# How long without food?



## Guest (Aug 23, 2004)

I picked up a couple of 4-week-olds (?) Friday. They'd been without parents since Wednesday morning and were first fed Friday early evening. I was surprised they were still alive after that amount of time without eating. Should I have been? They had water, but I don't know if they could or tried to drink any of it during that time.

They are doing great now, though. Hearty eaters, both of them. I was just wondering how long they can go without food as youngsters like that.

Stacey


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## Snowbird (Jun 24, 2004)

They could live several days if they drank water and had no food. A harder question is how long could they go without food and not permanently lose growth–growth occurs in a window of time; at some point the youngster can not “catch up”.


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## WhiteWingsCa (Mar 1, 2002)

I can't say for sure how long youngsters can survive without food -- or how long before some sort of permanent disablilty would set in... but....

someone had the great misfortune of finding out how long adults can go without food.....

on one of my other forums, someone a long while back shared this story---- they had gone away, and asked a neighbour to look after the birds. After 12 days, the birds started dying. The neighbour asked another pigeon person to look in on them, as she was obviously upset that this was happening while the birds were in her care.

Turns out, the woman had mistaken the grit for the food -- and the poor birds had had nothing but grit and water for 12 days!  

Proper food saved the rest of the birds, as far as I know.


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