# Caring For A Young Mourning Dove



## Maggie-NC

I wanted to try something with this thread that, hopefully, may help anyone who gets in a baby mourning dove. I thought it may be helpful to do a day by day account of caring for and feeding one. We do the same exact thing with a baby pigeon but the feeding amounts are different.

We picked up this baby two days ago from our vet. A lady in a small town found it in the middle of the road and took it to the vet. 

It is very tiny, weighing 38 grams at the vets. It is fully feathered. Since they were closing for the night, they took it to an after hours clinic for them to look after overnight and we picked it up the next morning. The after hours clinic had already hydrated it and tube fed it and kept it in an incubator.

We use a small plastic box for all baby pigeons or doves. It is padded with a layer of newspaper with a paper towel on top, then a folded hand towel. We use a lid that has a gazillion holes drilled in it for air. We also put a smaller, margarine sized, container inside that has several paper towels torn to build it up to about 2/3 full, then place tissues on top of that for softness. The dove spends the night in the smaller container and we either get him out or he jumps out of that in the mornings and stays in the other part of the larger container. A small towel is used for him to lay on or walk on and it is changed at least once a day.

The first day we had him, I decided not to use a heating pad because he seemed feathered enough to not need one. Because he was so scared, he spent about the first 3-4 hours in the small margarine container with a soft tissue placed on top of him. We waited to feed him to be sure he pooped. That is a must for any bird you get in before you give them any food. When we got him out, he felt cold so I put him on a heating pad. We set it up in a chair in our family room layered with first a rug, then the heating pad, then a folded hand towel, then the plastic box. I set the pad first to high to get the bottom of the box warm, then cut it back to low. This stays on 24/7. 

I'll cover the feeding in the next post.


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## Maggie-NC

*Feeding a baby mourning dove*

I think we are the only members who use a syringe with a nipple. For baby pigeons or doves we use either a 3, 5 or 10 cc syringe. We used to use 20 cc syringes but have found we have better control with the smaller ones and it helps prevent pushing too much formula in the baby at one time.

The nipples we use are called Catac nipples and are about 1 to 1/2 inch long. We super glue it to the syringe because we have had one shoot into the crop of a fledgling that had to manually be manipulated out of the crop (successfully, I might add). We cut the tip end off because it is a solid nipple at the bottom.

I use Kaytee Exact Hand Feeding Formula. I take a heaping teaspoon (I use just regular eating teaspoons) then run water from the faucet as hot as it gets, add that to the formula gradually until it is the consistency I want it to be, draw up the formula in the syringe and feed the baby. Right now, we're using a 3 cc syringe for this baby and we give it to him in about 4 increments.

The amount we feed them increases almost from feeding to feeding. This will begin a daily account of what they get. We also weigh them every morning.

Day 1 - 1:00 pm - 3 cc; 4:00 pm - 3 cc; 8:00 pm - 5 cc.
Day 2 - 9:00 am - 5 cc; 2:00 pm - 5 cc; 8:00 pm - 5 cc (This feeding schedule had to be worked around our doing volunteer work at a museum so we fed him just before we left and immediately when we got home)
Day 3 - Weight was 44 grams; 7:00 am - 6 cc; 12:30 pm - 7 1/2 cc; 7:00 pm - 9 cc


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## Birdmom4ever

Excellent instructions, Maggie. Thank you so much for sharing.


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## sabina

Maggie, can you post a picture of the syringe/nipple set-up? When we tried feeding with a nipple, we failed miserably, but I think we must've been doing it completely wrong.


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## Reti

Thank you Maggie.

Reti


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## Skyeking

Looks good Maggie. Thank you very much!


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## Maggie-NC

Well, we have a problem with the baby so I'm suspending the feeding posts until it is resolved because we're having to adjust the times and amounts based on his condition.

Yesterday morning, we noticed a swelling on his right side at the crop area and one eye was closed. We cut back on the amount of food to about 3 cc - 5 cc per feeding because the swelling was so bad.

This morning, the swelling was still at the upper side of the crop but had extended to under his beak. It is reddish looking.

I just got back from the vet. She said the eye itself had a puncture wound and pus was coming out of it. She believes that sometime between the time he fell out of the nest and wound up on the street that a cat had him in its mouth and caused the puncture wound, probably to the eye and crop area. When we examined him Thursday, there was no evidence of any puncture wounds but I had never thought to check the eyeball itself. Up until yesterday, his eyes were fully open and he was bright-eyed.

It has been 4 days since he was found and the time frame for the toxins makes it pretty "iffy" if he can survive. She gave him a .05 cc injection of Baytril and I am to continue this orally. One note of interest though. She used a syringe with sterile water and injected a small amount of that into the tissue, then drew up the Baytril and injected that into the water she had put under the skin. I had never seen that done before.

He survived the trip home but is doing some open-mouth breathing - not a great deal but enough to worry. He went through a lot of poking and prodding while over there so maybe he is just stressed.

Please remember this baby in your prayers.


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## Lovebirds

Poor baby. I sure hope he'll be ok. And of course, I haven't a CLUE about the Baytril.


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## Pidgey

If he's getting a Pasteurella pneumonia, you might try a nebulized treatment of the Gentamycin and Saline. You'd need to get with your vet on that one.

Pidgey


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## Maggie-NC

Pidgey, I'm not familiar with this. What would be the symptoms?


BTW, and this is so silly, but, it was 39 degrees this morning when we left for the vets and I worried about the baby getting cool, so....I cranked up the truck and cut the heated seat on and it worked just like a heating pad!


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## Pidgey

Lady Tarheel said:


> Pidgey, I'm not familiar with this. What would be the symptoms?





Lady Tarheel said:


> He survived the trip home but is doing some open-mouth breathing - not a great deal but enough to worry.


That. Difficulty breathing. You're already treating a possible systemic infection with an antibiotic and that's always a race against time. A nebulized treatment of Gentamycin and Saline is just a way of treating a possible concurrent infection in the lungs and airways, that has no real downside. It's just tipping the odds in your favor.

Pidgey


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## Skyeking

I hope and pray he will be okay.


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## Maggie-NC

Pidgey, thank you. I'll contact the vet and ask her about this.

Treesa, thank you. He is resting comfortably. We fed him 5 cc about 2 pm and he tolerated that pretty well. He is just so tiny - about the size of a grown sparrow but a little fatter around the middle.

I forgot to mention the vet is not sure if there is any vision in the eye but we'll cross that bridge later. There was a lot of pus to come out.


Oh, Sabina, I will post a picture of the syringe and nipple in the next day or two. We have used them about 14 years and like them a lot.


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## Pidgey

Vets don't normally resort to this of their own free will, by the way. However, too often the ultimate end to a "wait-and-see" attitude is a regret.

Pidgey


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## Maggie-NC

Pidgey said:


> Vets don't normally resort to this of their own free will, by the way. However, too often the ultimate end to a "wait-and-see" attitude is a regret.
> 
> Pidgey



Pidgey, I think mine will be receptive. She will do most anything to save a bird/animal.


CONGRATULATIONS on your three green thingies.


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## Pidgey

Since Gentamycin (also spelled "Gentamicin") isn't absorbed, it's perfect for this sort of thing, even as a preventative.

Pidgey


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## Maggie-NC

We lost the battle. He died a short while ago. I had talked to the vet not an hour earlier about his condition. He had opened his eyes, was pooping and raising his little wings at us. 

The vet had decided to not open up the crop area and remove the pus from there because he was so small and she feared he would die under anesthesia.

I'm going to talk with her about automatically treating doves for cat bite but I'm torn because I know antibiotics at that young age is not good for him.

I'm really sorry I couldn't continue with the feeding schedules/amounts. More importantly, I'm just so sorry this sweet baby didn't live.


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## Lovebirds

Maggie, so sorry to hear the baby didn't make it. I know you tried you hardest. However, thanks to you, he didn't die the death that he would have had you not had him.


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## Birdmom4ever

I'm so sorry, Maggie.


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## TAWhatley

I am so very sorry, Maggie. I know this was an exceptionally hard one to lose.

Terry


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## Maggie-NC

Thank you all. It was a hard loss because after he survived the night and was able to open his eyes today and try to give us a karate chop, we were optimistic. 

It is at times like this I feel like calling it quits. 

I sure wish people would keep their cats up.


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## Reti

I am so sorry Maggie. I hate it when that happens. Thanks for trying so hard.

Reti


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## Skyeking

Maggie,

I'm so sorry to hear the news, and I can understand how you feel. I know you did the best you could.

Sending you a BIG hug for comfort.


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