There’s many challenges surrounding introducing a young pigeon into your life, and one of the most difficult of them is something that simply can’t be avoided.
Puberty.
We’ve all been through it—or, depending on our age, we’re going through it, or are doomed to go through it. Pigeons are much the same. This guide is about the behavior changes pigeons undergo when growing up: before, during, and after puberty. You will learn what to expect, what to accept, and what you can do about any of it.
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To keep the guide’s terminology consistent throughout, this article has been lightly edited compared to the original: here we refer to puberty in the more precise sense of hormonal and developmental changes culminating in sexual maturity; the behavioral changes that happen in adult birds after puberty are simply referred to as growing up.
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If you are raising a baby pigeon—maybe you have rescued an abandoned pigeon chick or got a very young bird from a breeder—they will usually undergo their first significant behavioral shift around 7–12 weeks of age.
When very young, baby pigeons don’t understand much about the world around them and just want to be warm and fed. They will cuddle with you, squeak for food, and constantly seek out your company, comfort, and warmth. However, as they grow up, they might decide they don’t want to hang out with you. They can suddenly start being afraid of your hands. They might try to snap or bite or slap you for the first time in their lives.
This is a very normal phase for them to go through. Not all of them will, but it’s extremely standard and it’s not at all a mistake to expect it. Don’t take it personally. They’ll likely come back around!
During this time, you should try to limit handling and any forced interaction. Any interaction they initiate is fine, but allow them to exit if they want to.
Overall, just be patient and understanding. They’ll come around. They are just figuring out their personal space, and you can make them hand-shy by intruding on it too much or forcing interaction during this time.
Before animals can produce offspring, they have to sexually mature. They might not be totally mature behaviorally once they are capable of reproducing, but what matters to evolution is passing on your genes. And pigeons can pass on their genes very early.
It’s not at all unusual for pigeons to be entirely capable of having their own babies by the time they’re 6 months old or earlier. Some pigeons lay eggs as early as 4 months old! That’s not necessarily always the case, and some pigeons won’t sexually mature until they’re a year old, but that gives you an idea of the wide window we’re working with.
A developmental stage directly preceding sexual maturity is called puberty—and in pigeons, just like in humans, it comes with significant behavior changes, some of which can be very hard to tolerate!
During puberty, you may notice some (or all!) of the changes below: