# Are parents feeding babies grit?



## dorion (Mar 3, 2012)

I volunteer at Audubon Society and took home 2 pigeons as rescues. They have new babies, about 10 days old now and I noticed that the babies' crops felt like bean bags. I thought that at this age they were still feeding pigeon milk. I also observed that the grit was disappearing at an alarming rate, and this morning I saw both parents eating every last bit of grit in their bowl. I'm concerned that they're feeding grit to the babies. Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing or any knowledge that would be helpful? I spoke to the vet at Audubon today and she has never heard of this. She said to not give them anymore grit.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

dorion said:


> I volunteer at Audubon Society and took home 2 pigeons as rescues. They have new babies, about 10 days old now and I noticed that the babies' crops felt like bean bags. I thought that at this age they were still feeding pigeon milk. I also observed that the grit was disappearing at an alarming rate, and this morning I saw both parents eating every last bit of grit in their bowl. I'm concerned that they're feeding grit to the babies. Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing or any knowledge that would be helpful? I spoke to the vet at Audubon today and she has never heard of this. She said to not give them anymore grit.


they feed the babies at this age the grains you are feeding to the parents, so yes the crop will feel like a sack of seeds. the grit is needed to digest these hard seeds and grains as pigeons eat them whole and do not husk their seeds like other birds do..they should have crushed oystershell as well for calcium which is imporant for the fast growing babies. the grit add minerals that grains lack as well as helps grind the grains in the gizzard so they can be digested.


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## dorion (Mar 3, 2012)

thank you so much. I didn't know whether I should start hand-feeding them some Exact, which I've done before for other abandoned babies. I will pick up some crushed oyster shell today.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

What are you feeding the parents? Do you have a seed mix for pigeons?


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

dorion said:


> thank you so much. I didn't know whether I should start hand-feeding them some Exact, which I've done before for other abandoned babies. I will pick up some crushed oyster shell today.


I did not read where these were abandoned.. thought you're resuces where the parent birds..


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Yes, what are you feeding the parents? They should have food in front of them 24/7. They usually know how to feed the babies. I wouldn't interfere with that and take over the feeding. Let the parents do their job. And they parents will consume grit while feeding babies so I wouldn't take it away. Just make sure they have food at all times.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

spirit wings said:


> I did not read where these were abandoned.. thought you're resuces where the parent birds..


I didn't read it as these babies are abandoned.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Charis said:


> I didn't read it as these babies are abandoned.



Neither did I


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

A healthy pigeon mix would be the best, but if you are feeding a wild seed mix, you can add protein and such by adding to it split peas and lentils from the market, maybe some brown rice and a bit of safflower seeds. Small pop corn or cracked corn. This would ensure that the parents had a healthy diet to feed the babies.


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## Quazar (Jul 27, 2010)

dorion said:


> thank you so much. I didn't know whether I should start hand-feeding them some Exact, which I've done before for other abandoned babies. I will pick up some crushed oyster shell today.


I think some folks have have just misinterpreted the above statement and connected the current babies to the same "abandoned" situation as previous babies lol


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## dorion (Mar 3, 2012)

Let me clarify. I am feeding the parents a regular pigeon mix from Wilco and it available all the time. The parents are rescues and we decided to let them have babies just this once. I came back from shopping and the babies were squeaking loudly and their crops were empty. I gave them a little Exact and put them back; will see what happens during the day. There is a third adult pigeon who I tube-fed after it was abandoned and brought into Audubon. He was in the nest box just now and 1 of the babies had some bloody spots on its back, so I'm not sure what's going on.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

dorion said:


> Let me clarify. I am feeding the parents a regular pigeon mix from Wilco and it available all the time. The parents are rescues and we decided to let them have babies just this once. I came back from shopping and the babies were squeaking loudly and their crops were empty. I gave them a little Exact and put them back; will see what happens during the day. There is a third adult pigeon who I tube-fed after it was abandoned and brought into Audubon. He was in the nest box just now and 1 of the babies had some bloody spots on its back, so I'm not sure what's going on.


you will want to remove the single bird. they can cause harm to the young ones.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

dorion said:


> thank you so much. I didn't know whether I should start hand-feeding them some Exact, which I've done before for other abandoned babies. I will pick up some crushed oyster shell today.


Im sorry, I read the part that says, "which I've done before for OTHER abandoned babies" and I thought these were abandoned.. but was confused because the first post said they had parents..lol.. Im sorry, it does not take much to confuse me.


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## sdymacz (Aug 30, 2010)

Like Spirit Wings said remove the single bird, before it pecks the little ones to death.


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## dorion (Mar 3, 2012)

already done!


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