A Close Call Today ..

[TAWhatley]

Well .. I've been keeping a secret .. haven't even taken pictures .. was waiting until banding day ..

Two of my SENIOR rescued racing pigeons hatched a baby this past Tuesday (Nov. 27). There were two eggs, but the second egg didn't hatch. The parents of the baby are a 1993 SLO bird (the Mom) and a 1999 BAK bird (the Dad). All was going just ever so well until late this afternoon.

I checked on the happy pigeon family about 2 PM and then left for about 3 hours to run errands and do other equally annoying stuff. When I got back, I went out to see if all was well with Mom, Dad, and baby .. YIKES!!! There was no baby. I just about had a heart attack.

Once I got my wits about me, I spotted the baby about 6 feet away from the nest and looking not so very good. I scooped the baby up to find it cold, mouth breathing, blood in mouth, and scrapes or peck wounds on the body. I was FURIOUS towards whichever bird(s) had done or caused this.

Off baby and I went to the ICPU (Intensive Care Pigeon Unit) for cleaning up a bit and then warming. I have been frantically checking on baby every 30 minutes, and so far, all is well. I hope to reunite the family in the morning.

I guess this will teach me not to keep a precious baby a secret here ..

Pictures are coming, I promise (assuming all is really well), but I really wanted to proudly present my very first purebred racing pigeon with band on and proud parents standing by.

Terry

[Margarret]

OMG Terry, that was a really close call. I'm amazed that mom is still laying eggs. She is '93, that makes her about fourteen. Yikes! Do let us know how baby is doing. Am sending good thoughts your way that all will be well.

Margaret

[Matt D.]

Hey coming from another '93 er It is hard to see this kind of thing happen to anyone... LOL. First off... was it in an individual breeding loft of with alot of birds? Second by slo bird... what club is that btw... curious... and if you ever have a good pair of birds you want to breed out of have them lay the eggs (infusing them with there genes.... =) ) and then you need to give the eggs to foster parents it give the two baby pigeons a better chance at life. The problem with birds from older breeders is they just are all around weak... this is because there parents didnt have the capacity to raise them at full speed. So if they have the genes and a good foster parents you can get young health pigeons from your older breeders just like you could 10 years ago from them... =)

[Roxy]

Poor little guy I hope he heals up! You know these guys are hardy!
pics asap please!

[TAWhatley]

Thanks for the well wishes all .. the baby is now toasty warm, breathing normally, and sleeping soundly. I hope all will be as well in the morning.

Matt .. both the parents are AU banded racing pigeons. The SLO band is from the San Luis Obispo RPC and the BAK band from the Bakersfield RPC. Both of the parents came from a school project (Eleanor Roosevelt) that shut down and had to place all the birds. I ended up with most of them.

Your comments and advice are certainly good.

I've had all these birds (and many other retired racing and show birds) for a long time, and there has not even been one egg produced. When I realized that this pair had nested and had started incubating the eggs, I just let them go, and we got one baby out of it. Last year, my 20 year old racing pigeon and his fantail mate (who is about 8 years old) also nested and produced two young for me. I generally do not allow my birds to produce babies as there are so very many birds needing homes, but once in awhile, the birds and the circumstances just make my heart and mind ignore the fact that we shouldn't be having babies .. then we have babies .. but only a very few.

Hopefully this little one will be just fine, and I will have accidentally produced my first purebred racing pigeon

Terry

[SueC]

Hope that the little baby recovers from his trauma soon. What a way to start life!

Won't the parents defend their baby when he's being attacked?

Suzanna

[mr squeaks]

YIKES, Terry! What a scary thing to happen!

I, too, hope the baby will be OK! The first thing that DID go through my mind was whether the parents thought the baby was "sick" or something and shoved it out of the nest!! Certainly hope not!!

Sending WARM HEALING THOUGHTS with love and hugs!!

Will sure be looking forward to positive updates!!

Shi

[Lin Hansen]

Oh boy, Terry, that was close.

I hope the baby will be just fine.

Can't wait to see the pictures.

Linda

[Trees Gray]

That certainly was a heart stopper. I too hope your precious pure-bred racing oops baby is fine in the morning.

Do you have any idea if the baby fell or was removed from its nest by force?

[Larry_Cologne]

Glad you got back in time. Too bad you had to have a rescue from within; there's enough rescue needs going on outside your house without having things happen at home.

Best wishes for all,

Larry

[maryjane]

Congratulations on the new baby and on saving it, Terry! Maybe all pijies were just extra aggressive that day, I found a baby in the middle of the tent under same conditions the day before yesterday. She was pecked and bleeding on her head, cold as ice, and I thought she was dead. But I know the drill and brought her in and slowly warmed her up on the heating pad and later she gobbled down Kaytee and today is fat, warm and sassy. I don't know who her parents are, there are no other babies in the loft and I hadn't heard her peeping so they were hiding her somewhere very well. I'm really glad to hear your baby is doing well and thank goodness you found her in time!! Can't wait to see pics.

[TAWhatley]

Thanks again everyone for your comments and well wishes for the baby. The baby seems to be doing fine today. I have set Mom, Dad, and Baby up in a large carrier and am really hoping that the parents will resume taking care of the little one. I have fed it a couple of times today just to be sure and have been checking every few minutes to be sure that the parents have reclaimed their little one. So far it looks like they are doing their job just fine. The baby is warm and full as a little tick as of a couple of minutes ago. Even if it ends up that I have to take over the parenting, the little one has had the benefit of being parent raised for about 5 days.

I think Cherub or Blackfeather (both young males who think they are hot stuff) probably challenged the Daddy bird and in the fracus, the baby got rolled or perhaps actually flung out of the nest and then got dragged or rolled under the birds that were squabbling and ended up way away from where it should have been.

Anyway, all seems fine right now, and I will keep you posted. I really hope the bands arrive tomorrow as the baby is getting quite large, and I need to get the band on ASAP.

I'm glad you found your little one in time, MJ, and that it is doing well.

Terry

[Trees Gray]

I'm glad to hear the update, I love them when the babies are SO full they have to sleep it off, like they are drunk.

Good news to hear the family is back together and that all is well.

[TerriB]

Wow - scarey!!!!! So glad the calvary (you) arrived it time! Sure hope the parents continue raising the baby so that isn't added to your very full to-do list! Looking forward to pics!

[TAWhatley]

At last check about 10 minutes ago neither parent was on the baby, so it has gone back into a nice little heated nest inside for the night. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. It's too cold here tonight to take a chance with the little one. The baby's crop was full, though.

Terry