Help -- Baby Pigeon Won't Open Its Mouth

[CaroleLee]

Hello,

I'm new here. A baby pigeon was blown onto our balcony during high winds yesterday. I'm trying to feed it but it won't open its mouth. When I force its mouth open it struggles hard and I'm afraid of hurting it. Last night I found a recipe on the internet for baby pigeon food: chicken baby food plus a little plain yogurt, egg yolk, and tiny drop of oil. Baby pigeon doesn't like it but I managed to get some down it. I was surprised when it was still alive this morning. I gave it more food but it was a real struggle. Someone at work suggested that perhaps it doesn't like the flavor of the food so at lunchtime I soaked a wholemeal biscuit in warm water and gave it some of that. Same thing -- awful struggle to get the beak open but eventually some went down.

I have questions:
How can I persuade the bird to open its mouth?
Do they all struggle?
Which part is the crop? Is it the small pouch directly under the chin or is it all of that flabby skin between the beak and the chest? (in order to make sure the crop is 3/4 full, I need to know exactly which part the crop is.)
Do I need to give extra water (I made the food runny)
If so, should the water be warm or room temperature?

I looked at the pictures on your website and think that "my" pigeon is 9 or 10 days old.

Hoping to hear from an expert soon.

Carole

[Trees Gray]

Hello and welcome to Pigeons.com

Thank you for helping this youngster who was blown to your door.

You are doing fine, as the babies aren't going to open their beak for you, their mother usually puts their beak inside of hers and regurgitates food to the baby. You can gently rub the beak and put a little food on the beak to generate interest. Yes, all babies struggle to eat, as we humans feed them different then mom and dad.

If the baby is nine days old, it will require alot of food, as it is in a growth spurt. The crop will lay down in front of it,like a tummy when it is full, when baby is in sitting position.

Can you buy some Kaytee Exact baby bird formula? You can get it from a local pet store in your area. It has all the nutrients needed for growth and development. It will give you instructions on how much water to add.

If you go into the daily forum on this web and into resources section that will have various topics on feeding methods for youngsters this age and how to use tube feeder and syringe. Some people use a tube feeder, I have used a syringe to feed baby pigeons this age. You can also cut the tip of a baby bottle nipple and let the baby poke his beak into it and load up on the formula in the bottle.

Others will be along with more information.

Treesa

[Reti]

Hi Carole,

thank you for rescuing this sweet baby pigeons.

He probably is scared of whatever happened to him and yes, most pigeons do struggle when handled. It will need some time for him to realize how lucky he was to land on your balcony and be in your care.

After feeding you should feel the flabby skin above the chest (keel bone)inflate.

If the food is runny, he won't need extra water, but I would suggest to start increasing the consistency of the food.
Also it would be better for him if you purchase from the pet store baby bird formula. One of them is Kaytee Exact, it works pretty well for baby pigeons.
What you fed him is ok if nothing else is available.

You can give some extra water if you think he needs it, but it's not necessary when they are on formula.
The formula should be slightly warm, water can be room temperature.

Good luck with this little one

Reti

[Jiggs]

Hi CA

Don't give up someone will be along shortly to assist you with more experiance than myself but let me share what I know so long maybe it will help. You can start buy using the search option (above) to find other threads about feeding baby pigeons

There are also pictures on this site (or links) showing a full and empty crop. Use the search above

I had to feed my chick at 10 days and it ate itself till mom and dad were fetched. I used the syringe with a cloth over the end method that I found here on this site. pb Bison reccomends a baby's bottle nipple and dip the chicks beak into it.

Water needs to be mixed in with the food as they do not drink and would need it to be in their food as mom and dad would give it water with the food.

I hope this helps and do not stop asking questions if you need help as someone always does help here. If you can supply a picture or at least the species of dove/pigeon as that will help other people give advice on the food mix!

EDITED - I see we were all replying at the same time so there you now have some more info - please keep us informed of progress as it is always exiting to know how things are going

[CaroleLee]

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone. I didn't expect any replies so soon!

No, I can't get the Kaytee stuff because I live in
Saudi Arabia and there are no pet shops here.

Treesa said that the baby bird needs a lot of food at this age -- could you
please give me some kind of rough guide to how much
that might be per meal? I'm feeding him four times a
day.

It's difficult dealing with something so small and
fragile. I hope it doesn't die.

Carole

[Trees Gray]

Hello, and thank you for being so caring for this baby.

If the baby is 9 to 10 days, it should be eating about 15 ml's or cc's at a sitting, 4 times per day, at 2 weeks of age it would eat 20cc's or ml's.

Continue with the baby food and egg for now, and tiny bit of yogurt for now.

Treesa

[John_D]

Hi Carole,

They can be squirmy little birds

No guarantees, but one method of feeding a baby pigeon or dove which has been quite successful is the 'syringe method'. It simulates how pigeons feed the young, i.e. taking the baby's beak into their own rather than baby gaping like most birds.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pi...nge_method.htm

One of the pics shows more or less where the crop is. In the 2nd pic of finger pointing to crop, you can see the difference after he was fed. Just needs to be squidgy full rather than hard.

If you can get him to take formula, he will not need any extra water. Kaytee Exact for all baby birds is what we tend to use. We get it from Pets-at-home (or Petsmart - depends what it's called where you are)

Baby needs a quiet, warm place - maybe with something soft to lie on.

Cheers

John (UK)

[CaroleLee]

Thanks Treesa for the quantities. I will make sure he eats 15 ml tonight.

do you know how I can find the photos of full/empty crops that Jiggs mentioned? I tried using "search" but couldn't find them.

Carole

[Jiggs]

Just hold on I will post a pic here, I just need to go and find it.
There is also another lady from Saudi that is a member here, I will find her name and you can e-mail her as she should have some help there in terms of foodstuffs in Saudi etc

[Trees Gray]

Here are some baby pigeon threads to click onto:

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=9918

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=9500

http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/showthread.php?t=9682

Treesa

[Lin Hansen]

Welcome CaroleLee,

I copied and pasted from a previous thread for this...this was information provided by our moderator Mary, to show the difference between a full crop and an empty crop.
------------------------------------------------------------------
"And here you see the crop of the pigeon on the right is empty and on the left his sibling just got fed and notice the full crop! "
http://community.webshots.com/photo...147164212pyMJMc
------------------------------------------------------------------
Also, here is a link you can click on which gives instructions and day by day amounts to feed baby pigeons:
http://www.internationaldovesociety...feedinghelp.htm

The second link is located in our Pigeon Daily forum, under Resources...there are many other useful threads you may want to check out in that section.

Good luck and thanks for helping this baby.

Linda

[Jiggs]

I finally found the web page I used as reference it has GREAT pics of the feeding of a chick as well as full and empty crops

Thank you Cynthia Roberts, I am sure it will help Carol Ann as well.

http://www.urbanwildlifesociety.org/...j&DuvFeedg.htm

There is a member here who lives in Saudi - melissasue1968 - go to her profile and possibly youcan e-mail her and she can help you out with pigeon food there as it seems a plan has to be made there as you cannot buy in shops

[melissasue1968]

Hi Carole! I was trying to send you a private message, but it was too long !!! So I e-mailed it to you! I hope everything is going well with the baby! Keep us posted!
Yours, Melissa

[melissasue1968]

That's an excellent link Jiggs! It really helps to make it clear seeing the pictures. Check out that link Jiggs posted Carole! It's great!
Melissa

[Feefo]

Thank you Cynthia Roberts, I am sure it will help Carol Ann as well.

LOL, I didn't even know that was there but they have made a really good job of it. Much better than my webshots.

Cynthia