Volkmann, J. L., Evans, C. A., Buckmaster, C. 2018. Pigeons: Flying to new heights. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 6(1) (March), 33-34.

When singly or pair housed in cages, pigeons have a relatively small area in which to walk and stretch or flap their wings. More space is required to allow pigeons to be housed in numbers that support more typical flock behaviors. The pigeons already had a few enrichment items (mirror, rattle on a stainless steel chain, a resting perch, and artificial turf to place live and dried mealworms on for foraging). Also, the pigeons had extra flight time in a large wire carrier for 1 hour per day. Our behavioral enrichment manager, local pigeon breeders, and I discussed what additional enrichment items could be provided to the pigeons to encourage typical behaviors. The goal was to remove the pigeons from their current small metal caged housing to an open flight environment. This article describes the conversion of pigeons’ metal cages into flight rooms with perches. Over the past 18 months, housing pigeons in larger flight rooms have allowed them to engage in more species-typical behaviors, relative to housing them in cages. We have seen the birds flying in the space, roosting on the perches with one leg tucked into their body sleeping, swinging on the ceiling mounted swing, and the best part, lots of cooing.