One of the standard challenges of pet ownership is meshing a new animal with your current pets. There’s plenty of help to be found online regarding how to introduce cats or dogs to each other, but not so much how to bring home a new pigeon when you already have one—or even an entire flock! So how does one go about that safely?
This will walk you through things to watch out for, things you should avoid or encourage*,* and a general overview of what to expect.
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This guide assumes you have already completed the quarantine of the new bird. All new pigeons have to be quarantined: they should live in a separate room (ideally with no shared air) for a month or until they have been cleared by a vet. ****
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Through most of this process, you want to assume that things could go the way you don’t want them to. And part of preparing for that is to set aside a place for your new bird to reside during introductions.
When you first move your new pigeon into the same room as your existing pigeon, you should still provide two cages. Do not ****attempt to force them to move in together. That’s a choice they have to make for themselves—and if they don’t, they will get into serious fights about it. It’s very simple to avoid that. Two cages!
If you are moving your new pigeon into a large existing loft or an aviary, this problem is usually negated. There should be enough space within the loft for everyone to feel comfortable enough. Just don’t introduce the new bird late in the day, and still expect some scuffles.
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Lofts also must contain two nest boxes for every two pigeons. In other words, every pair must be able to choose between two different boxes. If you go under this limit, you are asking for injuries.
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Where you place the cage of your new pigeon is not that important. What is important is that each bird has their own space that is just their own, and they are allowed to keep private. Pigeons are highly territorial, but only about their nest space—outside of the area they consider uniquely theirs they can get along with each other quite well. That’s also why it’s difficult to bond with a new pigeon while they feel cornered in their cage.
So how do you actually go about introducing two pigeons? Or a pigeon to a loft? I’ll cover both approaches. Now, this is just one approach, and you may hear other methods from other qualified, experienced keepers—and they might work just as well! Just use your common sense and think about things before you do them.
When indoors, introductions tend to be best served by placing your established pigeon in their cage and then bringing in your new pigeon in theirs—the one they hopefully spent quarantine in! By the end of the quarantine, they should already be used to their cage and consider it a comfortable home base that they can always retreat to if things go wrong.
At that point, give them some time to look at each other through the cage bars. How is that going? What is their posture like? How are they signaling each other? Depending on how things are going, half an hour to an hour and a half later, you can let the new pigeon out of the cage. Do not let both out at once! In most cases, they aren’t ready for this yet.
If they seem to be flirting through the bars, you may be fine to let both out, but if you are at all unsure, err on the side of safety.
You could start by alternating out time for a day or so, but you don’t have to drag it out much longer: at some point, your birds are going to need to meet up! If there’s conflict, there’s conflict, and only they can work it out.
Introductions in a loft are very straightforward. There’s only so much you can keep them separate in that environment.
As you might have guessed, you just release the new pigeon into the loft. Do it earlier in the day so everyone has time to settle down before roosting time. It’s a good idea to supervise a little, but if it seems to be going as well as can be expected, you can probably relax. Just cast an eye out there when you can.