# Possible emergency



## rascal66 (May 13, 2011)

To make a long story short, two of my best friends found a destroyed nest with baby mourning doves in them. One is a fledgling while the other one just barely has feathers. The fledgling looks very healthy and active, but I'm not sure whether the younger one is doing alright or not. He is barely moving and refuses to eat when i offer food. My method of feeding was to cut the tip off the syringe, and put some type of plastic over it so i can poke a nice sized hole and stick their beaks in it and they would eat, like in the wild. The fledgling responds well to this but I'm really worried for the baby. Also, he is barely lifting his head and is barely opening his eyes. He is sort of feathered but still is almost a naked baby. Is he possibly sick? Or is this how they act? When my friends found them on the ground, they seemed to have recently ate really well. But now is day2 that I have them here and I would like to help nurse them back to health. ..

EDIT: Bad news... The baby didn't make it.  Unfortunately I have no idea how it died or whether he was sick or not. but he was still very young, possibly 6 or 7 days old. Now I just need to take care of the fledgling.


----------



## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

the small one does sound behind in it's development..why that is I do not know.. keep that one on the warm side and only feed when the crop emptys. what are you feeding?


----------



## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

They must have been the same age if in the same nest, so the smaller one must have been sick if he looked so much younger.


----------



## rascal66 (May 13, 2011)

I'm feeding them Kaytee Exact baby bird formula. They did look like they were more than a few days apart. The baby is dead now though  My guess was that he could have been sick. That or maybe the fall of the nest had something to do with it. My friends mentioned that the nest was in a pretty high tree and the nest was practically destroyed on the ground when they found it.


----------

