# Hand feeding pigeons.



## Keith C. (Jan 25, 2005)

I thought I would share a few pictures I took tonight of my girlfriend hand feeding a baby pigeon.
This pigeon is called Ulyt, short for Ugly Little Yellow Thing.
She has been handfeeding it since it was about 4 or 5 days old.
She grinds up feed in a coffee mill, adds some water and microwaves it until it is slightly warm.
She has had a lot of lucking getting young pigeons to eat on their own, while she holds them, at only a week or so old.
Ulyt is a white homer cross.


----------



## Keith C. (Jan 25, 2005)

Ulyt after eating.


----------



## rririe (Jan 21, 2010)

So Keith, that is truly amazing, that bird at that age is picking at that food on it's own! Not being force fed or hand fed, just eating away. Wow that is cool. The food looks similar to what I eat for breakfast. Thanks for sharing that. Will have to keep that in mind when trouble starts in the nest! Randy


----------



## Keith C. (Jan 25, 2005)

She has been hand feeding Ulyt since last Wedneday, when I picked him up.
I purchased his parents and Ulyt would have starved if left. 
Ulyt is just starting to turn white. When we brought him home he was about half the size and only had down.


----------



## sreeshs (Aug 16, 2009)

Those are good photos for reference too, is this the same method from the start ? Was the squab fed the same way when it was 4-5 days old or switched to bowl feed after some more days ?


----------



## Keith C. (Jan 25, 2005)

This one ate from the bowl right from the start. 
Diane, my girlfriens, fed some homers, back in January, from the a hole cut in the tip of a finger, cut off of plastic glove, for a few days, before switching them to a bowl.
I think we will try the mash in the bowl first from now on.
I have hand fed a lot of pigeons by holding the beak open and placing seeds in the back of the throat, alternated with dribbles of water at the tip of the beak.
The mash in the bowl works much better.
The mash digests well and the squabs really put on a lot of weight and grow fast.


----------



## sreeshs (Aug 16, 2009)

Could you share the recipe of the mash please, for information ?


----------



## Keith C. (Jan 25, 2005)

This mash has wild bird seed, dog food, oatmeal, wheat whole corn and water in it.
Here is a link to my website that has some more pictures and a description.


----------



## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Keith C. said:


> She has been hand feeding Ulyt since last Wedneday, when I picked him up.
> I purchased his parents and Ulyt would have starved if left.
> Ulyt is just starting to turn white. When we brought him home he was about half the size and only had down.



I'm glad you took him and glad you are feeding him. I just don't understand why you couldn't have waited to pick them up after he was weaned. It makes me very sad for them.


----------



## Keith C. (Jan 25, 2005)

This is Diane, reading the thread Keith put up.

Initially, I did have to push my finger in the mash to one side of the beak as he kept shaking his head back and forth begging for food from "mom", but now Ulyt is just slurping it down. The ulyts aren't going straight for the bowl on the first try, but take to it pretty quickly. This little guy is doing really well, and is starting to peck at the mash a little. I'll be trying hard seed in a couple of days.

For dribbling water, I like to use a small plastic syringe with no needle (you can get these at a pet store or somesuch). You need to make sure the plunger moves smoothly so you have a nice steady drip, and not a geyser which could drown the bird. The first syringe I used was a little stiff on the plunger, and would stick, then suddenly release (hence geyser...).

You can warm cold Ulyts by holding them in your hands if you have the patience to hold something for 15 minutes. Me, I took a piece of polar fleece and some yarn, fashioned a little pocket, and wear the birds next to my skin.

Currently, Ulyt resides in an empty half-gallon ice cream container, cushioned by paper towels which act like a diaper, and covered by a single layer of paper towel, which is keeping his heat in nicely. Ulyts must be kept warm and dry!! I had tried the polar fleece pocket, but that was cramping the legs. Ulyt is starting to poke his little head out of the container when it's feeding time, and his legs are doing great!!
Diane


----------



## Keith C. (Jan 25, 2005)

Charis, the man I got him from got rid of all of his pigeons. I do not think was not going to wait on one squab, he was using them for meat.


----------



## RodSD (Oct 24, 2008)

Thanks for the tip. The bird must be pretty smart and the handler (your girlfriend) is probably pretty good.


----------



## cvarnon (Mar 8, 2010)

I always switch to some kind of bowl feeding at about a week old. Typically I feed them from a paper cup with a whole in the bottom, but often they will eat from the top too. I don't like doing it when they are younger because they can aspirate themselves too easily.

All the chicks I have hand raised will drink water from a bowl as soon as they have control of their head. You can't leave a water bowl in with them though, or they will constantly fill themselves with water, but its useful if you just want to give them a bit.

I did have one batch of chicks that would eat solid food from a bowl... but not in the way you would want. They would submerge their head completely in food and suck it down like it were a liquid. I had to take the food away from them because they were seriously eating too much too fast, their crops looked like they were going to rupture. I just put the bowls in so they could start pecking at it a little bit... but they went insane with it. They would seriously eat a day's worth of food in 30 seconds.


----------



## c.hert (Jan 15, 2010)

The easiest way for me to feed babies after you get them to understand that it is food after I make own mash as well is by a spoon--a very light one---and I just sit there and let the beak go into the mash and as you know it does not take long for them to eat it and enjoy it and when you switch to seed--using the same spoon they begin to peck at the spoon eating the seed--I guess everybody has their own technique and I just like to sit down and enjoy the bird eating and dribbling a little water too if the crop feels too hard---its a lot of work every few hours but its a wonderful feeling too especially as the little ones grow....c.hert


----------



## cvarnon (Mar 8, 2010)

Oh yeah, on the topic of babies eating on their own, this might be a good place to mention that I have had chicks, eat their bedding.

For a few days I used a shredded paper clump tyle substrate. Think of mulch, but made from paper. It was suggested by an avian vet as something with a little better traction that paper towels for the nest bowls as I was showing some initial signs of splaying.
Well one of my chicks was eating it, at only five or so days old. It was pretty tough to get that out of its crop. It is non-toxic and digestible, but probably wasn't going to do much good in the crop of a very young bird. 

So yeah... very young chicks will eat on their own... all sorts of things.


----------



## YaSin11 (Jul 23, 2009)

Ulyt! hahaha. Great pics, and good to learn the method. I hope this 'ulyt' does well, good luck


----------

