Pigeon in need of help!

[helen159]

Help! I've had a pigeon come down my chimney. His tail feathers are badly ruffled and black and he can't fly. His wings are working fine and he's quite lively.

I took the last pigeon to Mrs Tiggywinkles, but they just took him, upside down by the legs (that can't be right, surely?), into a back room and told me to ring them to see how he's doing - he died (apparently). I got the distinct impression that because he wasn't a hedgehog or fox, they weren't interested.

So this one I want to keep and feed and give him a much better chance than letting him go and leaving him to his fate as night draws in. He's currently in a cat cage, with food and water and is out of the sun.

Do they replace their tail feathers or not? I think he's eaten all the black seeds from the seed mix I gave him. I would give him peanuts (as they seem to love them) but, unfortunately, I don't have any and can't get any at this time of night.

Please can I ask your advice. (NB Our roof is such that it will cost £2k to put scaffolding up in order to block our chimney). It's only happened once before and I'd like to try to give it more of a chance than taking it back to Tiggywinkles. I gave him some water through a pipette - should I carry on doing this as he would have been dehydrated. Your advice is very welcome.

[helen159]

Please ignore - I released him this morning.