# Oh, woe is me



## Skier4827 (Jun 9, 2008)

I picked up a baby pigeon that had fallen out of its nest a week ago. (The nest is 20+' off the ground, so no way to return him.) I would guess his age at 2 - 3 weeks since he has all his feathers, but, still a bit of down around the wings, legs, etc. The pin feathers on his head have been replaced with with "real" feathers since I found him. I have tried the squeeze bottle approach for feeding without much success. He will eat grain with a little prodding, and, he is able to drink on his own. Other than getting some feed other than grain, is there anything else I should be doing? I worry about him getting enough food. In addition, how should I be treating him for release. I have access to an area where lots of pigeons feed. He is not currently able to fly (well, maybe 5 feet before crashing), but, I want to be able to set him free once his flight skills have developed. Thanks for any input.


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## maryjane (Jul 15, 2006)

Welcome and thanks for taking care of this baby. Please pick up some Kaytee (or other brand) of baby bird food. A five dollar jar should be plenty for this baby. What you want to do is mix the Kaytee with water, enough so that the consistency is the same as melted ice cream, or thin pancake batter. When you mix the formula, let it sit for two or three minutes as it will thicken. Then add a bit more water for the desired consistency. Of course you want to make sure it's room temperature and not too warm. This is a very easy hand-feeding method that a lot of us use:

http://picasaweb.google.com/awrats3333/BabyFeeding

If you don't have a large syringe, you can use an old aspirin bottle or similar. Just poke a hole in the unopened end to allow for the best guzzling.  The baby should learn immediately to stick his beak in and gobble down the formula. You can also mix in some seeds with the formula. If you tap at seeds with your finger, he should start pecking at them. At first he won't get many down but will do better each day. 

For releasing, it's great if you can take him out to be with the flock a few times a day, in your hands or in a small cage. Then after he is definitely eating on his own, as well as flying, you can release him during nice weather. 

Please feel free to ask any questions you may think of, and to share any pictures with us. Good luck!


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## Skier4827 (Jun 9, 2008)

Thanks for the reply Maryjane, I have gotten some baby bird food from Pets Mart, and, I will start on a mix of seeds tonight so he can have something other than grain. He doesn't want to slurp mash from anything, so, I have a feed sringe that I use to force the food into him. He eats 20 to 30 grain seeds at a time, so, I hope that will be enough to keep him going and growing until he can fend in the wild. We spent some time trying to hang out with the wild flock this weekend, but, without much success. The local nesting pigeons showed some initial interest when he squeaked, but, that was it. He stayed too close to me for any of the wild pigeons to come close. However, he did peck at and eat some of grain they feed on. (Also some dirt, etc.) He seemed very largic (sp?) for the rest of the day, but, I felt that might have been due to insufficient rest. (He usually sleeps most of the day, I think. How much grain / seeds should he be eating?


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

Hi Skier,

Sounds to me like your youngster isn't getting enough food. If you were strictly syringe feeding, then you would/should be giving at least 20 cc per feeding if the baby has feathers and you would be feeding each time the crop empties .. probably 3-4 times per day. If it is eating seeds, then a couple of tablespoons of seed would be about right, twice or three times per day.

Please get back to us here and lets talk about this young pigeon some more.

Terry


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## Skier4827 (Jun 9, 2008)

The lack of food is what concerns me. He does gobble grain (milo, maize, sorghum is the #1 food for pigeons in this area.) I would say he ate 5 cc's of seed last night. This morning, very happy to see me, but, would not feed from the syringe. He wandered around the house and ate a small handfull of seeds and whatever else he pecked up from the carpet! I am going to start him on wild bird seed tonight. I will try to post a picture later on today or tomorrow. He does drink on his own, so, that is a positive.


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## Skier4827 (Jun 9, 2008)

Well, home for lunch....great was the excitment. Lots of squeaking, wing flapping, begging for food. I tried the technique in the link that Mary Jane provided, but, he nibbled a little bit at best. Another 20 or so pieces of grain were consumed along with a couple of drinks of water. Oh well, hopefully a different selection of seed will help.


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## maryjane (Jul 15, 2006)

Sounds like progress.  You can try that technique a few times and he should get it pretty quickly. I like it best, as you don't have to really feed him then, as he does the eating himself with his beak buried in the syringe. Messy, but effective. You may try a few times and see if he will eat that way, with the formula mixed with seeds. And if he's pecking at seeds now, he should pick that up pretty fast in the next few days but it does take awhile for them to figure out how to get the seeds down the hatch.  You can also try supplementing him with soaked high-quality dog biscuits; you can pop a soft piece of those in his beak and makes eating faster. I think that would be fine to supplement the seeds with if you're having an especially hard time with the formula. I have an adult now that is eating a blender mix of soaked biscuits, Kaytee, and vitamins/other goodies, and it's putting the weight on her as well as providing nutrition. Good luck!


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## Skier4827 (Jun 9, 2008)

Yipeee, the wild bird seed was a big hit (gobbled down 1/8 cup of seed). In addition, he finally slurped down 20+ cc's of formula. (Of course that was last night, today is a new day.) However, this is very encouraging. I planning on moving him to a rabbit cage close by the wild bird flock (pigeons, doves, sparrows, ducks, chickens, a hawk or two[everyone has to eat]) that come in for grain at a friend's house so he can learn by watching the other birds.


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