I found a Pigeon, but don't know the age.

[BrnToRide90]

I found a pigeon that fell out of its nest in our barn. He is still very yound and his stomach is still bare of feathers. I am currently keeping him on old clothes with a heating pad under them, making a nest. I have gotten him to eat, but I still don't know how he is. Our barn pigeons range form white with spots to mostly black, and everywhere in between. I am nto sure which one was the mother of him, but his nest was covered with snow when he fell out of it, right in fornt of us. We have had him for a few days, and he is doing well, but I have not seen a picture of a pigeon on this site that even looks slightly like him. I cannot send a picture at the moment because we are all otu of film. He has taken a liking ot us, and we have him in a safe environment. He was not afraid of us when we brought him into the house, and our feeding technique has worked on another bird before. I am not entirely sure how old he is, but he has yellow feathers coming out, his wings are almost fully feathered, he is missing feathers on his stomach and under his wings though. Can anybody help me out? Thanks a lot.

[re lee]

At a guess I would say 10 days old. You could look at the nests. And most often 2 young birds will be in the nest. If you find one that has just one. And it seems about the same size. You could put it in that nest. It should do ok. Good luck

[Birdmom4ever]

Hi Born to Ride, and welcome to Pigeons.com. If you haven't done so already, check out Resources by following the links on the home page of this site for basic pigeon care. There's good info on feeding and housing adults and youngsters.

If you click on the little guy holding up newspapers on the right of the home page, you'll see a photo story about "Baby Sara" that shows chick development. By looking at those photos you should be able to determine the approximate age of the chick you rescued. Is he able to pick up grain on his own at all, or do you have to put the food in his beak? What are you feeding him and how much? Keeping him on old clothes over a heating pad set on low is fine. Let us know how old you think he is, based on Sara's pictures, and we can go from there.

[Pete Jasinski]

Here's a link to a page for pigeon visiual age idenification
http://www.speedpigeon.com/baby_racing_pigeon.htm
I hope this helps,

[Birdmom4ever]

That's a great site, Pete. I'm adding it to my list of resources.

[BrnToRide90]

It looks around the 12 days old range. He is not currently eating by himself, and I am giving him food by a syringe. He does soemtimes run around the cage after he eats though. Is this a good sing. Thanks for all the advice. I don't think we will be able to put him back in the nest because we haven't seen any of the nine pigeons in two days, but they should be back very soon. They moved out looking for food after the snow storm.

[Birdmom4ever]

The fact that he's moving around a lot is a good sign. Are you feeding him baby bird formula, such as Kaytee Exact? Is he eating and pooping well? If he's around 12 days he'll need at least another couple weeks of being fed. They don't start picking up grain themselves until they are close to 4 weeks. And no, you won't be able to put him back. Once he's an adult perhaps you can re-assimilate him into the barn flock, after the weather warms up.