# When will hand raised squab open it's eyes?



## Alfhildr (Jul 3, 2015)

I'm hand raising my first baby diamond dove, straight from the egg. I have grown tired od the pure negligence of the parents not taking care in any but one way of the babies they hatch. (The parents lay and hatch eggs only to not take care of them in the slightest and let them die. The most they have ever done is lay on them and that's it. 9 babies have died in a row because of this refusal)
I am using Kaytee's Exact formula, while also putting some calcium in it and my question is, when will this baby open it's eyes since it's being hand raised? what should the growth progression look like?


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Pigeons open their eyes at about 5 days old, probably about the same for doves.
Are you sure they aren't feeding them?


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## Alfhildr (Jul 3, 2015)

Jay3 said:


> Pigeons open their eyes at about 5 days old, probably about the same for doves.
> Are you sure they aren't feeding them?


I am absolutely certain they do not feed the babies. This baby is a week old and is just now slightly opening its eyes. when the babies would hatch, i would check on them later, sometimes 12 hours after and i would just find a corpse of the baby in the nest. It's heartbreaking. they've had one successful clutch before, they fed it and did everything they were supposed to, but after them, any baby that would come out of them would perish because neither fed the babies or just threw them out. They have only had a couple of clutches, because i would swap the eggs out with fake ones. But every clutch i allowed them to have would perish.
Also, my question comes from a bit of information i heard regarding handfed babies growing slower than if they were raised by the parents.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Handfed babies will be a little behind in growing, but they catch up.


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## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

Check out this site: www.diamonddove.info, gives a lot of good info and there's also a section regarding raising of diamond doves with photo's as well.


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