new kid on the block

[sabina]

any thoughts about how much to feed how often?

[Pidgey]

You can go with what's in the instructions: 10 to 15% of their weight per meal, three times per day but pigeons will certainly eat more. Seems like they get bigger younger if you feed them more younger.

Pidgey

[sabina]

Still squeaking!!! does that mean he's still hungry???

[sabina]

thanks pidgey. well 15% is 27, so we'll go with that...

[Pidgey]

They're also very social creatures and will usually take all the luvvin' you can give them and then some. He could be squeaking for attention as much as food. If you've got time for a nap, you can cuddle them up to you on a towel with your hand over them and they sometimes settle down. Lin assures me that that's actually "spoiling" but it seems to me to be necessary.

Of course, he may just be trying to tell you "Happy Mother's Day" and he's getting frustrated that you're not understanding.

Pidgey

[Charis]

Originally Posted by sabina

any thoughts about how much to feed how often?

Hi Sabina. You two sure have a way of finding cute babies.
I've raised pigeons that are so busy squealing and moving that it is a real job for just one person to feed them. Those squeals semm to say, FEED ME, FEED ME NOW !
This would be a good time to try and get the baby to eat on it's own. During the weaning process I don't feed quite as much, about 15 cc when the crop is empty. Before each hand feeding, I put the bird in my lap with a deep dish of food and move the seeds around to get the squealing, shaking baby's attention. Some are slow to figure it out but most pigeons figure it out very quickly and try or begin to pick up the seeds. It's a lot easier to do than to explain.
Personally, the squealy baby stage is my favorite. They are so sweet and fun.

[sabina]

tee hee! well if i put my hand over him, he just gets more excited, flapping, pecking, trying to put his beak between my fingers to eat. oh wait, he's quiet now! ok we took some pics of the bare spot on his back, will post in a few...oh, the squeaking started again!

[sabina]

Hi Charis. Well I've been tring to keep him occupied the last 10-15 minutes with some seeds and pellets on a towel in my lap. He picks them up and has MAYBE swallowed a few. So it seems he gets it. We want to do the kind of feeding where they stick their beaks in the formula tube, but we have to work on our set up for that...

[Pidgey]

I've seen them learn to eat seeds on their own at an even younger age than that one. Somebody found one where Lin works that was probably only two and a half to three weeks old (primary flights were only about half their final length) that had already learned to peck and eat like a horse. I've no idea what he'd been living on when they found him inside the plant (glass plant) but he was in pretty sad shape when she brought him home. I put him on KayTee just to solve deficiency problems and then had to later re-train him to eat seeds.

Pidgey

[Charis]

Originally Posted by sabina

Hi Charis. Well I've been tring to keep him occupied the last 10-15 minutes with some seeds and pellets on a towel in my lap. He picks them up and has MAYBE swallowed a few. So it seems he gets it. We want to do the kind of feeding where they stick their beaks in the formula tube, but we have to work on our set up for that...

Can he drink on his own yet? Once he figures that out the seeds will be a snap. Sounds like he's close. Keep working with him. Have seeds available for him in his cage at all times. Water too.
I wish I could kiss his little face.

[Lady Tarheel]

REALLY looking forward to more pictures.

Sabina, I have found there is no set amount for feeding the babies. At Colette's age, I would probably aim for about 25 cc, 3 x day but mostly go by how the crop feels, her weight, the poops and adjust accordingly. Keep small seeds and water in her cage at all times.

When we had all those babies last spring, I was amazed at how fast they weaned themselves. We had about 15 of varying ages from newborn (not counting the ones from eggs) to about 3 weeks old. Some of those 15 didn't require many hand feedings, they simply started eating on their own. For those that did start eating on their own, we hand fed them for a week or so at night and weighed them everyday to make sure they were gaining weight.

[feralpigeon]

Hi Maggie, actually Colette is one of the babies that I'm taking care of right now...Cole from SF was transformed into Colette on a hunch. I'm tube feeding
her because she was in a bit of a mess and really needed meds, nutrition and
some TLC.... She's quite a ways a way from release if that's possible but only
time will tell on that one. Anyway, now that I've started tubing her she is just
so not into pecking at seeds so we'll have to go thru that drill again, lol. So
just so you know, it was indeed both nutrition and mites!

Sabina is your baby still clamping mandibles shut and eating all that quantity??

fp

[sabina]

so we named this baby simone (can always change to the spanish pronunciation of simon if we decide it's a boy!). we fed her 30 cc and then she was still squeaking up a storm. so we gave her some finch seeds which we bought since they were small, and she's eating them up! well she eats a few here and there, no real serious eating. but obviously she knows what to do. we did see her drinking water on her own in the cage earlier. so we'll keep the water and seeds in the cage for her, it looks like that'll be no problem at all.

i just took some more pics maggie, aias will put them up soon!

fp, i didn't understand your question--what do you mean about clamping mandibles?

[Aias]

here is a photo of the bold patch on simon's back:



and as always more photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/100fires/tags/simon/

more photos are coming up soon...
maggie, can you post a photo of colette?

[sabina]

all this confusion about colette! feralpigeon, can you post a pic? and maggie, we did take some cutiepie pics as well as bald spot pics but we have to charge the camera up before we can upload them.

so now simone is gobbling up the seeds. i'm thinking we'll do like you were saying charis, and give only 15cc of formula 3 times a day, and let her get used to eating seeds the rest of the time.

umm it looks like aias and i disagree on the gender here