# Feeding babies during the night.



## Nooti (Mar 14, 2002)

In answer to whether pigeons feed their babies at night, well yes they do. But that all depends on how old they are and what time of year it is. Although pigeons are reputed to breed all year round, a lot don't do so in the dead of winter, but some do.
As winter nights in December are 17 hours long in Britain.. cannot vouch for areas of America, no newly hatched baby can last that long without a feed.
Whenever I have had to hand rear from hatching I have fed every three hours during the night for the first 4 days of the chick's life. Then it was old enough to last about 6 - 7 hours so I could get a decent night's sleep. 
I remember once sleeping through my alarm clock on a chick's second night and missing a feed. That was enough for the chick to become weak and severely dehydrated. I nearly lost it, but fortunately lectade rehydrated the tiny body pretty quickly.
The only evidence I have of parent's feeding their tiny chicks during the night is when I have gone in the loft before first light in the morning and seen them feeding. Full crops before first light is another convincing factor on this subject.
Baby pigeons are designed differently from other birds. Their parents provide a food which is available 'on tap' 24 hours a day, provided the parent is feeding well during the day. This is a great factor is the bird's success and means that they can and do continue to breed throughout the year.
Other bird species have to go out and find food for their babies and they spend most of the daylight hours searching for it, and ensuring their chicks are full to bursting point at nightfall. They have a long fast ahead of them. I have seen some parents searching for food for their chicks as soon as the first sign of dawn streaks across the eastern sky. Blackbirds, starlings and corvids are notorious for this. (For those of you who have never seen a sunrise, and only emerge from their beds around lunch-time, I can vouch for this!)
Chicks have evolved to go a certain length of time without being fed during the night, but they have it cut very fine, and can only cope with fasting for the short summer nights. This, the ambient temperature and the availability of food are the reasons why birds only breed during the spring and summer months. 
Of course pigeons do not have all this to worry about. The bar is open day and night, and no licencing hours! No wonder they are such a successful survivor!


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Good points, Helen - I bow to your experience







. Hand-raising baby anythings obviously must call for different practises to what would happen 'in the wild'. I've not done it (yet), just observed my 'free' ferals. 

Certainly my pair would be stuffing baby pigeons at first light - after which dad would go off for an hour or two, then come back and cram them until late afternoon. 
The last feed appeared to be just as it was getting dark (they were right outside, so I could see them all evening). I wondered if free-living feral pigeon chicks, tucked under ma pigeon, just virtually 'close down' for most of the night, in a kind of hibernatory state? 

It seemed very strange to me that my first pair were raising a youngster in mid-January (just the one) anyway - that was before I even noticed their presence. They didn't try again until about mid-March, which I think is when their true wild counterparts would be starting, and makes more sense from the point of day/night length, and stopped again as the next winter approached.


John


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## Nooti (Mar 14, 2002)

John, I think night feeds are stopped as early as possible, just as we like to with our babies, human or otherwise.. But when very tiny I assume it is the night duty parent - usually the mother, who will feed during the night. After all, it is not like it is any great effort. She doesn't even have to get out of bed!!! Sigh, wish it had been like that with mine!
I have a pair just hatched today out of an experienced pair. I am going to take quite a bit of notice this time. If crops are full before first light- and I will be up, then it must be right that they do night feeds at first.
However, your theory of hibernation is also a good point.
But for hibernation to occur, this would mean a drop in body temperature, heartbeat and respiration. I am only guessing when I say that I don't think that would be possible. After all a parent is needed to help with thermo-regulation, so it doesn't make sense.
I know baby swifts can go into a suspended state if the weather is bad and parents cannot fly out to bring food, but they are a different kettle of fish, and I'm told very young chicks cannot do this. 
It's a good point but I cannot comment anymore on that. You may be right. But I don't know.


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Yes, I suspect you're right on the 'shutting down' - just a question that strayed into my head, really. I think the lack of reference to what goes down at night is probably because researchers just do not, or are not in a position to, observe wild-living ferals through the night. After all, I couldn't claim to have any idea what happened with either of my pairs after I went to bed









John


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## Nooti (Mar 14, 2002)

[After all, I couldn't claim to have any idea what happened with either of my pairs after I went to bed] 
Hey John, how about setting up a night video camera???
That would solve the question once and for all.
But seriously, having reared them from day and seen what happens both in my loft and in my house when I miss a feed at night, I am convinced that night feeds occur during the vital first days.


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