# found an orphaned feral pigeon - 20ish days old, need someone to adopt



## pigeonnewbie1 (Jun 27, 2017)

EDIT: I found a rehabber from the Palomacy website and she was very nice. She was super knowledgeable about pigeons and showed me photos of her special needs pigeons. I transferred the baby bird to her and she said she would raise it with her other ferals and release them together so they'd have a greater chance of survival.

I attached a pic of him in the travel cage right before I said goodbye to him. He was too cute, I'm gonna miss him!

I probably won't post more here because I don't have pigeons, but I'd like to thank you all for your advice. I managed to keep him alive long enough to be handed off to a rehabber because of your instructions.

And you made me think seriously about adopting one of my own. Maybe someday when I have more space, I'll come back and share my own pigeon pics 


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Hello all,

I found a young pigeon with the yellow fuzz at my workplace today. I work in a factory and it was on the dirty floor unable to fly, just hopping around near a dangerous area with a lot of trucks. It seems to have been abandoned by the parents, and I saw the remains of a destroyed nest. Someone must have clipped it during maintenance or something. 

I only have experience with parrots so I did some reading about pigeons and tried my best to keep it comfortable. I took the pigeon home and gave it a bath. I also left a bowl of pea and bean sprouting mix with a bowl of water in there. Hope this was the right thing to do, if not, please let me know what I can do better.

I can't keep it though, all my space is already being used by my parrots. Would anyone here be willing to rescue this young pigeon and give him a good life?

Edit: forgot to put my location. Quad cities, iowa/illinois, usa


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## SRSeedBurners (Jul 22, 2015)

Where?.....................


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## pigeonnewbie1 (Jun 27, 2017)

SRSeedBurners said:


> Where?.....................


Sorry I added my location now, forgot in my haste to post.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

If he is a baby then he doesn't know how to eat on his own and needs to be hand fed. Can you post a picture of him to better help us to determine his age?


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## pigeonnewbie1 (Jun 27, 2017)

Jay3 said:


> If he is a baby then he doesn't know how to eat on his own and needs to be hand fed. Can you post a picture of him to better help us to determine his age?


Can it eat by itself?


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

He is too young to know how to eat on his own. Once out of the nest the parents show them. He needs to be hand fed. If you can get some frozen peas, defrost and warm them under warm running water, then you can give him maybe 30 peas, 3 times a day, but wait till the crop empties before feeding again. maybe 4 or 5 hours.
This is how to do that:

If you need to feed peas to a pigeon, hold the bird on your lap and against your body. This gives you more control. Reach from behind his head with one hand and grasp his beak on either side. Now use your free hand to open the beak, and put a pea in, then push it to the back of his throat and over his tongue. Let him close his beak and swallow. Then do another. It gets easier with practice, and the bird also gets more used to it, and won't fight as much. If you can't handle the bird, then use the sleeve cut off a t-shirt, slip it over his head and onto his body, with his head sticking out. This will stop him from being able to fight you so much. Just don't make it tight around his crop area. It helps if you have him facing your right side if you are right handed.


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## pigeonnewbie1 (Jun 27, 2017)

I was feeding him a dry sprouting mix I had of peas, beans, lentils and groats. Is that ok? His crop was full of scavenged peanuts the parents probably found on the factory floor. I've already fed him last night and this morning. 



Jay3 said:


> He is too young to know how to eat on his own. Once out of the nest the parents show them. He needs to be hand fed. If you can get some frozen peas, defrost and warm them under warm running water, then you can give him maybe 30 peas, 3 times a day, but wait till the crop empties before feeding again. maybe 4 or 5 hours.
> This is how to do that:
> 
> If you need to feed peas to a pigeon, hold the bird on your lap and against your body. This gives you more control. Reach from behind his head with one hand and grasp his beak on either side. Now use your free hand to open the beak, and put a pea in, then push it to the back of his throat and over his tongue. Let him close his beak and swallow. Then do another. It gets easier with practice, and the bird also gets more used to it, and won't fight as much. If you can't handle the bird, then use the sleeve cut off a t-shirt, slip it over his head and onto his body, with his head sticking out. This will stop him from being able to fight you so much. Just don't make it tight around his crop area. It helps if you have him facing your right side if you are right handed.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

I dont know anything about any of these rescues. If you seek help from any rescue please make sure they rescue and dont just euthanize pigeons. We adopted our first injured feral, Phoebe, because the local wildlife socalled rescue was going to just euthanize her. She was a wonderful loving family member for eight wonderful years. Thank you for helping the little guy! I hope you will fall in love with him.
http://www.iowadnr.gov/portals/idnr/uploads/files/wildliferehab.pdf


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## pigeonnewbie1 (Jun 27, 2017)

I actually found one through palomacy, that pigeon rescue place in San Francisco.they have a map of pigeon rescues in other places. A couple places responded to me near my area. I have to check them out first. 



cwebster said:


> I dont know anything about any of these rescues. If you seek help from any rescue please make sure they rescue and dont just euthanize pigeons. We adopted our first injured feral, Phoebe, because the local wildlife socalled rescue was going to just euthanize her. She was a wonderful loving family member for eight wonderful years. Thank you for helping the little guy! I hope you will fall in love with him.
> http://www.iowadnr.gov/portals/idnr/uploads/files/wildliferehab.pdf


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Thats fantastic! Hope one will be able to help. Palomacy also has a Facebook page with members worldwide.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

pigeonnewbie1 said:


> I was feeding him a dry sprouting mix I had of peas, beans, lentils and groats. Is that ok? His crop was full of scavenged peanuts the parents probably found on the factory floor. I've already fed him last night and this morning.


What kind of beans? Most raw beans are toxic to them.


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## pigeonnewbie1 (Jun 27, 2017)

Jay3 said:


> pigeonnewbie1 said:
> 
> 
> > I was feeding him a dry sprouting mix I had of peas, beans, lentils and groats. Is that ok? His crop was full of scavenged peanuts the parents probably found on the factory floor. I've already fed him last night and this morning.
> ...


I'm feeding this sprouting mix I use for my parrots: https://sproutpeople.org/dr-bird-sprout-mix/


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## SRSeedBurners (Jul 22, 2015)

pigeonnewbie1 said:


> I'm feeding this sprouting mix I use for my parrots: https://sproutpeople.org/dr-bird-sprout-mix/




This is a bit off-topic but, I have parrots too. I also use the sproutpeople.org mix but have been really disappointed in my last couple of orders with them. I've notice their bird mixes are turning into mostly wheat berries, like 95% wheat berries and then a smattering of the of other ingredients they show in their photos. The mixes are nothing like the variety shown in their stock photos. So one day it hit me while I was feeding my pigeons, what if I sprouted this mix? Pigeon mixes are a lot more varied in the types of seed in the mix, kind of like sproutpeople mixes used to be. Now I mix the two and sprout that. Is their Dr. Bird mix as varied as they show in the photo? I may need to switch to that till they cheapen it up.

What kind of parrots do you have? We have 1 each of: Congo African Grey, Caique, Jardines, Cinnamon Green Cheek Conure and a Cockatiel.


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## pigeonnewbie1 (Jun 27, 2017)

SRSeedBurners said:


> pigeonnewbie1 said:
> 
> 
> > I'm feeding this sprouting mix I use for my parrots: https://sproutpeople.org/dr-bird-sprout-mix/
> ...


I grew up with all kinds of medium/large parrots but my flock only has 3 budgies right now, one is an English budgie with pedigree papers lol
Wish I had the room to adopt bigger birds but i think I made the right decision by starting with small ones. I spoil mine rotten. They're free most of the time except for bedtime, get the best food and the best toys. 

I got them the sproutpeople mix because I wanted them to eat better, they'll eat the little bird mix but not the dr. Bird one because the pieces are too big. I have to put it in the food processor to chop it up first for them. But yes, I got these 6 months ago, and the dr bird one still looks like the photo. Don't know about now though.

Good thing I had these handy for the baby pidge!


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## SRSeedBurners (Jul 22, 2015)

Yeah, our birds are mostly free-roaming too. I build a 10x20 aviary that the bigs spend the day in. Wife complains about all the money, loving and attention I spend on them - they get all the best.

I'll have to try the Dr. Bird mix too.

I have a young pigeon that I noticed started losing weight and getting lethargic and his nest mate was getting all the food. So I now have him on Kaytee baby bird formula. Been thinking of blending some pigeon mix down to a power and mixing that in too. The Kaytee basically brought him back from the dead though so I know it works.


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## pigeonnewbie1 (Jun 27, 2017)

SRSeedBurners said:


> Yeah, our birds are mostly free-roaming too. I build a 10x20 aviary that the bigs spend the day in. Wife complains about all the money, loving and attention I spend on them - they get all the best.
> 
> I'll have to try the Dr. Bird mix too.
> 
> I have a young pigeon that I noticed started losing weight and getting lethargic and his nest mate was getting all the food. So I now have him on Kaytee baby bird formula. Been thinking of blending some pigeon mix down to a power and mixing that in too. The Kaytee basically brought him back from the dead though so I know it works.


Ahhhh man, that's my dream. When I get an actual house, I'd like to build an aviary for my birds. 

That might be a good time to get pigeons lol

I've always liked them, they are so calm and tame compared to parrots. Sucks that I have to give this one up, I hope everything works out at the rehabber and he lives a good life in the wild. I'll keep you guys updated!


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Why not just feed him frozen defrosted peas which have been defrosted and warmed under warm running water? They are easy to feed, and more digestible. And he is almost ready to wean anyway. You would feed him about 30 peas, wait for the crop to empty, and then feed again. Probably take about 4 or 5 hours to empty. Do this 3 times a day.
This is how to do that.

If you need to feed peas to a pigeon, hold the bird on your lap and against your body. This gives you more control. Reach from behind his head with one hand and grasp his beak on either side. Now use your free hand to open the beak, and put a pea in, then push it to the back of his throat and over his tongue. Let him close his beak and swallow. Then do another. It gets easier with practice, and the bird also gets more used to it, and won't fight as much. If you can't handle the bird, then use the sleeve cut off a t-shirt, slip it over his head and onto his body, with his head sticking out. This will stop him from being able to fight you so much. Just don't make it tight around his crop area. It helps if you have him facing your right side if you are right handed.


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## pigeonnewbie1 (Jun 27, 2017)

I just didn't have any frozen peas. But i can go to the store for some later.



Jay3 said:


> Why not just feed him frozen defrosted peas which have been defrosted and warmed under warm running water? They are easy to feed, and more digestible. And he is almost ready to wean anyway. You would feed him about 30 peas, wait for the crop to empty, and then feed again. Probably take about 4 or 5 hours to empty. Do this 3 times a day.
> This is how to do that.
> 
> If you need to feed peas to a pigeon, hold the bird on your lap and against your body. This gives you more control. Reach from behind his head with one hand and grasp his beak on either side. Now use your free hand to open the beak, and put a pea in, then push it to the back of his throat and over his tongue. Let him close his beak and swallow. Then do another. It gets easier with practice, and the bird also gets more used to it, and won't fight as much. If you can't handle the bird, then use the sleeve cut off a t-shirt, slip it over his head and onto his body, with his head sticking out. This will stop him from being able to fight you so much. Just don't make it tight around his crop area. It helps if you have him facing your right side if you are right handed.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

That would really be great. Soon he will be able to eat himself. When you feed him, leave some in the cage with him so he can practice. Also leave a dish of water. Show him how to drink by gently dipping his beak into the water, but not over his nostrils.


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