# Young houseguests back to the wild...How??



## sunsettractor (May 28, 2005)

Hello all, it has been quite a while since my last visit here. We live in a desert community in california and I guess you could say we are bird nuts. we share our home with a variety of featherd friends, two cockatoos, a sun conure, several pacific parrotlets, a large flock of parakeets and timmy, the zebra finch. We have feeders and water for our many outside friends as well. Over the years we have taken in many of our little friends that have needed help in some way, and released them after they recover. Most of them have been house finches that lost their parents. Recently one of our kids living in anaheim ca, told us about two baby pigeons who were abandoned at their apartment building due to painting or pest control, I cant recall exactly why, but the parents flew away and left these two little guys that could'nt fly to fend for themselves. Our son had caught the two babys and made a box home for them but did'nt really know how to care for them, so my wife drove down to anaheim and brought the two little birds to our home, fearing they would die if someone didnt help them. We allways have some kaytee exact hand feeding formula on hand, and these little ones took right to it. My Wife was given some advise on this site I believe about curing the bug problem these babies had, and it appears the birds and my (our) den are clean and bug free. The little ones have grown up fast, and although they still enjoy a nightly spoon feeding of the exact, they are eating a quality wild bird seed blend, and plenty of fresh water and are wanting to get out and use their new ever growing wings. We would like your advise though, as to what would be a good way to prepare them for releasing ? There are many flocks of pigeons in the area who frequently visit our yard, I dont think it would be hard for these two to find a flock to join, I just would like to be sure these two could take care of themselves till they found a flock. They cant keep living in the den, we have a 6x6x9 ft long outside flight cage for our cockatoo we were thinking about putting them in, but that would have to be temporary as starbuck the cockatoo gets rather uncivilized if he cant go outside and blow off his energy. So about how much time should we expect to have these young guests before they are ready and more inportantly , Able to take care of themselves ? We are concerned about them being safe and happy,and would really appreciate any help and advise that would lead to a smooth transition to a free life for them, Thanks in advance...Tom & Kandi.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Tom and Kandi....thanks for your sincere concern for these two little ones. We do have some members who can give you pointers on releasing these little guys back into thier feral life. I'm just not one of them. LOL.
I don't see anyone on line right now specifically that could help, but the members come and go, so if you don't get a response right away, check back. If you haven't seen it already, here's a thread with some info that may be of use to you. Good luck. 

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=10874


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