# Recently rescued 3-week(?) old pigeon!



## Spirantho (Apr 13, 2012)

Hi everybody, 

first post here - be gentle!

I realise there are lots of sticky threads about this sort of thing, but where the life of a small beastie like this is concerned better not take any chances.

Here's our little adoptee, both close-up and _in situ_. I found him/her legging it down the road under the parked cars here in Aberystwyth (Wales), closely followed by a tabby cat. Hence the rescuing it, as it was about to become lunch, and I couldn't let that happen.

Now, what do I do with the little fella? He's huddling into the corner of his box and cheeping occasionally, so he seems healthy. We've done the best we can (see pic  ) but we don't really know what we're doing. There's bread crumbs on the floor of the box and oats in the flat bowl, but we're not sure if that's right to do (we don't know if (s)he's been weaned yet).

My wife informs me (s)he's just relieved his/herself in a plate. I think that's probably a good sign? It apparently looks like a flat black lump, if that means anything.

Can anyone help?

Thanks!


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## amyable (Jul 7, 2007)

Hi and Welcome!!

Brilliant save, thank goodness you were there to step in before the cat had him.
That's one very pretty youngster.

Well hard to say exactly how old and what stage it's at as far as feeding goes so for now we'll assume he's able to take solids and not go down the formula feed route.

The best thing you can feed at the moment to keep his strength up and weight etc are defrosted peas and sweetcorn.
Bread doesn't have much nutritional value but whatever they find out on the street is what they see as food so it may not recognise normal seeds etc anyway at this stage.
Wholemeal bread is better for them so you could scatter some small pieces around him just in case he wants to try and self feed but I'd also give wild bird seeds so he has a variety of things.
They will start trying to pick up food but won't be eating enough to develope ATM so if you can hand feed the peas or sweetcorn then let him have access to the other things as part of his education.

The peas will give him fluids but you can leave a bowl of water nearby and teach him to drink by dipping his beak in the water, but only up to under his nostrils so he doesn't aspirate.

Can you check inside his mouth to make sure his throat is nice and clear pinkish colour and with no signs of yellowy growths which could be canker.

For now feed him around 30 peas every couple of hours and let us know if he's pooping ok to show the food is going through ok.
The poop you mentioned sounds ok so I don't think he's starving.

Let us know how things are going and keep asking if there's anything you need to know.

Janet

Just looked at the picture again and I think you're about right in his age. Would still be fed by parents so I wouldn't expect to see him eating much on his own yet but it's the time they will start to try.


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## Spirantho (Apr 13, 2012)

Thanks for the advice, Janet, it's appreciated!

We're not at all sure how to feed him though... we tried nudging his beak with a freshly defrosted _petits pois_ but the beak was clamped firmly shut. In fact, we've not tried to open it ourselves because we don't want to distress him.
He does cheep sometimes but only usually when we close the flaps on the box so he obviously doesn't like that. We've left the peas on the plate along with some fresh oats and flaxseed as the food had obviously been disturbed while we went and had our food; hopefully some went inside the pigeon rather than being redistributed around the box!

How can we safely check his mouth and feed him if he doesn't eat, without distressing the poor thing more than he probably is already?

Also, do we need to feed him every few hours including the night or will he sleep?
What temperature should he be kept at?
Should we turn the lights out or leave them on overnight?

Thanks again for any help! In the meantime, here's another picture of our new guest.


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## amyable (Jul 7, 2007)

Hi,

I'm afraid he won't open his beak on his own. It's not hard but you will need to force feed him at least for a couple of days and then he might cotton on and try himself.
It won't really distress him to do especially as he must be getting hungry and once he realises your giving him food he'll become quite co-operative.

Best way is to gently wrap him up in a towel and have him on your lap. The towel will make him feel secure and stop him flapping.
Then using your nail, gently prize open his beak and pop a pea in his mouth and push it to the back of his throat and he'll swallow. You'll find it easier as he knows what you're doing. I'm just going to try and find a video of how to do it for you.
I'll post back in a bit.

You'll be able to check his throat with the same system.

No you won't need to feed him through the night.
Just keep him in a warm area. They can thermo regulate their temperature at this age.
For sick birds we suggest keeping them warm or on a heating pad but hopefully he's ok and not needing this.
I'd cover his box with a towel over night as the dark will keep him still and quiet, as long as you have air holes in the box!!

I'll post a link to the feeding video when I have it. 

Janet


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## amyable (Jul 7, 2007)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=uU1SO0ZJoow

This bird is quite tame so doesn't need a towel wrap. If you just gently push the pea into the mouth it will make it easier for him to swallow. If it's just left at the tip of his beak he'll probably drop it out.
It's best to have the peas warm to start with.
He's tougher than you think so don't worry about trying this method. Most people find it soon becomes easy.


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## amyable (Jul 7, 2007)

Another idea is to have a towel on the bottom of the box and just put a piece of white kitchen towel on top so you can easily take this away to keep him clean.
It also gives us a chance to see the colour of his poops. These are a good indication as to how he's doing.
The towel will make it cosier and gives him some grip.
They often like to perch on something like a brick.

Just a few ideas to keep him happy. 

He's adorable. Love them at this age.

I'd try and give him a decent feed of peas and then leave him quiet until morning to feed again.

Good luck

Janet


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

He's adorable. You can feed him the peas, as suggested, but frozen peas that have been defrosted under warm running water are softer than regular peas, and easier for him to learn to pick up. You can probably feed these to him 3 times a day, but wait for the crop to empty between feedings. Don't feed again until does, as you don't want to add new food to the old, and it should take longer than a couple of hours to empty. If you feed again before the crop empties, it can cause problems with the crop.

Also, as suggested, a towel or something under him would be great. Cardboard is too slippery, and difficult to clean.
Have you checked him over well to make sure there are no wounds or scratches?


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## Msfreebird (Sep 23, 2007)

I just brought in an 'oops' baby roughly the same age and he took to the bottle immediately! (he was the only baby in the loft and he got scalped )
Here's some info on 'bottle feeding' ....
http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f20/i...6756.html?highlight=bottle+feeding#post615941
It's the most natural method to 'mom'  Older babies usually dive right into the bottle!


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Also, you can put a small crock of water in with him, and if you gently dip his beak in the water, but not over his nostrils, eventually he will learn to drink. You may have to do this with tepid water several times to teach him.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Waynette, he is old enough to eat without formula. I would try and get him weaned at this point to make life easier.


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## Spirantho (Apr 13, 2012)

Well... I'm not sure we're very good "parents" yet. 

We managed to get one whole pea in. After a lot cajoling to get him to open his own beak (and a lot of steadast refusal), I eventually plucked up the courage to open the beak. Sure enough, a nail between the top and bottom, a bit of pressure, and the beak opened. In goes a pea, down to the back of the mouth, and then gulp! down it goes.
However, the next time, the mouth refused to open. Try to prise it open, but no - it snaps shut.

This means either I'm doing it wrong or else my particular birdie doesn't like Spar's finest peas.

We have put kitchen roll on the base (which has already been defiled once, as soon as we put him back - as you can see in the photo).

I'm hoping he'll learn soon how to eat!
He's looking perkier now, though - he was stretching his wings a bit (still quite bare under the wings though), but at least he seems to be more active. 

Oh, we've been watching some South Park recently, so the Pigeon is now called "Ike"....


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## amyable (Jul 7, 2007)

Hello Ike!

Well done for getting a pea down, only 29 more to go before bed!! Well a few more maybe.

He will settle into it and they don't often take too long to start trying it for themselves but I'm afraid he will need some force feeding in the meantime.

The nail is needed to start the opening of the beak and then use you fingers at the side of the beak to keep it like that while the pea goes in.
Believe me you'll crack it, not the beak, I mean the feeding!

Janet

I thought I'd just explain why it's a case of opening his beak to feed. Not sure if you know but pigeons feed their young differently to most birds such as song birds etc that gape and beg for food whereas the pigeon young actually put their beak inside the parent's beak to take the food. Hence the problem initially. Not sure if you knew this but thought it might explain why he's not seeming to want food but why you'll need to 'put it in' for him to start with.


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## Msfreebird (Sep 23, 2007)

Jay3 said:


> Waynette, he is old enough to eat without formula. I would try and get him weaned at this point to make life easier.


True! I don't have time to 'pop peas', so it's easier for me to bottle feed, and at the same time leave a dish of food and water.....and play with it so he gets the idea


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Just hold him on your lap and against your body. Come from behind his head with one hand and clasp the beak on each side. When you get it open, this clasping on either side will keep it open while you put the pea in. Then push it to the back of his throat and let him swallow. Now for another one. After several feedings this way, he will learn to pick up peas that you leave with him. They are soft and squishy and this makes it easier for them to pick up then seed. Once he masters that, seed will be easy for him.


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## jeff houghton (Jul 17, 2010)

hes a little beauty good save !!!


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## Spirantho (Apr 13, 2012)

Morning everybody!

We're getting better. 

We got 29 peas down (one was MIA after falling off the plate), but we figured that'd do for now. We've also dipped the tip of Ike's beak into the water bowl we've provided, but the defrosted peas (which are very moist) should do most of the hydration anyway.

Here's a picture of a slightly less hungry pigeon. 

@Jeff:

My Mum was born and grew up in St. Mawes, if you ever go on the St. Mawes ferry you'll have met my uncle. Small world. 

Edit: How long should we keep him for? At some point he's going to be able to fly away, might be difficult to catch him to let him go then! I want to let him go at my workplace as it's safer there (I'm in town here with lots of roads) but I'm not sure how to get a flight-capable birdie a mile up a hill!

Edit 2: My wife just said she saw some kind of small brown insect beastie between the feathers around the neck - is this anything I can do anything about? Should I worry? Ike seems in good health (backed up by the fact he just jumped out of his box which resulted in 5 minutes of us running around with a towel trying to catch him).


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## amyable (Jul 7, 2007)

Morning!

Well done, I knew you'd crack it. I'm in love with this little guy, he's got such lovely markings.

Anyway, enough drooling. 
In answer to your question about that little bug then if you can get something from a pet shop or a garden centre with a large pet section if there are any near you, it's called Johnsons Pigeon insect spray. It will clear away anything like mites etc which they are prone to in the wild.
There are other things but you'd have to buy them online so if you don't have a pet shop nearby then I'll give you the info to get something online.
He'll need to be with you for a while longer until he's fully independant with his feeding and flying so best to get rid of any bugs.

As far as releasing goes...that's the hard bit if he gets too used to you providing for him so you almost need to be hard and not interact too much with him but I guarantee that will be difficult as it's easy to get attached to them when they're young.
The ideal thing would be if he was able to go to a pigeon friendly rescue cente where he can be mixed with any others and released with them. The parent is obviously the one that will teach them how to watch out for preditors and where and what is food etc. This is what they need to be able to survive if wild.
It can seem to be ideal to release him away from the town but if there aren't any other ferals around he'll not have a flock to integrate into.
Are there pigeons around where you work? If so then great we can guide you as far as a 'soft release' goes where he can be slowly introduced by watching others. It's just if you let him go on his own in an area that's not got other pigeons he'll be lost as to where to go and what to do.
Do you know of any rescue centres your way first?

Janet


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## jondove (Nov 17, 2011)

Spirantho said:


> How long should we keep him for? At some point he's going to be able to fly away, might be difficult to catch him to let him go then!


Actually Janet answered this, I just wanted to emphasize: *you should never release a baby pigeon that cannot cannot fly very well yet*. He wouldn't stand a chance.

And even then (preferably at 8+ weeks), you don't just let him go and that's that. 

I agree the best choice would be a rescue centre where he could be integrated in a flock. If you cannot find one near you, then you should read some threads about how to do a soft release. For example this thread.

As for catching him when he learns to fly: if he was hand raised, he might not be afraid of you, or, anyway, you can always catch him after sunset or before sunrise, as they don't see very well in the dark.


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## Spirantho (Apr 13, 2012)

I had a quick look for some rescue centres, but they all seem to be about cats and dogs and other small furry animals. A bit more investigation required, I think.

Some good news though - it seems this morning's feeding paid off! I'm not just talking about the sheer quantity of droppings Ike's done since this morning, either - he's been eating on his own! We left him some defrosted peas in the hope that he'd start investigating, and sure enough they disappeared. We weren't sure if they had just been moved around, but not long ago we caught him pecking at the peas and gulping them down!

So far so good then.  He's been stretching his wings a bit more too. Going to be fun when he actually manages to fly, goodness knows what we'll do then if we can't find a pigeon-friendly rescue centre as we don't have a cage for him!

Edit 2: He's definitely looking perkier today and less scared. We've moved him into a larger plastic tub for now but the problem is he's obviously starting to want to fly - any suggestions as to what we can do? We can't really afford to buy a bird cage specially!
Also, he's been wolfing down the 30 peas we've been giving him - what else should we be looking at giving him?

Thanks again everyone!


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

Spirantho said:


> I had a quick look for some rescue centres, but they all seem to be about cats and dogs and other small furry animals. A bit more investigation required, I think.
> 
> Some good news though - it seems this morning's feeding paid off! I'm not just talking about the sheer quantity of droppings Ike's done since this morning, either - he's been eating on his own! We left him some defrosted peas in the hope that he'd start investigating, and sure enough they disappeared. We weren't sure if they had just been moved around, but not long ago we caught him pecking at the peas and gulping them down!
> 
> ...


sounds like he is on his way to weaning.. he would need a pigeon grain mix and you can put that in with him and peck at it with your fingers and pop a few down his throat so he swallows them.. He looks really domestic, IMO because he was hand raised he would make someone a nice pet. life out in the feral world is short.


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## Spirantho (Apr 13, 2012)

It's difficult, I know... but I think he belongs in the wild. Better a short life in freedom I think than a longer life in a cage. But that's just me.  My wife wants to keep him as a pet already..!

Where do I get pigeon grain mix from? We went to Pets At Home today but the lady there couldn't offer us anything other than a shrug and a bit of a funny look. Anything someone can recommend that we can get online (that isn't too expensive!  )

Thanks!


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## Quazar (Jul 27, 2010)

Spirantho said:


> It's difficult, I know... but I think he belongs in the wild. Better a short life in freedom I think than a longer life in a cage. But that's just me.  My wife wants to keep him as a pet already..!
> 
> Where do I get pigeon grain mix from? We went to Pets At Home today but the lady there couldn't offer us anything other than a shrug and a bit of a funny look. Anything someone can recommend that we can get online (that isn't too expensive!  )
> 
> Thanks!


Pets At Home are useless for birds (and expensive for everything else lol)
Unless you have a GOOD pet shop near you its difficult to get actual Pigeon mix anywhere
If however you have a large Tesco, Morrissons or Asda near you, get a pack of wild bird food, but make sure its the kind *WITHOUT* mealworms. 
You can then add some lentils, green/yellow split peas, sunflower seeds etc.

And, your wifes thoughts arent bad, they do make unbelievably good pets


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

Spirantho said:


> It's difficult, I know... but I think he belongs in the wild. Better a short life in freedom I think than a longer life in a cage. But that's just me.  My wife wants to keep him as a pet already..!
> 
> Where do I get pigeon grain mix from? We went to Pets At Home today but the lady there couldn't offer us anything other than a shrug and a bit of a funny look. Anything someone can recommend that we can get online (that isn't too expensive!  )
> 
> Thanks!


none of them really belong there they are feral..just like with cats/kittens. but this is your responsiblity not mine and your choice.. just to note he is no more wild ATM than my 60 homing pigeons in my loft here at home.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

You can feed him a dove mix if you can find one, to which you can add the things that Quazar has mentioned.
People who do keep them in cages just let them out to fly and exercise inside for a couple of hours a day and interact with them.


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