# dying baby pigeons



## Guest (Mar 2, 2009)

my baby pigeons are dying they were about three weeks old i found the first one on sat. the next one on monday,dont know if mother stopped feeding him the pair wanted to mate again could that be the cause


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Big Tom...There could be so many things that could have killed them, it's really hard to answer your question without more information. Most likely, though, they were sick.

Please tell us more about the situation.


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## big tom (Mar 2, 2009)

*my babies*

there is nothing more to say they both looked fine, do parents kill there babies if so why


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## Ed (Sep 18, 2008)

parents dont normally kill the young


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

How many pigeons do you have? Have any others been ill?
Do you treat your pigeons regularily to prevent canker and worms?
Do you have mice in your loft?
See...there is more to tell.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

were they out of the nest? did they have blood on them? were their crops empty?...you have to do a bit of detective work to beable to come to a good guess or culprit, and then you may try to find a solution.


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

big tom said:


> my baby pigeons are dying they were about three weeks old i found the first one on sat. the next one on monday,dont know if mother stopped feeding him the pair wanted to mate again*could that be the cause*


No, they normally start mating when the babies are around 14 days old, but the parents will continue to feed and care for them, once the new eggs are laid dad takes over the feedings.

Sometimes parents will stop caring for their babies if they sense the babies are sick. There are several diseases that can cause youngsters to die, but there could be other factors depending on symptoms.


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## UncleBuck (Dec 23, 2008)

If your loft is overcrowded other birds could cause the parents to be too busy fighting for their nesting site. I found this out when I was redoing a loft and moved all the birds into one loft.
It is uncommon for parents to just stop feeding at that age. I have found that usually, if a squab makes it to the three week mark, it will usually make it all the way to adult hood.


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Us with all our questions and big tom has failed to make another appearance.


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## LUCKYT (Jan 17, 2009)

First off this question does not provide enough facts to get a real answer. NO a pair, will not kill their own young in the nest, even if they wanted to breed again. There is something the poster is not telling us. Too crowded? rats?, by the way, they will kill anything from a Zebra finch to a pigeon, and sometimes, just lap up the blood. THERE is a reason, but you need to supply more INFO. JMHO. Dave


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

This type of situation is happening a lot for a reason. Meaning that someone posts something and then disappears. People are being allowed to post without registering with the hope being that they will get their urgent post submitted and then register. Sometimes they do register and sometimes they don't. Unfortunately none of the moderators have any control over this situation aside from deciding whether to let a post from an unregistered user come through in the first place. If it appears that it is at least somewhat of an emergency, then I, personally, do approve the post so it comes through to the board. 

I'm sorry that a lot of these posts end up being frustrating and a waste of time for the regular members, but then there are those that do register and become a part of the flock here.

Terry


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## LUCKYT (Jan 17, 2009)

Terry, good point, BUT it is so easy to register! LOL! Dave


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## Bobcat (Feb 26, 2009)

*Yes pigeons do "'RARELY" kill their own young*



LUCKYT said:


> First off this question does not provide enough facts to get a real answer. NO a pair, will not kill their own young in the nest, even if they wanted to breed again. There is something the poster is not telling us. Too crowded? rats?, by the way, they will kill anything from a Zebra finch to a pigeon, and sometimes, just lap up the blood. THERE is a reason, but you need to supply more INFO. JMHO. Dave


yES on the rare occasion I have had pigeons that will kill their young - in fact it happened here this week. A young cock (first set of young) pecked at and trampled both babies a day or two after they hatched. I know it was him because I put another baby in the nest and the hen accepted it and covered it right away, when the cock's turn came he went after the new squab.

I WAS SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS TO THIS RARE OCCURANCE WHEN I DISCOVERED THE ABOVE STATEMENT - OBVIOUSLY INCORRECT.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

That's really too bad. Do you think he is just to young to have any parenting instincts? He probably had no clue of what or who they were. I'd be very interested to know if later he raises babies normally. Would you come back and let us know? That must have been horrible. The poor little things.


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## LUCKYT (Jan 17, 2009)

Bobcat, that is not killing, just poor parenting, AND with proper management, and Knowing your pairs, is SO rare as to not be worth mentioning. If you have a young cock that over eager, you should have stepped in. MY statement WAS not inaccurate. WITH management, they do not kill there young.
In on and off pigeon keeping 45 five years or so, i have seen a few over zealous young cocks, and that is when you step in and SLOW him down. Dave


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

LUCKYT said:


> Bobcat, that is not killing, just poor parenting, AND with proper management, and Knowing your pairs, is SO rare as to not be worth mentioning. If you have a young cock that over eager, you should have stepped in. MY statement WAS not inaccurate. WITH management, they do not kill there young.
> In on and off pigeon keeping 45 five years or so, i have seen a few over zealous young cocks, and that is when you step in and SLOW him down. Dave


Well, going after the squab, and pecking it, sounds like killing to me. Not poor parenting. And just because you haven't seen it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
And how do you "slow him down"?


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## Brummie (Feb 16, 2009)

Hey Dave.
How ya doin' Brother?You know the only time I can recollect young dying in the nest, other than the point's you mention is when I had a rogue cock. He would go from nest box to nest box, just terrorising the occupant's...the youngsters got trampled in the fight between the rightful owner's and the aggressor.
The aggressor had the spunk I like to see, but not to the point of messing up my breeding schedule. I segregated him for 2/3 day's to let the other pair's reinforce ther territory.That worked for about a day!
Then I did what my mentor told me to do, it worked. He still had his "I want to control the loft mentality" but not the means. Just an observation. Take it easy. Carl


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## LUCKYT (Jan 17, 2009)

Well Brummie my old friend, LOL! just like you not to agree with me.... As far as controlling a "Rogue" sounds like an elephant to me LOL! clip a few feathers , say one every other on one wing, you have to experiment, (unless) you plan on flying the breeder as an old bird, this will give him a disadvantage, and the other cocks will put him in line. There is no aspect of animal/bird behavior that can not be changed or modified, saying you can not control it is not management. say what you will, but with management, it will not be a problem. And i repeat, i have had many over "excited" young cocks, and old ones, and you can modify their behavior. Dave


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## LUCKYT (Jan 17, 2009)

SO, murdering your children is not poor parenting? of course it is. 
Pigeons work on instinct/habit, as a manager you have to modify the behavior. That is why it has NEVER happened in my lofts over ALL the years.
And by the way, i never have had a scalped youngster, and i have a HUGE number of young on the floor, and a small number. And Brummie, you are a witness to the number of birds i have kept. Dave


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

I have never seen a pigeon kill it's baby either. 
The poster plainly says that he put another baby (a strange baby) in the nest when the other two got trampled. It doesn't surprise me that one of the parents didn't except the baby. Up to a point, it's fine to switch babies....they don't know the difference, but in my experience, one a baby starts feathering out, they DO know the difference and will NOT always except a new, strange baby. 
Trampling a baby and killing it and just plain killing it is two different things. When two birds are fighting, they aren't exactly paying attention to where they're walking and who they're smacking and biting........they just go at it. I've had two cocks get in a fight and when I went to break it up, one would get hold of ME......and until he realized it was a BIG bird, he didn't let go. To intentionally peck and kill their own baby.........never seen it. 
I tried moving a baby last night in with a pair that has only one. One baby is 18 days old and the other is 17 days old. They are both blue checks. Mom was on the nest of dummy eggs and when I put the baby in the bowl, Dad just sort of looked and grunted for a minute or two and then he fed both babies. However, when Mom got off the nest (I can only guess that she wanted to know what was going on), Dad went and got on the eggs, and Mom lit into that poor baby like a crazy person. Needless to say, I took the baby back to it's Mom. I had a reason for trying this and it doesn't matter why now, because it didn't work.


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## LUCKYT (Jan 17, 2009)

Thank you, Renee. Dave


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## Brummie (Feb 16, 2009)

Well youngster!!!
You either concluded without observation, or put them little magnets on your head and talked to the pigeon God's...


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## LUCKYT (Jan 17, 2009)

Brummie, go take a nap! LOL!


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Brummie said:


> Well youngster!!!
> You either concluded without observation, or put them little magnets on your head and talked to the pigeon God's...





LUCKYT said:


> Brummie, go take a nap! LOL!



What's he talking about?


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## LUCKYT (Jan 17, 2009)

Ignore him, LOL! he is in his own "Brit" way just trying to get a rise out of me. The magnet thing, refers to the "pendulum" sexing device which i proved to him , years ago does not work. IF he ever stops trying to get a rise out of me and posts with his real knowledge, (yeah, right) he does have a good amount of Knowledge. he became unemployed about a month or two ago an i think he has more time on his hands then me! The mentor he mentions was one of the best fliers i have met, and was a really decent man. Dave


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## Guest (Mar 6, 2009)

Brummie said:


> Well youngster!!!
> You either concluded without observation, or put them little magnets on your head and talked to the pigeon God's...


Im going to have to go with brummie on this one lol  just cuz you not seen it dont mean it dint ever happen


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## LUCKYT (Jan 17, 2009)

? Not sure what you are talking about Lakota. Dave


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## Guest (Mar 6, 2009)

the kill zone of pigeons, just cuz you never seen it happen doesnt mean it never happened


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## LUCKYT (Jan 17, 2009)

Lakota, i KNOW it could happen, but with management, it will not. THAT was my point. It is just like the scalped youngster thing, it can happen, but with management, there is no reason for it to happen. SO, i take a bunch of youngsters set them on the floor, and do not expect some cock to pick on them, if he recognizes his own, and does not like the strange Squeeks being near his/hers? Communal feeding of young does happen, but most adults will want to feed only their own young. Watch your birds, and if you see a an over ardent cock, deal with him. Dave


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## Guest (Mar 6, 2009)

LUCKYT said:


> Lakota, i KNOW it could happen, but with management, it will not. THAT was my point. It is just like the scalped youngster thing, it can happen, but with management, there is no reason for it to happen. SO, i take a bunch of youngsters set them on the floor, and do not expect some cock to pick on them, if he recognizes his own, and does not like the strange Squeeks being near his/hers? Communal feeding of young does happen, but most adults will want to feed only their own young. Watch your birds, and if you see a an over ardent cock, deal with him. Dave


its true it can be managed but no one can be that vigilant at all times and its those times that you are absent that things can go very wrong in such a short amont of time


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## LUCKYT (Jan 17, 2009)

Well i guess that is were experience must come into play. I, until the last three weeks, have had less time than i am sure most people had, as it was when i had 60+ breeders in my loft. I have worked a 55 to 60 hour week, all the years i have kept pigeons (as an Adult). And i have been able to avoid, these avoidable problems. Dave


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Brummie said:


> Hey Dave.
> How ya doin' Brother?You know the only time I can recollect young dying in the nest, other than the point's you mention is when I had a rogue cock. He would go from nest box to nest box, just terrorising the occupant's...the youngsters got trampled in the fight between the rightful owner's and the aggressor.
> The aggressor had the spunk I like to see, but not to the point of messing up my breeding schedule. I segregated him for 2/3 day's to let the other pair's reinforce ther territory.That worked for about a day!
> Then I did what my mentor told me to do, it worked. He still had his "I want to control the loft mentality" but not the means. Just an observation. Take it easy. Carl


What does the last paragraph in your post mean?


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## LUCKYT (Jan 17, 2009)

Charis, i have no clue either! LOL! Dave


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

I guess Big Tom is MIA, I don't think I like the nonregisterd user thing, seems we put in some effort only for them not to post again....irritating!


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