# Is it normal for baby pigeons to breathe from mouth



## Nancruise (Sep 17, 2017)

A pigeon laid two eggs ( one egg on one day and the second egg the next day) in the flowerpot of my balcony . Both of the eggs hatched exactly on the 17th day. Everything was fine , then one day I started noticing that the younger one was breathing heavily from mouth . After two days , when the younger one was 10 days old I saw that he still was breathing from mouth and was trying to stand up and sit down ( he was doing this frequently ) . In the evening when her mother came , both the babies desperately tried to get under her and the mother pigeon was trying to keep her balance . In all the chaos the younger one's neck came under the mother's feet and his neck twitched . As soon as the mother pigeon put herself aside , the younger one rose and then suddenly fell backward and he was dead . It was all of a sudden !!! 
This has shattered me completely as it was a joy to see those little pigeons grow up . I just wanted to know if that little pigeon died due to some illness or because of his mother .The older one is fine but sometimes he also breathes from mouth so I get worried . The problem is that when his parents are around , they won't let us go near the babies and when they leave the little one alone overnight , then the little one gets scared when he see us around .


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Oh, that _is_ sad. I'm sorry for the little on. Sounds like he was sick and having problems breathing, then if Mom was cutting off his air supply, it probably finished him off. 
If one was sick the other may be also. There are some things the parents can pass on to the babies, like salmonella, or e-coli, and the babies will die and don't live many days after hatching. Could also be that the parents are infected with canker and are passing it on to the babies. That is treatable, but would need to handle the baby to check for that. If that be the case, then the parents should also be treated. How old is the baby now?


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## Nancruise (Sep 17, 2017)

The baby is now 14 days old . His sibling died 3 days ago . The next day after that incident , I saw the older one was breathing from mouth too but today he looked better , though sometimes opening his mouth to breathe . Can it heal naturally ?
One more thing I wanted to ask , did the mom deliberately cut off his air supply ? I mean can a mother pigeon do this to his own child ? 
The parent's look healthy but his father has some problem in one of his feet . One of his fingers is not there . He generally stands on his one feet due to pain I guess .


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

No, I don't think she did it on purpose. They would be more likely to toss it out of the nest if not wanted. The parents looking healthy doesn't matter. They can have illness and it not show. No.................if sick they will not get better without treatment.
The parent with the bad foot may have hair or string wrapped around it. Could have cut off the circulation and lost the toe. The hair or string could still be there and embedded in the skin. If that be the case then he needs help to get it off, or he could even lose the foot.


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Can you post a photo of dads foot?


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## Nancruise (Sep 17, 2017)

I tried but every time I go near him , he fly away !


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