy.

So tl;dr: it is all highly variable and imprinting is not the only (or guaranteed) source of aggression. Sometimes they just are for no good reason, other times they're just friendly despite imprinting.

[griffonlady]

I had a pigion my dad brought home as a fledgling. It was male and acted just like Loki here, but it came in handy. He chased a bully away once. ^_^ He also attacked the school bus when it "ate" me. I wasn't allowed to bring him indoors, so he'd follow me from window to window. I did wind up getting more pigeons so he wouldn't be so alone, but bullies shot him and most of my flock when i was in middle school. Poor Pidge.

[senika]

This is actually a huge comfort to me with my pigeon! Thank you so much for all these videos youve made.
My bird is one we rescued when she was young, we arent entirely sure if shes male or female, but she acts exactly like Loki does here