Feeding pigeons?

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leamos

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I came home from a 2 weeks away to find a pair of pigeons had decided to nest on my varandah, currently they are taking turns sitting on 2 eggs. My question is are young pigeons safe to feed out without freezing for a period of time? Would worms and other parasites be an issue?
 
Freezing does virtually nothing to negate parasites. It seems to be a common fallacy on this website that freezing somehow magically removes parasites from wild-caught prey animals without any evidence to back up this opinion. Many parasites have cyst or egg stages that are not affected at all by temperatures obtained in a household freezer.
 
Freezing does virtually nothing to negate parasites. It seems to be a common fallacy on this website that freezing somehow magically removes parasites from wild-caught prey animals without any evidence to back up this opinion. Many parasites have cyst or egg stages that are not affected at all by temperatures obtained in a household freezer.

just while we're on the topic, what guarantee would rodents have to be parasite free, especially those housed in large facilities with an increased chance of cross infection and such? Wouldn't any type of living breathing animal, regardless of where it is reared, be host to a plethora of microorganisms? Or is it a matter of the type of organism, and if so, again back to the original, as really they're found anywhere and everywhere aren't they?

Oh and spot-on on the freezing issue :D
 
just while we're on the topic, what guarantee would rodents have to be parasite free, especially those housed in large facilities with an increased chance of cross infection and such? Wouldn't any type of living breathing animal, regardless of where it is reared, be host to a plethora of microorganisms? Or is it a matter of the type of organism, and if so, again back to the original, as really they're found anywhere and everywhere aren't they?

Oh and spot-on on the freezing issue :D

It's been "proven" that after 42 days in a freezer that will kill of any nasty things on the food.

Oh and I wouldn't feed wild pigeons to my snake. You've just sad they have best and eggs etc. let them be like seriously are you that hard up for cash that you wanna go taking birds outta the wild for food. If you can't afford the food don't have the snakes. Simple.
 
It's been "proven" that after 42 days in a freezer that will kill of any nasty things on the food.

Oh and I wouldn't feed wild pigeons to my snake. You've just sad they have best and eggs etc. let them be like seriously are you that hard up for cash that you wanna go taking birds outta the wild for food. If you can't afford the food don't have the snakes. Simple.

again, why? Understandable from a moral perspective etc, but from a scientific point of view is it valid to draw such a conclusion simply on bacterial infection risk?

and yea, my microbiology professor would highly disagree on that.
 
again, why? Understandable from a moral perspective etc, but from a scientific point of view is it valid to draw such a conclusion simply on bacterial infection risk?

and yea, my microbiology professor would highly disagree on that.

Why what??
 
It's been "proven" that after 42 days in a freezer that will kill of any nasty things on the food.

Oh and I wouldn't feed wild pigeons to my snake. You've just sad they have best and eggs etc. let them be like seriously are you that hard up for cash that you wanna go taking birds outta the wild for food. If you can't afford the food don't have the snakes. Simple.
hahaha you are really hypocritical in another thread you tried to pick an argument with me over the fact that you say you dont like people starting arguments on the forum , what are you doing now , your needlessly starting an argument , very hypocritical and you told me to grow up (but like i said im peter pan and cant grow in never never land ) maybe you should take your own advice
 
hahaha you are really hypocritical in another thread you tried to pick an argument with me over the fact that you say you dont like people starting arguments on the forum , what are you doing now , your needlessly starting an argument , very hypocritical and you told me to grow up (but like i said im peter pan and cant grow in never never land ) maybe you should take your own advice

How am I picking a fight. I simply asked why what..
 
that was directed at your other post , in which you said "let them be like seriously are you that hard up for cash that you wanna go taking birds outta the wild for food.if you cant afford the food dont have snakes simple "

why bother with that post if you don't like people starting arguments on the forum ? its mainly the part "if you cant afford food dont have snakes " part that to me kinda sounds like you dont mind being a little confrontational , which is something you said you hated on the forums , that is the definition of hypocritical really

he may very well want to feed them because their an introduced species of bird not because hes tight with cash
 
I would also be careful of feeding a pigeon taking into parasites etc. but also if your python gets picky and only will eat pigeons the it may be hard to get your animal accepting rats again
 
It's been "proven" that after 42 days in a freezer that will kill of any nasty things on the food.

Would you mind showing me a link or a paper with this proof please? We are not talking about bacteria here but parasites, which as I have already stated, have stages of their lifecycles which are not affected by freezing, no matter how long that freezing occurs for.

just while we're on the topic, what guarantee would rodents have to be parasite free, especially those housed in large facilities with an increased chance of cross infection and such? Wouldn't any type of living breathing animal, regardless of where it is reared, be host to a plethora of microorganisms? Or is it a matter of the type of organism, and if so, again back to the original, as really they're found anywhere and everywhere aren't they?

Oh and spot-on on the freezing issue :D


I did not state that commercially bred rodents would be parasite-free, however the parasite burden could be eliminated/minimized with appropriate treatment or removal of opportunity to pass on the offending organism. Whether specific rodent breeders do this is unknown but the likelihood of parasites would be reduced when compared with wild-caught feeds.

That's not to say that rodents bred for food are definitely safe (we all know someone who has had a bad experience with captive bred feeds) but its all a probability assessment ie. what's more likely to cause problems?
 
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Baby birds will definately peck at poo in their nests and are also fed regurgitated food from their parents so there is definately a risk of parasites.
Having said that, I would have no problems feeding them off assuming you are not talking about one of our native pidgeons (which are pretty unlikey to nest near a house).
I used to feed the doves that nested in our palm trees to my brown tree snakes.
 
Freezing will actually kill some bacteria, but cannot be relied upon. Boiling water actually denatures the proteins and irreversibly kills the bacteria. Freezing, often DOES cause lysing of the cells, but doesn't always do this, and the cell simply is suspended until it thaws out. Bacterial cultures are often frozen in glycerin stocks to keep them in perpetuity. So even though they are susceptible to death by freezing, they CAN survive the temperatures, so you can't rely on it.
some can survive in the freezer some can't...
unless u can greatly flucuate the temperatures from freezing to boiling lol no germ can acclimatise that quick to rapid changes in temp no time to adjust so they die off...
 
i wonder if your snake would be eating them in the wild.....

That's not the question - its not in the wild. Snakes in the wild have a certain parasite load. For many reasons a similar parasite load in captivity can cause significant health issues which do not necessarily surface in snakes in their native environment. Conversely, a snake that picks up too large a load of parasites in its native environment can result in death - which is one of the things people try to avoid in their captive pets.
 
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