# Wood Pigeon Advice



## Jord1bear (Jul 18, 2009)

Hi, We have found a pigeon on the grass in our garden, we are pretty sure that it is a wood pigeon, we brought it indoors as many cats are local to the area and it was unsafe to leave it on the floor.

We know next to nothing about raising a pigeon, but so far, we have cleaned out an old gerbil cage, and created a makeshift nest of sawdust, kitchen roll, and flannels. 

We have only managed to feed it water, through a straw.
And given it roughly two tea spoons of weak watery ready-break.
But are concerned this isn't the correct food it should be eating.

We want to do all we can, to keep the bird alive, so any advice you can give us would be very helpfull.

We are unsure of its age, however it is without feathers, and has small yellow tufts of fluff on its head and back, its skin is clearly visible through the fluff.
Its eyes stay closed the majority of the time, yet it has opened its eyes a few times.


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## PigeonQueen (Aug 13, 2006)

Hello where are you based? We could then try to find a rehabber near where you are. The woodpigeon sounds like it is only a few weeks old. Ready Brek mixed with water so it is like runny soup and fed through a small syringe or eye dropper until the crop feels full should be given about every four hours. It would be best to get the pigeon to a rehabber. In the meantime please keep the pigeon warm.


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

I think Pigeon Queen meant "days old", not weeks. 

If it has feathers then stretch out its wing gently, the white wing bar will show on its feathers if it is a wood pigeon.

When you feed it you have to be careful to prevent it from aspirating. This thread discusses various methods of feeding little squabs.

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=9682&referrerid=560

Try to get some chick rearing crumbs, they are excellent for hand rearing you soak these for half an hour in hot but not boling water, then liquidise them and pass them through a sieve. The mixture for a pigeon that young would need to be quite runny, then you make it gradually thicker as he grows older. Alternatively you can use Tropicana hand rearing formula or Kaytee Exact hand rearing formula, they are more expensive and I have found them difficult to find, but they are so easy to prepare!

When you feed a baby pigeon the temperature of the food should be 39 degrees C, slightly warm on your wrist.

Cynthia


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## Jord1bear (Jul 18, 2009)

I'm in Rotherham, which is near sheffield.

The bird has grown greatly, and has started gaining feathers.
We've made one of those 'balloon syringe' feeding things for the pigeon.

We've started feeding it budgie food now aswell, mixed in with the ready break mixture, hope that is okay!

Anyway, I was wondering, how exactly do we find out if it is a male or female?


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

Umm .. with woodpigeons, it can be far more difficult to determine the sex than with other pigeons. It really is down to behavior, once they are pretty much adults. We have some rescued woodies even now who we are not sure about. One does some cooing and bowing, so seems to be a male - another did lay a couple of eggs last year (or year before) so we know she's a hen .. but otherwise.....

John


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## John_D (Jan 24, 2002)

There are two potentials for woodie rescue & rehab you may want to check with:

Voluntary Rescue Centre for Birds and Wildlife
141 Woodseats Road
Sheffield

TEL 01142 55 78 24
MOBILE 07860 808179
EMAIL [email protected]

(Treat pigeons, used to find unreleasable birds a home, I am uncertain whether they are still able to do this.)

http://www.voluntaryrescuecentre.org.uk/about.htm

-----------------------------------------------

and - rather further away:

Selby Animal Sanctuary,
Scalm Lane,
Hambleton,
Selby. O8 9HZ
Tele: (01757) 228216

http://www.pheasan.plus.com

John


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## PigeonQueen (Aug 13, 2006)

Apologies, I did mean days old!


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## Jord1bear (Jul 18, 2009)

My mom wants to keep the pigeon as long as she can i think, so when is the latest that is suitable to send the pigeon to the rehab clinic?


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

To be honest, as soon as possible would be best.

Our Littlewood was hand raised and came here when he was very young, probably about 4 weeks old. He went straight into an aviary where he was supposed to lose any attachment for human beings, but he was already imprinted on humans and would land on us if he wanted something (he still does). So we kept him (see my wood pigeons album). I can't say he is unhappy with us, he seems very content and healthy: he had a mate (she is pursuing a disabled woodie now), he has lived longer that could be expected in the wild where he could have been shot, starved, knocked down by a car, or fallen down a chimney - he has always had enough food, shelter, company, even space to fly...but I always wonder if we have cheated him of something by keeping him.


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## Jord1bear (Jul 18, 2009)

The Sanctuary place we rung, said they would only take the pigeon off us, once it can feed itself, and no long needs hand rearing.

How do we go about weening (sp?) the pigeon of its poridge mixture from the syringe/balloon thing?

We have already started putting budgie feed in with the poridge, and we place seeds around hoping that the pigeon will eat them, though no luck yet.

Also, its started flapping its wings, and though it can't fly yet, its trying every once and awhile


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## Feefo (Feb 8, 2002)

How often do you feed him? I would gradually start introducing defrosted corn and peas to his diet, open his mouth and pop them in (warm) and leave a few, together with the small seeds, near him so that he will pick them up out of boredom if nothing else.

In the wild the parents would start cutting down on food as the time to leave the nest approaches, but they would continue to feed it when it left the nest. The problem is that woodie parents would not check whether their baby is self feeding or not and many babies die of starvation. This is why it might take longer for you to wean him than it would if he was wild. 

I was given a woodie via the vet the other day, I think he has just left the nest but his legs are deformed. I started feeding him defrosted corn and peas, by the third meal he suddenly leant forward , held my finger in his beak to see if that was edible, and then started tucking into the peas on his own.

Cynthia


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## Jord1bear (Jul 18, 2009)

He/she lives in our shead now.
He/she Can pretty much fly short distances, and pecks at food on its own, however at night we bring him in the house where its warmer, and feed him one syringe of readybreak/wild bird seed.

However we are weining (sp again?) it off the syringe, and it is eating less and less from it.

We are still unsure as to the gender of our wood Pigeon, so any advice in that regards would be lovely 

-We are gonna send it to the sanctuary soon, apparently.
I've told mom we have to, but she's attatched haha.
The sanctuary has already said that it wont release him/her back into the wild, so in theory they said we can keep it for longer, which i believe mom has took to heart.


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