# How to feed orphaned baby pigeon



## Octavious451 (Jun 22, 2014)

Today I found a baby pigeon sitting alone on the sidewalk so I took him home and I asked a friend who knows pigeons how to care for it and he gave me some kaytee exact baby bird formula and told me to mix it into a pudding like consistency and feed it to him through a saryinge for the next few days and then try to get him to start eating seed. He said it didn't need a heat pad because it had enough feathers to keep warm. It can't fly yet. I don't know how to prepare the saryinge to feed him and he said I would need to feed him in the morning. He told me someone on this site can help me?


----------



## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Rather than feeding formula, try this....

You can hand feed defrosted peas. Run some hot water over them until they are defrosted and slightly warmed. Put the bird on your lap and hold it next to your body. Gently open the beak and pop a pea at the back of the mouth and over the throat. It gets easier and faster, with practice, for both you and the bird.
You will need to feed 30-50 per feeding [depending on the size of the pigeon] and every time the crop empties until you know the baby is eating on his own. The crop is located at the bottom of the throat area and puffs out like a little balloon when there is food in it. When it's empty, it will feel flat.
I stuff them pretty full. Baby birds need a lot of food.The baby does digest the soft peas much more quickly than the hard seed. After a couple of feedings, most squeakers get the hang of it, pick up the peas on their own and naturally transition into a seed diet.It usually takes 3-4 feedings before the baby starts to pick up the peas and so there is no need to deny food to get the baby eating on his/her own.

In addition to the peas,one time a day, put a small pinch of powdered oyster shell, which you can buy at most pet stores, will supply the calcium the baby needs to support bone health. You sprinkle it on the peas.
__________________


----------



## Jass SamOplay (May 29, 2012)

This may interest you Octavious451,
http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f5/hand-feeding-baby-pigeons-from-day-1-to-a-fledgling-73345.html


----------



## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Some of those videos are showing ways that would be unsafe for some to use who does not know how to crop feed. A bird can easily be aspirated. Without knowing the age or size of the bird, letting him eat out of a cut off syringe containing formula, covered with self adhesive bandage or a balloon, with small cut into which the bird would put his beak, is safer for a tiny baby. 

And Charis has given instructions for feeding defrosted and warmed peas, which is the safest way of getting food into an older youngster, which he probably is. 

So I would go with the peas for now, as has been explained, rather than taking a chance of aspirating the bird. If he is a couple of weeks or so, he will be able to be weaned soon anyway, so by giving the peas, you are getting him ready for that, rather than backing up and going to formula or the like.
There are different ways that people have fed babies, but that doesn't mean that all are safe or good ways, especially when one isn't used to feeding baby birds. Better safe.


----------

