Found - Tame juvenile topknot pidgeon? Help with feeding and care requested

[pcgirl]

Hi everyone.

Hopefully someone out there can identify this little fellow (girl) for me and tell me at what stage of development s/he is at.

We were walking along Glenelg beach front (South Australia, Australia) when my husband pointed to something right next to me. As someone who tends to want to touch birds all the time (love my birdies) I put my hand out to see if it would let me touch it. What do you know, but it sat on my finger quite willingly and made itself at home on my wrist.

I of course couldn't just put it back (cats, dogs, kids etc) so off it went with me on our walk around the area. It ended up perched on my wrist, but sitting just under my armpit. It was pretty windy and this seemed to shield it from the worst.

It then travelled by car to another beach close by - sat next to my husband on a shoe for half an hour, then travelled home with us by car. 45 minutes later it's sitting quite contently in my "medicine" cage. (I've had budgies on and off for years - but never had to hand rear)

Later than night, I went on a mad search for food and water ideas, approximate age and breed.

I was quite surprised when I got up this morning and found it alive, well and alert!

Health wise, it seems fine. No injuries and will allow any of my family to hold and pet. We managed to get a tiny amount of water into it using a syringe. but I didn't get any food into it. It seems eager to feed (will peck but not pick anything up) and half the time will try to feed by sliding it's beak along the side of the syringe..

Can anyone please tell me what the breed is, and approximate age. By looking around, I think it's somewhere around 3 - 4 weeks, as there are no real baby feathers and the tail feathers are short but there. There are no feathers under the wings.

I want to go out today and get what I need as in food and equipment, but I definately don't want to buy the wrong thing.

Please help.

Mandy in Australia

[Reti]

Hi mandy and welcome to Pigeon-Talk.
What a sweet little baby you've found there.
It looks like some kind of dove and a very young one, but not baby.
S/he should be start eating in a short time but for now you have to feed her. I don't know if the pet stores in your area sell baby bird formula, but my guess is they would. You can purchase that and mix it with water and feed her via syringe. Also offer her small seeds, dove seeds preferable.
offer her water in a bowl and if she is not drinking give her by syringe every few hours.
Hopefully someone can help us figure out the exact breed and then we can do a search for her diet.

Reti

[Lin Hansen]

Hi Mandy,

Welcome to Pigeon Talk. And thank you for helping out this needy bird.

I don't think that I myself can be of much help to you at the moment, but I wanted to reply to you to tell you to hang on, we have many knowledgeable members who should be along shortly to advise you.

I'm not sure if you have a baby there or not...I'm not seeing any of the typical yellow "fluff" that you usually see. But, if this is a bird who cannot yet feed itself, you can pick up baby bird formula at a pet store, such as Kaytee Exact and click on the link below to see different methods you can use for feeding:
http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=9682

It seems encouraging that the bird knows how to peck, so you could continue to offer seed....but if the bird is not getting any significant amount of food that way, you would probably be better off feeding with formula.

Incidentally, unless this is a certain type of pigeon that's native to Australia that I'm not familiar with, this bird sort of looks like a dove to me....but I could be wrong!

In any case, like I said, please hang in there, I'm sure you'll be getting helpful responses soon.

Thanks again,
Linda

[TAWhatley]

Hi Mandy and welcome to Pigeon-Talk! How nice of you and your husband to rescue that lovely little bird. It looks like a dove to me as opposed to a pigeon .. in fact .. I'm pretty sure it is a dove of some type. I'm not familiar with what kinds of native doves you have in Australia, but given the tameness of this one, I think you've got yourself a lovely new pet bird. I'll check around and see if I can ID the type of dove or perhaps another member here can do so more quickly.

It does look like a young bird and perhaps isn't self feeding yet. I'd start with some smaller seeds like finch, parakeet, or canary as opposed to true dove or pigeon mix which will have seeds that are too large for this youngster. If it's not eating even small seeds yet, then you will need a baby bird formula like Kaytee Exact, L&M, or whatever brands are sold in Australia for baby hookbills .. those will work fine for baby doves and pigeons.

Will be back in a bit after checking for what types of doves are found in your part of the world.

Terry

PS: A cage would need to be more wide than high for a dove or a pigeon .. big enough to them to extend their wings and flap without hitting the sides.

[TAWhatley]

LOL! We're all typing at the same time, and I see it's three votes for dove!

Terry

[pcgirl]

Wow, that was quick!

I'm off to the local pet store, as they say they have some rearing mix. I've got a big syringe somewhere, so I'll try that too.. Well, I'll try to anyway - I might have a fight with my daughter as to who feeds it. LOL (she's 11)

I'll check back later and tell you all how I went.

Mandy

PS We are building a large bird cage for our budgies - would a dove get along with budgies? I know that budgies can be quite aggressive and have seen them pick on cockatiels.

[Pigeonpal2002]

Hi PCgirl,

It almost looks like a juvenile white winged dove. They are not indigenous of your country but I'm wondering if they sell them in petstores there. Each country seem to be allowed to sell birds that aren't inhabitants of one's own country. Perhaps this was an escapee of someone's home in that area that breeds or raises them.

I looked at the different species of doves of Australia and nothing seems to match this young one in colouration. The pictures you provided don't seem to look exactly like what a juvenile white winged dove would look like either.

In any case, here's a link to a picture of an adult white winged dove:

http://www.birdsofoklahoma.net/Wwdove.htm

[Reti]

The coloring might change when they mature, so it could be what you suggested, Brad.

Reti

[TAWhatley]

I've posted one of the pictures to doves-pigeons to ask there what type of dove this is. There are people from all over the world on that list and several here in the US that will probably know at a glance.

Terry

[pdpbison]

Hi pcgirl,



Yes, I too would say this is for sure a 'Dove'.

Looks to be on a similar scale to the Mourning Doves we have here, if possibly a little larger than they are at that age.

A youngster, too I would say, just as you supposed...


Now, most all Wild Doves are of course quite skittish about letting anyone near them, unless they had been either someone's pet, or possibly hand raised and released, or, if rarely, if seriously ill.

Yours does seem somewhat less than vivid to me, so I would be concerned about whether is ill or injured in some way...or, if possibly she had undergone prolongued privations maybe.

Would you describe for us whatever poops there are so far? How many in what time-period, what color, consistancy?

Lastly, if this little Dove will drink, it might be worth while to have them on a simple electrolyte-water for starters, and you can make this easily by dissolving a good pijcn of regular Table Salt, and one of regular Sugar, into a medium size Glass of Water, and for the Dove to have for drinking out of, find some inch-and-a-quarter or so deep flat bottomed little Custard Baking cup or similar, for it to be both deep enough for their Beak, and stable enough not to tip if they should stand on it's lip...

If you can get some Goji-Berry or Dark Cherry juice or extract, not sweet kinds but Health Food Store kinds sold in small Bottled...add this to her Water also.


Let us know on the poops?


Seed wise, yes, 'Finch Seed', 'Canary Seed'...would be good choices for her...


Best wishes!

Phil
Las Vegas

[pcgirl]

Hi everyone,

What an effort! I went out and got some grainivore hand rearing mix and the little birdy managed to spray it everywhere. I'm all sticky, my daughter is all sticky - but I managed to get approx 5mm down. The crop is all nice and soggy feeling now.

I tried the baggy feed, the syringe feed type, even a peice of foil shaped like a narrow thin scoop, but ended up forcing it down the little ones throat. I used a syringe with a piece of tubing on it and made sure I got it right to the back of the beak. It was so hard, as I was trying not to hurt the poor little thing.

I'll give the little thing a bit of a break and feed it a bit later before we go out. I'm hoping it will get used to what is food - I've also got 2 dishes now for it to try and feed from.

Soggy in Australia.

PS Oh - a bit more info. You can't see it in the photos, but the under-feathers in the tail are black and white. This might help with finding out what it is.

[Feather]

At first glance I thought of the Inca Dove as well. But I am not familiar with doves from other countries. Cynthia always rescues these little Wood Doves. Do they look simular????? I don't know! It will be interesting to find out what kind of dove he is. He's adorable...I know that.

Feather

[pcgirl]

Whoops - didn't see the post about water and poops until after posting.

There are 2 pictures here showing the bottom of the bird cage that she stayed in last night. What you see are all of them during a 10 hour stay. While feeding, there were a couple of small ones - but she hadn't eaten since we found her. I'll change the paper now and see what happens next.

She can fly - proved that when we left her sitting on top of the cage. Walked away for about 10 minutes and there she was - sitting on top of the highest cupboard across the room! Didn't try to run away when I reached up for her. Just calmly hopped on my finger when I touched her underneath.

She's inquisitive and alert. Fought me a little when feeding, but was quite content to just look at me funny when I was preparing to grab her again. LOL

Mandy

[pdpbison]

Hi Mandy,


Well, those poops would seem to indicate that she had not been suffering privations prior to your finding her...!

If it were me I definitely would not be trying to force feed this Dove.

Rather, showing them considerable gentleness and casual ease, I would simply let them have a nice little Bowl ( low shallow Bowl or small Jar lid ) of appropriate Seeds, and, likely, some sort of Grit also, which any Pet Shop should have on hand.

And, pending more info on what sort of Dove this is and whether they are known to eat particular Fruits and Greens and so on, just see if she will eat of her own with some privacy, calm, qiuet surrounds, and haveing her Seeds before her in the privacy of her own Cage, even having the Cage 3/4 draped if need be so she feels it is 'safe' to eat with no one watching...

Have a definite idea how much Seed her little Bowl contains, and you will know well enough if she is eating them.

If you are seeing 35 to 45 poops in 24 hours, she is definitely eating plenty.

If you use a light colored close weave cloth for her Cage bottom, it will be preferable to newspaper both for her comfort, it's absorbancy, and for keeping an eye on the poops and their color.

I take it we are seeing "white" in the poops, and not 'yellow'?


Best wishes!

Phil
Las Vegas

[TAWhatley]

Yep, them's some very fine looking poops! I agree with Phil about seeing if this one isn't totally capable of self feeding and drinking before force feeding. I think you just might have a very healthy youngster there that just happens to be a bit human friendly

One of the first guesses from the doves-pigeons list was brown cuckoo dove:
http://www.birdphotos.com.au/browncuckoodoveweb/

Terry