Two baby wood pigeons

[pinto145]

Im not really sure if im in the right place but hope someone can help me. My dad was chopping down a tall hedge today and accidentaly chopped a nest down. We found two baby wood pigeons that luckly were not hurt. Im not really sure how old they are but they have only a few small feathers and mainly yellow fluff. I think they are about four to five cm long. We found the remains of a nest and quickly put them back inside and placed the nest back in the hedge. Its been about five hours and there is no sign of any mother bird. I know that baby birds need to be fed often and im worried that they will not last the night. Does anyone know what I should do or how I will know if the mother comes in the night and is looking after them?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

[kittypaws]

Hi Pinto145

Not sure if you will check this before you go to bed.

I would go now and see if any of the parents are sitting on the nest. If not then you should bring the babies indoors as one of the parents should be sitting them on so young.

When you bring them in, you need to put them in a warm place. Do you have a heating pad ( set on low) or if not can you put them somewhere warmish like an airing cupboard ( door ajar so they can breathe - and as long as you don't have any other animals that can get to them - dogs or cats). Put them in a box lined with a towel.

The parents wouldn't normally feed them at night so they may be OK food wise.. I'm not an expert unfortunately and I am just advising what I would do. I do know that if they are in the hedge all night with no parent sitting on them then they will probably die overnight....).

In the morning, you could try putting them back and watch to see if the parents return.

It would be helpful to know where you are located just in case someone is nearby who can assist or knows where you could take them should they have been abandoned.

Hopefully the parents will show up in the morning attracted by the cheeping of hungry babies.

I am sure someone with better expertise ( and I know just the lady so I shall e-mail her ) can give you some better advice.

Best of luck

Tania

[cyro51]

Hi Pinto,

I think the babies are too young to keep themselves warm overnight, Can you take them indoors and put them on a hot water bottle?

They will need to be fed and to keep their fluid levels up. You can hand feed them with wholemeal bread dipped in water and squeezed out, just open their beaks and push the bread to the back.

Can you tell me where you are?

My telephone number is 01603 479054..please telephone if you are still up!

Cynthia

[kittypaws]

Pinto 145

Cynthia is the expert - please follow her advice!

Tania x

[pinto145]

Thanks for the advice. I put the two babies back in their makeshift nest this morning. Their mother did go up there and sit with them so I thought they would be ok. This afternoon when I looked on them the nest had been pulled apart and one baby was missing. Luckily he was on the ground below and seems ok. I know he will have the best chance with his mother so put him back once again and he now seems ok. Is this a sign that the mother didnt like the pretend nest and the baby got accidentaly pushed out or that she was rejecting the baby? Both babies look like they have been fed but is it ok to give them bits of soggy bread? Thanks.

[cyro51]

I can't imagine why the nest would have been damaged, I suspected maybe it wasn't the mother you saw, but if they have been fed it must have been...If their crops are nice and plump and their eyes bright and alert they are being looked after properly, so there should be no need for bread as a supplement.

If, on the other hand, they have not been fed then soaked wholemeal bread that is at least a day old is a good emergency food, they use that at the Gower Bird Hospital.

For longer term care this is the recipe they use at the London Wildlife Centre (provided by Tania in a different thread):

wild bird seed
frozen peas
finely chopped apple
finely chopped peanuts
finely chopped fat balls
finely shredded greens
brown bread crumbs

you can make this up without the fresh stuff in a bowl and add the fresh stuff daily, dont want the apples to ferment! this is fine for them, you can add to the water finely chopped grass. The fat balls, bread, peanuts can be done in the food processer, its easier and gives a good consistency, make loads of it as it keeps for ages, then as i said mix in the fresh stuff daily.