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[auntisocial]

Hello Everyone,

I am happy to have found your board! I have a story and will be asking for your advice.

About 5 weeks ago my husband came home from work with a present. He does metal roofing and while they were working they came across a nest with two pigeon hatchlings (eyes not open yet). He set the nest in a secure place watching to see if the parents would return. He did see the mother briefly but it was clear she was not going to be coming back. By the end of the day crows were hanging around... soooooo... He came home with a box filled with clean rags, two hatchlings and some trepidation as to how I would react. LOL

I was THRILLED that he is the kind of person who would care about whether a couple of these little guys would survive. We set about searching the web for information and came across your site. Reading other threads posted here we were able to glean information about how to keep them safe during these early days and the type of diet/feeding schedule they would require. We also visited with a local person who specializes in raising exotic birds by hand and has a very lovely shop here, so we were able to pick up the Kaytee and other specialized foods at her store.

I'm happy to say that "Chopper Bob" and "Chick"en, as we call them, seem to be healthy and doing fine. We had some problems with Bob having a slow crop but he seems to have overcome that with the use of "Prozyme". They are almost fully weaned (will only eat so much from the syringe now) and are on a diet that includes a variety of seeds and pellet food.

We got them a good-sized cage for now and they come out and run around and eat two or three times during the day. They have started flapping and hovering. Taking short flights up to the couch and back down to the floor. We had planned to put mesh up on our landing so they could start spending short periods of time outside, seeing other pigeons (there are lots here), etc. Here is where our story takes an interesting twist:

During the time we've had our squeakers we've noticed that a pair of pigeons have obviously been able to hear them inside and have taken an interest (they would spend time cooing out on our landing). We didn't see this as a potential problem. Last week my husband went out to put the mesh up and lo and behold... the pigeons had decided that it must be a safe place to make a nest since there were other babies nearby (at least that is our conclusion). So, now we have a new nest tucked away on our landing with Mom/Pop and two eggs (we're estimating they've been there about 7 or 8 days).

We can't really put up the mesh so our youngsters can run around out there, that would cut off passage for this new family. We're not confident we can transplant the nest. We're contemplating whether or not we can raise two new hatchlings if it comes down to that. Our main concern... will our two youngsters try to hurt new hatchlings? If we decide to try this do you think we could do it if we kept the hatchlings completely separate from our two that are getting close to being ready to leave? (Also, I feel guilty if we take these two new hatchlings as they obviously have devoted parents.)

So here I am, asking for advice. Any ideas? Any recommendations you could give us would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for your website -- I don't believe we would have been so successful if we had not found the information posted here. I look forward to hearing from you and thank you in advance for taking time out to read and post replies.

Thanks!

Laura

[TAWhatley]

Hi Laura and welcome to Pigeon-Talk! That is so great that your husband saved the two pigeon babies and that you have raised them so well.

If it's at all possible, I'd recommend leaving the new babies to their parents to be raised. Moving the nest is not really an option as that might result in the parents abandoning it.

Terry

[Reti]

What a great story. You guys did a fantastic job in raising those babies.

I agree with the advice Terry gave you.
Is it possible to wait putting up the screen until the eggs hatch and the babies are old enough and leave the landing?
It is always better for babies to be raised by their parents. They will teach the babies how to forrage for food, what the dangers of the outside world are and how to become independent.

Reti

[auntisocial]

Thanks for your replies!

The only problem with keeping ours untils these others are hatched and ready to leave is that we were hoping to try to get ours out early enough that they would be able to adapt to live with other pigeons. Is it too late for them to be able to do that?

What about partitioning off part of our landing so they could get out (or would the parents that are nesting out there get scared off)? Is there any chance the adults outside might be interested in helping these youngsters (since they have hard them inside) or is that a scenario that probably would not happen?

Looking for a compromise. If keeping ours another 6 or 7 weeks does not hurt their chances of being accepted by a flock I am all for it. Just trying to give them a fighting chance to have the life they were meant to have, while not compromising the family outside.

Thanks again,

Laura

P.S. During this process my husband and I learned something we didn't know about each other (we just married this past December). We BOTH love birds and each considered trying to raise them at one time or another. We are now planning on looking into breeding cockatiels to see how we do.

[auntisocial]

Also, I didn't make it very clear that the nest my husband found at work had no chance where it was and had to be moved.

[Reti]

The earlier they are introduced to the flock the better they will do outside, you are right on that.
I don't think the parents will wellcome the little ones since they are sitting on eggs, so I would not put them together.
If you could enclose only part of the landing for the little ones and leave the other side out for the new parents? Is that possible?

Reti

[auntisocial]

We could put mesh up on part, bringing it down in the center from the roof and then duct taping it (or otherwise securing it) to the cement. They would still be able to see the other birds, but they would not be able to go over near the nest.

[Reti]

That sounds good.
I don't think the new parents would appreciate having "strangers" coming over to the nest, even if they are babies.

Reti

[auntisocial]

We decided to put Bob and Chick out on the landing (in their cage) for a few minutes this afternoon (have to clean SOME time). They looked around (but mostly kept looking back in the apartment to see what we were doing).

After a few minutes the Daddy pigeon of the new nest came flying down to see what was going on. He was just curious. We watched him and it was clear he was not going to try to hurt them. HOWEVER, Bob got hysterical... all puffed up, smacking his little wing and standing in front of Chick. He actually charged at the adult and made huffing noises until the adult flew off. This really surprised us. We think they were very startled by something flying down and landing near them. They were very shook up so we brought them back in as soon as possible. They were actually very upset for about two hours! They needed close time with us to calm down so they could finally sleep.

Letting them stay out on the landing (in the cage first and then to roam) was our next plan of action. Not sure what to think or do next. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Laura

[Reti]

Many of the babies raised by humans will do that. They think they are humans and want nothing to do other birds. The outdoors scares them.
You did well keeping them outside in a cage, you can repeat that every day, each time for a longer period of time and eventually they will adjust and like it.

Bob was trying to protect his sibling, I think this is so cute when they do that. What a darling.


Reti

[Victor]

That is courageous and cute as well. Bob MUST be a boy!