# Found baby pigeon! not sure of its age



## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

Hi!
Found this baby pigeon yesterday, I'm pretty sure it fell from its nest and its parents weren't nearby, it was near a road on a hot day so I thought it best to take it in so it wouldn't get hurt.

So far I've given it water and a little bit of a slurry I made out of water, peas, and some corn but i'm not sure if it's enough?
anybody know how old it could be/what it should be eating? Can it eat moistened pigeon/dove food?
thanks!








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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

maybe I should buy some baby bird food and use this bag method?


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

Hi, 
Thanks for caring this little life. 
Couldn't you get his nest so you can keep him back because there is nothing better if he gets fed and raised by parents so he can learn to find his food by his parents but if there was no nest you could see around,it is so nice that you took him in. 

He is of 15-16 days old and at this stage they start feeding on seeds by their parents so you can feed him defrosted frozen peas and corns in his mouth one by one. If you don't know how to do it here it goes :

If you need to feed peas/corns to a pigeon, hold the bird on your lap and against your body. This gives you more control. Reach from behind his head with one hand and grasp his beak on either side. Now use your free hand to open the beak, and put a pea in, then push it to the back of his throat and over his tongue. Let him close his beak and swallow. Then do another. It gets easier with practice, and the bird also gets more used to it, and won't fight as much. If you can't handle the bird, then use the sleeve cut off a t-shirt, slip it over his head and onto his body, with his head sticking out. This will stop him from being able to fight you so much. Just don't make it tight around his crop area. It helps if you have him facing your right side if you are right handed. Start with about 30 defrosted and warmed peas. Warm, not hot. Do that maybe 3 times a day, but let the crop empty between times.

There is a site named www.pigeonrescue.co.uk on which lots of info on how to feed and what to feed baby pigeons but at this stage he should go good with peas/corns. 
There is small video too, not much clear on the same site but it could be of some help too. 

So do it like this and keep us posted about this little guy. Hope he does good with you. Thanks a lot.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

I would treat for canker. Metronidazole which you can often get in tropical fish stores. It's called Fish Zole, but need to be sure only Metronidazole is in it and no other drug. Sometimes feed stores carry it. Or a vet. Baby needs to be warmed and hydrated before you feed him anything or he won't be able to digest any food. A cup of tepid water with a pinch of sugar and salt mixed in would do. Try to get him to drink by dipping his beak gently into the water, but not over his nostrils.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Im gonna guess 2.5 weeks old, you can make that slurry and put it in a small or short mason jar and then cover with a balloon, cut a hole in the middle stick its beak in and allow it to take mouthfuls for about 4 to 5 seconds and remove its beak. Allow time to breath and do this until his crop is 3/4 full. If the slurry is moist enough, not water needed as a drink afterwards. You can also do the peas and corn method on the mouth one at a time, about 35 in total. Take FROZEN peas and corn, thaw in hot water and the feed. There are a few videos floating around and other methods on youtube. Keep us posted.


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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

why treat for canker? Does it look like it has it? Also I've given it some water, it drank it up easily.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Excellent, just put a few pinches of sugar for energy, and then feed if it. It is too young to feed itself for about 2 to 3 more weeks. Pretty little thing. You can also pry open its beak and pour small little handfuls into its mouth and allow it to swallow some and it will shake some out, it will be a bit messy but it works great as the dry seed slides right down. He has to work to spit out the extra. As I said, many ways to feed. See what works best for you and him.


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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

CBL said:


> Im gonna guess 2.5 weeks old, you can make that slurry and put it in a small or short mason jar and then cover with a balloon, cut a hole in the middle stick its beak in and allow it to take mouthfuls for about 4 to 5 seconds and remove its beak. Allow time to breath and do this until his crop is 3/4 full. If the slurry is moist enough, not water needed as a drink afterwards. You can also do the peas and corn method on the mouth one at a time, about 35 in total. Take FROZEN peas and corn, thaw in hot water and the feed. There are a few videos floating around and other methods on youtube. Keep us posted.


Okay i'll try with the mason jar, thanks!


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

That and mite spray. A baby that feathered out should not be lacking feathers on the head and throat like that.


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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

CBL said:


> Excellent, just put a few pinches of sugar for energy, and then feed if it. It is too young to feed itself for about 2 to 3 more weeks. Pretty little thing. You can also pry open its beak and pour small little handfuls into its mouth and allow it to swallow some and it will shake some out, it will be a bit messy but it works great as the dry seed slides right down. He has to work to spit out the extra. As I said, many ways to feed. See what works best for you and him.


Yeah I used a dropper to put some of the watery pea/corn mixture near its mouth and it managed to swallow some of it. You said seed? I found some quail and dove seed at the store would that be ok in small amounts if I moisten it first? Or should I stick with peas and corn?


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

BOTH would be GREAT, nothing like variety. Can you pm Jaykay and ask her to send you her video of her trials and tribulations of the last few days, she got the knack of it now and baby is feeding REALLY well. She is doing both and yes the dove seed mix is perfect.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

florettes said:


> Okay i'll try with the mason jar, thanks!


Ya the jar can be a jam jar or any small glass jar. The key here will be that the slurry is WARM, and dont be afraid to grab the birds head and guide his beak into the jar, as soon as he feels the warmth he will try to start to pump and feed. Again allow about 4 to 6 seconds of feeding and then pull jar away and allow him to breath. Repeat as many times and it takes to satiate baby or you see his crop is full like a nice set of boobs lol. Not overfull tho, not like DD's or anything lol Just a nice B cup lol. I have a short vid, if you send me an email I can send u a vid of either Jaykay feeding or when I crop needled a baby and it shows the bulging nicely full crop.


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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

CBL said:


> Ya the jar can be a jam jar or any small glass jar. The key here will be that the slurry is WARM, and dont be afraid to grab the birds head and guide his beak into the jar, as soon as he feels the warmth he will try to start to pump and feed. Again allow about 4 to 6 seconds of feeding and then pull jar away and allow him to breath. Repeat as many times and it takes to satiate baby or you see his crop is full like a nice set of boobs lol. Not overfull tho, not like DD's or anything lol Just a nice B cup lol. I have a short vid, if you send me an email I can send u a vid of either Jaykay feeding or when I crop needled a baby and it shows the bulging nicely full crop.


Alright cool thanks! I'll give it a shot and let you know if I need the video


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

florettes said:


> Yeah I used a dropper to put some of the watery pea/corn mixture near its mouth and it managed to swallow some of it. You said seed? I found some quail and dove seed at the store would that be ok in small amounts if I moisten it first? Or should I stick with peas and corn?


I think no need to moisten dry seeds. It will go like peas /corns. Peas /corns are fed one at a time but these can be fed several together in his beak. He will spill extra shaking his beak. There are videos of this method too if you Google hand feeding baby birds or something like that.


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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

kiddy said:


> I think no need to moisten dry seeds. It will go like peas /corns. Peas /corns are fed one at a time but these can be fed several together in his beak. He will spill extra shaking his beak. There are videos of this method too if you Google hand feeding baby birds or something like that.


Okay, awesome thanks!


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

Pleasure is all mine


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

florettes said:


> Okay, awesome thanks!


Actually YES you need to moisten the seeds with HOT water for babies to want to start to pump, it is the temperature of the feed that stimulates them to self feed out of that bottle, if left dry it is too dry and the temperature will make them not want to or know to do anything. I just went thru this with another Poster Jaykay and what a difference it made. So yes, WARM soaked seed with a bit of extra water to make it a slurry, balloon over top, poked hole, beak in and do the motion of shaking salt out of container as a parent would do to pump food in and the baby will pump back to take it in. Works like a charm.


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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

Update: i think its parents came back and are near the nest, if I put it back will they still accept the baby?


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Do you KNOW where the nest is? Can you actually SEE a nest if so, would not hurt to pop it in there and see if the parents feed it. Keep a watch to see of they feed or kick it out. As a pigeon it is too young and should still be IN the nest and there should be two of them, have a look around just in case and if you put it IN its nest, keep and eye for a few days. Also dont let it get so sick or starved that it becomes much harder to try to save its life in the end. If the parents done come to feed it fairly right away especially if it starts to squeak, then I say u have to help it.


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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

CBL said:


> Do you KNOW where the nest is? Can you actually SEE a nest if so, would not hurt to pop it in there and see if the parents feed it. Keep a watch to see of they feed or kick it out. As a pigeon it is too young and should still be IN the nest and there should be two of them, have a look around just in case and if you put it IN its nest, keep and eye for a few days. Also dont let it get so sick or starved that it becomes much harder to try to save its life in the end. If the parents done come to feed it fairly right away especially if it starts to squeak, then I say u have to help it.


Yeah They nested in the eaves of a garage i found the baby right by it but it was alone at the time, now the parents are nearby on the roof so I think I could get it back up there


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Ya I would give it a shot, it could have been vigorously squeaking for food and easily fell out prematurely, climb back up and stick it in for the night and then check again in the am to see if ok and observe if parents are feeding it, also it could have been scared out by a predator. Please keep a close eye and see if they feed it and or stay with it. It could fall out again or try to fly out and end up needing help again. Just be prepared and stand by to help if needed, thanks SO much.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Thank you for caring for little guy! He's adorable. Would concentrate on getting stabilized with food and water and not give him any meds if he's not showing disease symptoms.


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

CBL said:


> Actually YES you need to moisten the seeds with HOT water for babies to want to start to pump, it is the temperature of the feed that stimulates them to self feed out of that bottle, if left dry it is too dry and the temperature will make them not want to or know to do anything. I just went thru this with another Poster Jaykay and what a difference it made. So yes, WARM soaked seed with a bit of extra water to make it a slurry, balloon over top, poked hole, beak in and do the motion of shaking salt out of container as a parent would do to pump food in and the baby will pump back to take it in. Works like a charm.



But CBL as I remember you were feeding Beanie some small grains with that method once( in the same video you showed to feed peas and corns too) and that were dried? While you took some in palm and fed her that way? 
Are you talking about some other method this time? Or those were really moistened which I could not see?


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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

cwebster said:


> Thank you for caring for little guy! He's adorable. Would concentrate on getting stabilized with food and water and not give him any meds if he's not showing disease symptoms.


No problem! couldn't leave that little cutie to fend for himself. Yeah, I agree, I don't want to use chemicals or medication on a wild animal especially cuz I don't have much bird experience.


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

We all are inexperienced at some point of time and learn from what we face. It of course totally depends on you to treat or not but recommended here was to rule out chances of disease if any. 
Canker is a very common disease in pigeons and easily be treated and so healthy pigeons too get treated before breeding season for canker to make younger birds immune to it. 
Since your bird is showing unusual feathers growth which are missing on head and chin areas it was recommended to treat him but of course you can take time to get him stabilized with proper feed and water. But before you release him, it is important to treat for canker. Although he is wild but wild birds too experience same diseases as pet birds have. Pets are fortunate to be treated within time and so they survive but wild birds if caught by canker, it is less likely that they will make it. 
So if you have bird in hand and that too with unusual feathers growth it should be treated before release or as soon as you can after he seems stabilized because treating canker won't harm the bird but will develop lifetime immunity in bird to help them live canker free life, still mature birds too under stress get rapid growth of trichomonas(canker causing protozoan) and it starts affecting their health and they fell ill and die if not treated. 

I am attaching here my 15 days old bird's pic so you can compare and make sure if really your baby has unusual feathers growth because may be the pic we are seeing has some lighting issues and so it is not showing head feathers clearly. 
If you find it really unusual you should treat him at least before release because it is in bird's favor.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Kiddy, what an adorable baby! But when you treat for canker, it doesn't give the bird lifetime immunity. I think you are thinking of when a bird gets pox. Even then, it depends on the strain.

I have seen people feed seeds from a bottle, but they didn't wet them. Think you can do either. If they were being fed from the parents then they would be wet.

Make sure it is the right nest that you are putting him in, or he is likely to be attacked as an intruder.


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

Thanks, he is of two months now, grown up sweetheart  

No, I didn't confuse it with pox but I think this word lifetime here shows he will never get canker so problem was in explaining. I tried to say that birds who are treated for canker get strong immunity for long-terms(may be for lifetime) in comparison to the birds who are never treated for canker. And so I mentioned afterwards that still in spite of that immunity birds develop canker when in stress the canker causing organism rapidly grow and get the bird sick. 
So it is necessary for bird to treat for canker before releasing him even asap so it could go in wild with strong immunity and so the chances will be less for him to be caught by canker. 

Thanks for correcting Jay


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Treating for canker just knocks it down is all. When sick or stressed the trchomonad levels go up, which causes canker. When you medicate for it, it just knocks the levels back down again. But trich is always there, and if sick or stressed will come back. 
But it would be very helpful to treat this bird for it before releasing.
If a bird with canker isn't treated, then it may often die. Very common in pigeons, especially babies.


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

OK if it so then I wonder why breeders treat their whole for canker before breeding season?


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Because breeding is very stressful for the parents, which makes the trich level go up. They then pass on too many to their babies when they feed them, and the babies get canker. 
It's good to pass on some, which of course they do, but being stressed brings up the levels and the babies get too many. They don't want that too happen, so they treat them first, to knock down the levels of trich.


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

Yeah everything valid. So people treat parents to knock down trichs level and so they pass less numbers of trichs to chicks and so... 
chicks develop their natural immunity for trichs and thus have lesser chances of canker??? 

I don't know but I have read it somewhere, will try to find the link and paste. I got this a valid reason too to treat the flock for canker before breeding starts.


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

OK this was the link which talks about some natural immunity build up to young birds after flock treatment before breeding :

www.melbournebirdvet.com/common-pigeon-disease-amp-treatments.aspx


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Have read that before. Yes, it's good to let the babies build natural resistance. It's always good. But if the breeder has had canker problems in their loft, then they prefer to knock down the trich before they breed, rather than to have babies getting sick. Some never have canker problems, or seldom, and so they don't.
If you treat the breeders before breeding, they still have trich and will pass some on to the babies. But they will have safer and lower levels. Less chance of the babies getting sick.


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

Yes that I wanted to say


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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

Can you guys help?
Little guy was doing fine till this morning. He can't seem to open his eyes, keeps opening and closing his mouth and isn't squeaking at all


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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

*Help! sick pigeon*

Baby pigeon was doing fine till today.
Now keeps leaning its head back and keeps its eyes closed and keeps opening and closing it's mouth and isn't making any sound.
What could be wrong??


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

You didn't reply back? What are you feeding him? How is his droppings? Is he willing to eat or drink? 
Any other symptoms do you notice? 
Do head feathers seem like my baby pigeon or different? 
You needed to have a close look as asked for but where were you?


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

Request you to pls stick to your old ongoing thread else people won't be able to understand the case history. 

Thanks


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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

kiddy said:


> You didn't reply back? What are you feeding him? How is his droppings? Is he willing to eat or drink?
> Any other symptoms do you notice?
> Do head feathers seem like my baby pigeon or different?
> You needed to have a close look as asked for but where were you?


Was busy forgot about the thread?
Only feeding him peas, his poop is green and kinda watery, didn't seem willing to drink when i tried but didnt want to make him drown, they're different, sort of short and a spot on his head looks rough and crustyish? But it's been like that since i found him


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

If these were different and unusual, bird should have been treated for canker. 
If he isn't drinking, you should try to dip his beak (not nostrils) in water bowl so that he could try to drink. 
How many peas are you giving him and how many times? 
Wanted to ask if he is getting proper nutrition or under fed? 
You are hand feeding him, right? 
Can you manage to get metronidazole as said earlier? 
If he seems weak give him some warm sugar water to gain strength.


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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

kiddy said:


> If these were different and unusual, bird should have been treated for canker.
> If he isn't drinking, you should try to dip his beak (not nostrils) in water bowl so that he could try to drink.
> How many peas are you giving him and how many times?
> Wanted to ask if he is getting proper nutrition or under fed?
> ...


Hand feeding twice a day but did three yesterday. 40 peas the first time and 20 the other two. I'll try to give him water


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

He's probably dying from not being treated for canker. He needs treatment.


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## florettes (Jul 5, 2015)

I don't knoq, he doesn't have any sores in his mouth, his symptoms sound like Paramyxovirus from what i've read


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Fine....................so let him die while you try to figure out what he has.
Canker doesn't have to show in the mouth.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

florettes said:


> Baby pigeon was doing fine till today.
> Now keeps leaning its head back and keeps its eyes closed and keeps opening and closing it's mouth and isn't making any sound.
> What could be wrong??


Sounds like it may be dying? What happened? how old?


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Yup saw your description on other thread and that sounds like he is taking his last few gasps, what the hell is going on??? This thread is long, seems like u are ignoring good advice as to treatment, if we say treat for canker and you argue u see no canker, WHICH by the way does not have to be seen, they all have it from parents and when immune is down from being stressed it multiplies within the body, the crop and internal organs so u wont SEE any in the mouth, doesnt mean he doesnt have it, so when given advice, it is prudent to take it and follow it, as collectively we on this site, have TONS of experience. Hope this is not all in vane. Good luck.


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## kiddy (Feb 5, 2015)

florettes said:


> I don't knoq, he doesn't have any sores in his mouth, his symptoms sound like Paramyxovirus from what i've read


Pls.. He will die while you try to figure out. Canker can be anywhere in body. Here is a link on canker :

www.melbournebirdvet.com/common-pigeon-disease-amp-treatments.aspx

Treat him for canker now pls if you can get the medicine. 
Else he will die soon being untreated. 
People telling you are expert here. 
Pmv is not like this, pls read it in future whenever you want but let him live now and treat fast.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

He may have other things going on, but canker is one of them. 
For a while you even forgot to get back to the thread. Maybe you are not so serious about helping him if you have to buy medicine for him?
You are arguing because of what you have read. We are giving advice based on experience.
If you were close I would just take him and treat him myself.


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