# Can A Pair Raise Three Babies?



## sangha (Dec 29, 2012)

can i good pair raise three babies?

is it be all good to put three eggs under foster birds?
fosters are faintails and good booster parents?

please help


----------



## Jass SamOplay (May 29, 2012)

Raising babies put huge stress on the bodies of parents. The parents won't have enough feed for all the three mouths when they grow a week and a half old.
It wont be a good situation then.
Well,I have had pairs that only raised one squab from a clutch leaving the other starve to death. Three squabs will be a lot of work.
If you want to take a chance then you will have to intervene and hand raise the squabs when they're a week old. Best, not to let the pair raise three at a time.


----------



## sev3ns0uls (Jul 2, 2011)

yes a pair can rear 3 or even 4. But In the wild, not a chance because it will be hard to gather enough food. But since these are domestically birds and you are their provider, just put extra feed to the parent birds. If the babies are not doing well or not getting enough feed, then you just step and and help out. plain and simple. 

The only crucial part is when they are less then a 1 week old because they live on their parent crop milk. Babies that are 1+ week old can consume raw seeds. If one of the baby is falling behind, you just have to hand feed it. 

My advice is that 2 babies is the safest bet. 3 is okay but not 4.

I dont know about fantail being good parenting but i know that homer breeds are super good at parenting.


----------



## Roller lover (Dec 27, 2012)

I had homers raise three young as well. To help them put some feed in the nest so young learn to eat before.


----------



## Jass SamOplay (May 29, 2012)

Pigeons are naturally designed to raise two babies. Not only crop milk and feed afterwards, they also need parent's warmth to grow,especially in winters. A pigeon can cover two babies efficiently not three. Ofcourse artificial heat can be provided but the comfortable growth friendly warmth which a pigeon mother can provide is hard to replicate.

And...

Usually what happens in my loft is, hens stop feeding their squabs after 18-22 days and are aroused again. They are ready to start over again. Then its the cock bird that does most of the work of feeding the hungry babies. For me,number 2 is favourable. Hand raised babies wean late and grow at a slower rate than those raised by pigeon parents


----------



## Crazy Pete (Nov 13, 2008)

I keep 2 pair of Modena for pumpers to raise extra young they have a big wide chest and can sit 3, it takes a lot out of them to have the extra in the nest just give them a break and it's all good. Using a larger breed seems to work well, I've done this for years with no problems.
Dave


----------



## Abdulbaki (Jul 31, 2013)

Yes they can, huge and in-shape homers are my best!

of course pigeons from the owl family will hardly rear 2 babies, you need to put them under the right fosters, I've had a mixed pouter-homer that will feed 2 babies at once ... you'll have to feed them extra feed & supplements.


----------



## NZ Pigeon (Nov 12, 2011)

To those people that think a bird can raise 3 - 4 young, yeah they probably could but why would you put them through that, You are increasing the chances of sickness, also increasing the chances all the young may get malnourished causing health problems in the future.

I am of the opinion to never do this, if one wants to breed pigeons they need to be prepared to hand feed any young that are not looked after, not palm the problem off onto another pair which are already working very hard to rear just two.


----------



## NZ Pigeon (Nov 12, 2011)

sangha said:


> can i good pair raise three babies?
> 
> is it be all good to put three eggs under foster birds?
> fosters are faintails and good booster parents?
> ...


sangha, sorry I misread your post and thought you had an abandoned baby that needed a parent, in this case, if needs must then one could do as Crazy pete has stated and put them under fosters but with the knowledge they will need to rest the pumpers afterwards.

As for moving an egg, I would say throw it away, you will get two healthy babies that fly as opposed to three weak babies that may not.

breeding pigeons is simple, Care for them with clean food, water grit and greens and let them do the rest, If you are going to swap eggs, do it naturally, as in, swap two for two and let the layers have atleast 10 days sitting to rest their bodies.

I have in the past let a pair lay one round, fostered out and then let them go straight down on their own again but it is a bad idea to keep on pulling eggs and expecting the layers to keep on laying. You could ruin a good pair of birds and they may never lay again.

A lot of this advice is based on mistakes I have made in the past and have seen the effects first hand so I am not preaching here, Just stating my opinions based on some bad experiences.


----------



## sangha (Dec 29, 2012)

well im just asking... not hoping to do it.. well thanks for the advice guys


----------



## NZ Pigeon (Nov 12, 2011)

why would you ask if you were not intending to do it? Also, it sounds like you were intending to considering you had the pair lined up (fantails)


----------

