# chick killed by mother



## DAK1 (Jan 24, 2010)

I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else.
Wed. evening I went to feed&water the birds and noticed dried blood on one of the female homers,I first thought she was in a terrible fight or she had gotten stuck some where.In the nest box where she has two chicks approx.10 days old there lay 1 of the babies with a hole in the side of its head. the other baby is just fine no problems that I can see she goes in and out of the box and feeds the little one,just wondering if anyone had something like this happen with their birds
Thanks DAK1


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## Doves1111 (Mar 5, 2005)

Are you sure she killed the squab? Maybe another bird went in while she was out feeding...and killed it? The mother may have gotten the blood on her from the dead pecked squab.

Dawn


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## RodSD (Oct 24, 2008)

I don't remember any of my birds killing their youngs, but I did notice that parents try to wake up a dead/sick bird with their beak--nudging so to speak so there could be transfer. Usually an intruder (another bird) will peck on babies.


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## fantaillover100 (Jan 21, 2011)

i dont reallt think a parent would kill a chick cause pigeons are birds that like to look after the young


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## Crab_Shrapnel (Jan 17, 2010)

I'm not sure about pigeons (I'm just now experiencing them laying for the first time) but I know lots of animals will kill their young if something's wrong with it


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## sreeshs (Aug 16, 2009)

I have never heard of a pigeon killing its young one.


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## DAK1 (Jan 24, 2010)

I was just surprised because none of the other birds had blood on them and I never had a problem with rodents everything is covered with 3/8 wire


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## bhe2ko (Mar 25, 2011)

it also happen to me the hen killed his baby i dont know why but i rmember that was the 1st time for a baby.


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## whytwings (Feb 12, 2011)

It seems a little bizzare that the hen would single out just ONE of her chicks @ 10 days old and so viciously ....the pecking of the head is a classic sign as some have mentioned of an " Intruder " 

I've seen some birds mistakenly fly into the wrong nest box and defend it as their own , do you think that could be a possibility ?


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

sometimes.. if the baby strays from the nest bowl a bit..the hen may see it as an intruder.. yeah not real smart.. sometimes when I band babies a hen will attack my hand with the baby in it..and when I do not put the baby back directly under her she may peck at the baby being she was upset and in pecking mode from me...so yes they can peck their own babies and not recognize them if they stray from the nest.. but it is hard to say...usually cock birds can get aggressive this way..not the hen..


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## Msfreebird (Sep 23, 2007)

I've never had a hen attack her own babies. I've had young, single cocks go into the nest and attack babies, and I've seen other hen's attack babies that 'toddle' out of the nest and get to close to their nest.
At feeding time, I stand back and watch everybody because this seems to be the time that other birds will go in and pick on babies - while the parents are eating......I scold the intruders and boot them out of the nest, them mom or dad will come running back.


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## fantaillover100 (Jan 21, 2011)

msfreebird, i kinda do the same cause some of my other pigeons walk in the wrong nest (i know it sounds weird) so i just see cause if they have young they will peck the bird who ogt mistaken then peck the young once or twice i dont really know why. My dads pigons homers have young a lot in spring and summer 
(thats when he pairs them up) at at around 2 to 3 weeks they wonder around and sometimes fall out of there nest and go to the other nest boxes on the ground once i found 7 in one nest box with the mum sittin in the nest and the dad was like "what the" he didnt know what was happening. But they did not peck the chicks they let them stay.


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## Luffy (Feb 27, 2011)

IMO definitely some other animal / bird killed it. Mother would have just tried to wake him up and get the blood on her.


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