# Baby died, why?



## SillySquab (Jul 24, 2010)

This is my first time dealing with baby pigeons but I have raised chickens and turkeys before. The female laid two eggs and at the time of hatching, only one baby made it and the other one didn't even make it out of the shell? So the surviving baby was doing great until I noticed how the legs seemed splayed. I didn't think too much of it because the left leg was starting to correct itself but this afternoon I went to check on it and it was dead. I have no clue why. They have food and water but I did notice that both parents were outside of their nest box A LOT and have been for a few days. I check on them everyday.

So I was wondering, maybe the parents knew something was wrong with the baby? I just checked the nest box and I see that the female is sitting on another egg already! The young squab only hatched about a couple of weeks ago. Can anyone tell me what may have happened so that the next chicks will live to see adulthood? Thanks.

While this is obviously not the bird I am talking about, it is a very close picture of what the baby pigeons legs looked like.


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## sreeshs (Aug 16, 2009)

Splayed legs are caused by absence of traction in the nest bowl/box. Supply nesting materials, twigs, hays, tobacco stems, etc which the parents will use to make the nest and will serve as traction material. Pigeons do lay next set of eggs in two weeks time again.

About the death of squab, can be multiple reasons including diseases and inexperienced parents.

Was the baby adequately fed ? was its crop full after being fed by parents ?
How was the poops from the baby inside the nest box ?
Did it have splayed leg hampering its movement around ?

While on the second set of eggs, its the cock which mainly feeds the babies from previous hatch. Splayed legs could have hindered movement and subsequent following around the father for food. Coupled with inexperienced or bad parents this can lead to low availability of feed for the hatchling.

Also how are the poops from the parents, did they have any history of infections/disease ? If you get a fecal test that would show light to still carried diseases.

If you put small effort in these pre tests and diagnosis, your pigeons will pay you back pretty well  good luck


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