# Young pigeon ate too much seed?



## Wampa (Jul 16, 2003)

Hello, I have a young pigeon, he just lost his yellow baby feathers recently. I do not know too much about pigeons, as I found this guy (named Oswald) and took him home after he wandered onto a field at one of my Little League games. I have been feeding him baby bird formula with a syringe ever since I got him, and I had to take him to the vet once when his crop wouldn't empty and he was not very active (vet said he had crop stasis / infection). Today I just got him some dove seed at the local wildlife place and the guy there also gave me a little corn (not full kernels but broken up) to mix in with the seed. Oswald started to eat the seed pretty quickly, but now his crop is full and I don't think he drank any of the water in the dish I put next to the seed. I tried to give him some warm water in the feeding syringe, but he just coughed it up so I think his crop is pretty full. It is hard because it has all the seeds in it and I don't think there is very much water in there. What can I do to help empty his crop a little so I can give him water? And how can I have water available for him (he is in a large box right now) that he can drink on his own? I have not been able to get him to drink water out of the cup I set out for him and it is his first day off the formula. The only thing I am worried about now is if his crop is too full of seed and not enough water and he won't be able to digest it or something. I took the seed away for now and the water is still in his box but I don't think he will drink it. Any help would be appreciated as it cost over $100 from the vet for the visits and antibiotics when Oswald was sick so I don't want to lose him now.


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## maryco (Apr 1, 2002)

Hello and thanks for helping the little guy out









I hope this will help you.. It's s post copied from one of our members (Katie) about crop statis in babies and adult birds.

Keep us posted.. 

Mary

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I am sure this is sour crop. give him 1/4 teasp of baking soda dissolved in 1/2 ounce water. Do not feed the pigeon for 2 days only water. On the 3rd day give only an ounce of feed in the morning and one ounce in the evening do not let the pigeon feed all day or he will relapse. Feed a high protien diet, 16%. Do not give him any whole corn. Corn will agiate his problem. Medications will not help much with sour crop. If you feel you can it would be best to empty the crop by using warm salt water. He should bring that up himself
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## Wampa (Jul 16, 2003)

Do you think it would be okay to wait until tomorrow and check his crop to see if the seed is moving well or not? I don't want to do those procedures if they aren't necessary, and I think by noon tomorrow his crop will either have emptied or it will still be full. I was able to give him a full syringe of warm water a few minutes ago and he did not cough it up, so I am hoping that it will soften the seed in his crop a bit.


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## Marian (Feb 17, 2001)

Hi Wampa,
Young pigeons often learn how to pick up seeds before they learn how to drink. If his crop is full and feels kind of hard, you can help him along by holding him and gently dip his beak in a small bowl of water.

He will quickly realize what it is and take a big drink. 
Another way of helping a young pigeon learn about water is to sprinkle some small seeds that will float on top of the water. They often peck at the seeds as they know what they are, then discover water.

For your pigeon, try dipping the beak in water. Just dip it for a second and let his head up. You might have to do it a few times. 

The cere is the area above the beak where his nares (nostrils) are located. Keep the cere out of the water.

When he's drinking on his own, he'll plunge his whole beak area in the water.

The water dish should be about l inch deep.
You've probably seen that pigeons drink like horses, head down and gulping. Other birds take little sips and put their head up so water flows down their esophagus by gravity.
Pigeons suck water up, going against gravity.

Good luck,
Marian


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## Wampa (Jul 16, 2003)

Thanks for all your advice, it makes me feel a lot better about Oswald's situation







. I was able to give him a little more water, and I felt around his crop a little bit to try to get things moving. Tomorrow once his crop is down I will try those techniques for teaching him to drink. I don't have any recent pictures of him but here is one from when I first found him.
http://www.extensiontech.net/temp/pigeon.jpg


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

OMG! What a precious baby! Oswald is just beyond cute!

Terry Whatley


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## Wampa (Jul 16, 2003)

Well I just checked on Oswald this morning. He appears to be doing fine, running and flapping around. When he had his crop stasis / infection he was very lethargic and I am happy to see that is not the case today. His crop appeared to be about half empty, but still hard because it was all seeds, so I gave him two syringes (total of 20 ml, 4 tsp) of warm water and his crop is mostly full, but it is softer and the seeds feel less densely packed. I also dug up a short (30 sec) video I took of him with my digital camera when he was just a baby (3.5mb so if you don't have broadband then you might not want to bother) http://www.extensiontech.net/temp/pigeon.avi 

Once again, thanks for all your help and support, I most likely will stay around here even after Oswald's small emergency is over


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Great video of Oswald! Please do stay around!

Terry Whatley


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## katiedidittwo2 (Oct 17, 2002)

Wampa:
Pigeons are whole seed eaters. Feeding any cracked seed can cause canker of the throat. Many people are use to the billed birds that can eat cracked seeds. But pigeons are not one of them that can tolerate craked feed very well. Just to be on the safe side I would not feed any more cracked feed. Yes many people do feed cracked corn to their pigeons but sooner or later it will get em.
Katie.


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## wovenwoman (Jul 2, 2003)

Tim has been shoveling cracked corn in along with the other seed since I have had him. Cracked corn is not good?


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Have to agree. Cracked corn is a NO NO. And.......the video is just to cute!!! I love them at that age.


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## Marian (Feb 17, 2001)

Hi WW,
Cracked corn and cracked other grains are not cool to give to pigeons for a couple of reasons.
One is that cracked grains are more likely to develop molds than are the intact, whole kernels.
The other concern is that if the pigeon is swallowing rough edges of grains, the lining of the esophagus can easily be scratched. When the epithelial layer is damaged, it leaves the bird susceptible to possible pathogens and parasites. 

Marian


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## Wampa (Jul 16, 2003)

Well I checked on Oswald today after work and his crop was almost empty. I don't believe he drank any of the water I had out for him, and when I put the water in front of him he just looked at me then started flapping around again. I put a handful of seed in the water but only one type of seed in the mix floats so he ate those but didn't go for all the rest of the seed at the bottom. I drained the cup until there was about 1 inch of water above the seed and then he started to peck at it and eat it. How long is it okay to leave the seeds in the water before I change it? I know the formula goes bad pretty quickly so I don't want to leave the seeds there too long if they turn bad or something. If they don't "go bad" in the water, then I will most likely change it once a day or so until he gets the hang of drinking. Also, I had another question. My parents expect that Oswald will be out of the house and in "the wild" before we go on vacation for a week (in about two weeks). By then he will most likely be able to eat and drink by himself, but I don't want to leave him inside for a week unattended. Would it be possible to start teaching him now to eat at a certain spot and time every day outside, maybe on my back patio somewhere? If it is possible to teach him to go to that spot for food then would it be okay to let him be outside? I am not quite sure how to go about getting him accustomed to the outdoors by himself, but I also don't plan to just let him go as my parents are saying







. If he could become a pretty independant bird then I think they would let him hang around and maybe set up a small cage / nest outside for him to sleep in.


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## Wampa (Jul 16, 2003)

Oswald has not taken to drinking yet but I am working with him on that, putting the seed in water. However, I am concerned about his rear left toe, which I don't think is broken but might be sprained.
http://www.extensiontech.net/temp/toe.jpg 

As you can see in that picture, he walks on it bent forward and does not use it when he is perching. I bend it back to the normal position and he doesn't seem to care, which means it can't hurt too much. I also took a short video (only 1.5mb, http://www.extensiontech.net/temp/toe.avi) of him walking around on this bad toe. Is this something I should be concerned about, or something that I can / should fix? Here are two extra pictures of him today, one showing that he has lost all his baby feathers...
http://www.extensiontech.net/temp/oswald.jpg 

...and the other with him sitting on the back stoop with our kitten watching him intently.
http://www.extensiontech.net/temp/catbird.jpg 

We may or may not go and see the vet before we go on vacation, but I will most likely ask him about the toe if it is still like that.


[This message has been edited by Wampa (edited July 18, 2003).]


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## dveteto (Jun 23, 2003)

Hi Wampa,
I have a little pigeon named Pini who looks JUST like Oswald!! I also have another named Buddy. He is more Black and White speckled. Can you tell me if you can see his breast bone down the middle of his chest. I believe I may be weaning mine too early. I started them both of soaked puppy chow and that seems to have calmed them down. 
Congradulations on your new found friend.

Deborah


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

We have a bird named Gimpy that has a toe like that. Though she doesn't actually walk on it, it grew forward instead of back behind her foot. She is now 1 1/2 years old and is fine. I wouldn't worry to much about it. He'll adjust.


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## maryco (Apr 1, 2002)

What I would do is put her out in a cage everyday for a short while to get used to the birds, later on the flock will accept her.

I'm sure your bird will get used to the flock very soon if you keep her out afew times a day, the birds will also get used to her and later on you can start leaving the door open and she might try exploring around with the others 
Make sure that you have no cats or preditors in your hard.

Mary


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## Wampa (Jul 16, 2003)

dveteto:

When Oswald was a few weeks younger his breast bone was a bit more prominent than it is now, more so when he was hungry and didn't have anything in his crop.

I am going to try to put his cage out every day so he can get used to the climates a bit more. Thankfully we have a fenced-in back yard which keeps most of the large neighborhood animals out. The only four legged inhabitant of our yard are rabbits and chipmunks, and I don't think either will bother Oswald







. At this point he hasn't caught on to drinking water yet; I am working on holding his beak open and having the bottom half in the water. Sometimes he starts moving his tongue and drinking a little, sometimes he doesn't, but he hasn't taken on drinking by himself quite yet. I will most likely see if I can get a good friend to either come over every day or two and change his water / food for him, or bring him over to the friend's house for the week. Right now I put a handful of seed in a bowl of shallow water in the morning and then rinse out the remaining water and do the same in the afternoon and evening, and he seems to be doing fine. I have not noticed any major problems with the toe, so I will let nature take its course and see what he ends up doing with it. Lastly, when I took him to the local wildlife place there was a guy coming through who raced pigeons, and he said something about Oswald that I can't remember that made him a better or faster type of pigeon. Might it be the reddish coloring or the striping on the wings? I don't really plan on racing Oswald but it peaked my curiosity. Have a good day everyone


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## maryco (Apr 1, 2002)

I wouldn't open his beak and put it in the water if you lift up his beak too fast the water will slide back into his windpipe which is right behind his tongue (It happened to me afew times)

Just gently push his beak into the water and he will suck it up.. You can also starte offering him dry seeds in a small dish.

Mary


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