found baby- how do i clean him correctly

[Trees Gray]

Here is one good thread about pigeon poop:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=11637

[lmchihal]

i have tried the shot glass and "pecking" with him. he is now flying small distances aroung the room. i have tried the shot glass with water also. the only time i have see him really drink is when he is bathing. i am at my wits end. i have a wedding this weekend out of town and the baby won't even eat unless i am in the room. i have had other people try to feed him but no matter how hungry his is he will not eat for them. i really want to be able to see my friend get married but i don't want the baby to go hungry either. if he gets hungry enough will he eat? i just don't know what else to do.

[Victor]

Originally Posted by lmchihal

i have a wedding this weekend out of town and the baby won't even eat unless i am in the room. i have had other people try to feed him but no matter how hungry his is he will not eat for them. i really want to be able to see my friend get married but i don't want the baby to go hungry either. if he gets hungry enough will he eat? i just don't know what else to do.

Hi Imchihal~He is getting more self-sufficient now. As long as you provide deep dishes for food and water he will be fine, and will eat as long as it is there. As long as he will be on a cage of sorts while you are away he will be fine. Go enjoy the wedding and let us know how he did...and the wedding too.

[Larry_Cologne]

Hello Imchihal,

I you have observed the pigeon drinking before taking a bath, then you know that he will not die of thirst if water is available.

If they get enough liquid in their food, they may not always drink a lot. When my Wieteke lived indoors, sometimes I would see him drinking a lot, and other times it seemed he had little interest in water.

I always made sure he had fresh water available. If you are gone, see if someone can watch over him, if possible.

We rescued our first baby pigeons, Pidgiepoo ("Vanilla" originally, and Chocolate, who died after 13 days) in April 2004. We went somewhere for a week-end (Friday afternoon to Sunday evening: two nights) in mid-June, and had a teenage girl aspiring to be a vet, and the building caretaker check in on Pidgiepoo several times a day.

The caretaker reported that Pidgiepoo was always waiting at the door (and all of his poops were at the door), even though Pidgiepoo would roam the atelier (artist's studio) when we were there.

We took him home Sunday evening. Not a peep from him then, not a peep Monday.

I quote from my computer log entry for that day (some details added later for clarity):

"Vanilla Dove is approximately two months old now, and has been with us since April 30th. Her sibling died on May 13th. Vanilla Dove was at the door of the atelier every time the Pfortner Hr. Biss checked on her. Vanilla Dove didn’t peep for two days after we returned, She flew off the table where she had slept in her tray until now, and came to the bed where she slept near my shoulder. Hilde didn’t want Vanilla Dove to sleep on the bed, but I said that maybe she had certain needs that we don’t know about. She was touching my waist when I woke. At first I thought she wanted warmth, but then I realized she wanted contact for a while."

(She later turned out to be a he).

Your pigeon probably will need company of some caring human, or some other pigeons around, if that is possible. (Don't know your set-up).

If that is not possible, see to it that he has several water sources available (even if he poops in a frying pan with an inch or so of water in it, there is still enough water available).

Be sure someone has a spare key to your place, if possible, and a back-up plan. What if you have an emergency and can't get back for several days, or a week?

Make sure the pigeon can't get into any cracks or canyons or cul-de-sacs which he can't get out of. Pidgiepoo was chasing a rescue (recuperating from a broken wing, and given to us by a neighbor) around the room and to his surprise found himself at the bottom of a shopping cart (like a small roll-aboard suitcase). I saw him fall in, and had him out in seconds, before what had happened even had time to register with him. (Afterward I reflected that perhaps I should have left him in for around a minute, so that he might learn something from the experience). I had several pigeons in our apartment since Pidgiepo flew away, and no such incidents happened with them.

I had a recent rescue, a starving, sick pigeon weighing 2/3 normal weight. To me, Gray Eyes indicated, several times, that he wanted to go to a secluded place, to die in peace. (My interpretations might be wrong). I had been holding him while lying on the bed so that his head and eyes were at a level with mine, for eye contact, for close observation, to keep him warm, and to support his head. He nibbled my fingers a few times. I set him down on a towel rolled into the shape of a torus or doughnut for head support (although he was holding his head up on his own for a bit), and went to the computer eight feet away, with my back to him, to research some more on the internet concerning him (I had completed one paragraph of a response to an e-mail from Pidgey). My wife came in four or five minutes later, asked where's the pigeon? and a frantic search ensued. He had fallen into a crevice about an inch-and-a-half wide, too narrow for my hand to reach into without scratching and bruising. I had earlier blocked off the cracks to avoid such a thing, but had overlooked and had not blocked the area under where my head ususally was, since I did not keep him there. A healthy pigeon could not have gotten into that crevice; only a very emaciated one could have, and only with some effort. He could not breathe, and thus came to his life's end. We were devastated.

Human habitations are seldom "pigeon-proof" or "pigeon-safe" or even "child-proof."

Two days ago I looked at a pigeon my wife earlier spotted who had strangled to death in a bit of some green plastic webbing such as is used for bagging lemons and such in supemarkets. It was wrapped around the shoulder of his left wing, his neck, and kept taut by his right foot. Usually I bury dead pigeons and birds I all-too-often come across, but since this occurred near some recyclng containers, I left him, to be observed by others, hopefully to the benefit of other birds. Someone on these forums said that often pigeons tangle in material they are gathering for nests.

It is hard to anticipate everything that may occur in life, and I know of no one who has done so.

Larry

[lmchihal]

thank you for the help. i am a worrying kind of person. i just want what is best for the baby. my friend and boyfriend will be checking on him often. the baby will let my boyfriend hold him so my boyfriend is going to play on the computor and hold him for a while during the day. i just did not want the baby to go hungry. as of now he knows how to peck seeds but seems to not get that he should eat them. thank you for making me feel better about leaving him for a bit.

[Larry_Cologne]

Imchihal,

Are you an Aggie? C'mon, 'fess up.

I went to UT-Austin for a year ('67-'68) and finished at St. Mary's U in San Antonio, Texas.

We have had some Aggies in the family, and in spite of their Texas A&M experiences, they seem to be doing okay. But, your being a worrying type of person would thus be partly explained, as it is a well-founded reason for worrying.

My niece was tops in her A&M class, and wrote her master's thesis on something related to wastewater management, of which I understood not the title nor any of the text, but only the name of the author.

If you could find us a professor interested in birds and pigeons (with more scope than simply raising poultry for eating) it would be interesting.

Best of luck with your pidgie.

Larry

Okay, just checked your public profile. Texas A&M Equestrian Team. My, my. Fancy way of saying you know how to ride a horse, perhaps better than some. (I'm probably asking for trouble here, but is this another way of saying you don't own a pick-up?)

An old friend of mine from Germany (later former employer, and also present landlord who recently made me evict my apartment pigeon) studied graduate economics for a year at A&M in the mid-seventies, after working and studying in San Antonio, where we met. He was at A&M a few weeks when he called me and said, "Larry, I know there are people in the world like this, but I had never before been around them. They are [fanatics]. Everyone stands during the entire football game!" (and other things).

Again, Larry (living in Cologne)

[lmchihal]

yes i am an aggie but not a really fanatic. the traditions are fun and really make the school feel small even though it isn't. my worrying is not aggie related thought. i have always been this way. i do ride horses. i ride english and do show jumping. and no i don't have a truck but my BF does and so i use his.

i will try to find a prof that is interested in pigeons.

ok i have a new question about the baby. he has these tiny, tan, long bodies mites in his feathers, i assume they are plumage lice. i know that there are a lot of sprays and stuff for this. a previous post had a link that said to use chevi-tren. what is this and is it in the sprays? any suggestions on the best way to get rid of them on the baby or the best brand of spray?

[lmchihal]

i am so frustrated. i cannot get this baby to eat seed. i have tried everything. for a while i thought he was eating it but now i think he has just been pushing it around and pushing it under his towel. i have tried mixing a higher percentage each day into his formula. i have tried "pecking" with him. i have tried the shot glass. he pick up the seed but WILL NOT eat it. it is like a toy or maybe he just doesn't get it.
sorry for the rant. i just don't know what to do anymore. i can't spend my entire life feeding him by hand and being scratched, pecked on, and swatted with his wings.

that aside i am now worried about his health. he always squeeks at me but today when i got home he had escaped from his area and created havock. he is now making a honking sound when he squeeks. his is able to breath fine and the sound is only during the squeek. i think it is during the exhale and not the inhale. what do i do about him? Is this a normal growing up change in his voice? i read that in another post but it still worries me.

if the baby is this old shouldn't he be eating on his own by now for goodness sakes?
is it posible that it just looks like he is not eating?
i cut his feedings to encourage him to eat. when i go to feed him his crop is sometimes almost empty. i don't think that he would just not eat if he knew how.

i just need help. this not eating seed think is driving me nuts.

i really like him but i want him to grow up, be healthy, and move away. just like any other child.
any info about the honk would be great and any other tricks about getting him to eat seed would be sooooo great.

[Reti]

The honk is normal, he is growing into a teenager now. Congratulations.
I love it when they honk, it's so cute and funny.
He should be eating on his own by now.
Try not to feed him in the morning, he should be hungry then and maybe will pick up some seeds. He will eventually.
Is he drinking water on his own?

Reti

[Lady Tarheel]

We have a fledgling who is still squeaking but will soon be "honking". We feed him 20 cc in the morning and about 35 cc at night. During the day he has seed and water and has started eating on his own really well. We did try him on one feeding a day (night) but he seemed so hungry that we went back to feeding him in the mornings.

Don't worry, he will start eating on his own and it won't be too long. Just make sure he always has seed available and watch his weight when you're trying to wean him.

[TAWhatley]

Any day now you're going to just about faint when you realize that your little one's crop is CHOCK full of seed and that s/he managed to put all that seed in there all by his/herself. It seems that once they get the hang of it, they go for the gusto until the novelty of self feeding wears off. Actually, you do need to pay attention when that most eagerly awaited day arrives to be sure the young bird is also drinking sufficient water and that the crop empties and doesn't become impacted.

The honking is quite normal .. I have a lovely and tame youngster now that I call Donkey Bird because s/he sounds a whole lot like a donkey braying

Terry

[lmchihal]

thanks for the info. i have been feeding him fewer times a day to encourage him to try the seed. i have seen him drink when taking a bath but not when in his area. i am sure he know where the water is so if he is thirsty he will drink. thanks for letting me know the honk is normal. when you are not expecting something and it happens out of nowhere it can scare the crud out on you. he baby is doing well otherwise. i am treating his feather mites and he is maintaining his weight fairly well with the fewer feedings.
thanks again for letting me know that he is alright and that i am doing things correctly.

[lmchihal]

the baby is feeding himself. he is no longer even interested in me feeding him. i am so glad that i don't have to worry any more.

ok it can't be all happy. now i have to figure out what do do with him. i was hoping to return him to a flock but he loves people. he will fly to anyone. i worry that he might do this out in the world and get into a lot of trouble. i know he needs companions.
are there people that have others that would want a feral?
i hope so. i just want him to have the best life he can. i guess it is about time to post him for adoption.
does anyone have suggestions about where not to place him? other than to make sure i meet the people and see where he will be kept. i know to ask lots of questions. i have placed dogs before but i guess i worry more about him. there aren't many shelters for abused pigeons. any advice would be great.

[Reti]

Sounds like he is not releasable.
I would suggest to post in our adoption section and see who responds.

Reti

[feralpigeon]

Imchihal, can't tell you how much I've enjoyed reading this thread . I guess
just some of the issues that come up.....many have had....these are just such
fun characters to get to know. He sounds like a kick. If you can resist keeping
him yourself, and you can't find anyone locally, I'm sure he'll find a home thru
our adoption section.

fp