Taming Baby G???

[rbyrd]

How soon should we start taming Mr. and Mrs. G's baby and handling him/her? And how should we try to tame Baby G? Mr. and Mrs. G were both wild when we took them in, and they had their egg right away, before we had a chance to try to tame either of them. They are both very protective of each other and Baby G, and we would like to know how to begin the taming.

And: Mr. and Mrs. G love being together, but we don't want them having anymore babies at this time. Is there any way to keep them from breeding but together at the same time?

Any suggestions???

[fred2344]

Hi,
It would be a tragedy to separate these two so why not buy dummy eggs and when she lays, substitute them?
The only way you are going to be able to tame the baby is to take it away from the parents and work with it alone. Trust is everything so take it slowly.
Put your hand under the breast and as you say "Up" lift your hand so that the bird is forced to go onto it. Then just let it stand on your hand as you talk to it and allow it to become comfortable with you. That takes time. The only reaason I'm saying "it" is because we have no idea if this is a male or female.

[rbyrd]

Fred

At what age should we take Baby G away from the parents?

rbyrd,
I'm very new to this, but this is my observations with my pets after less than 2 years.
At around 3 weeks, take the bird, and be prepared to hand feed with Kaytee Exact. It won't take long and it'll eat it on it's own if you mix chopped up french frys with it. After about a week, I went to small meal worms (either cut off or crush the heads first, they can kill a bird), and it won't be long and you'll graduate to giant meal worms. When the bird decides he wants seeds, you'll know, it will just fling meal worms all of a sudden and won't eat them, and it's seed time. Also, for water, I used a blue capped water bottle that you would drink from (all the fad, I guess), and made the bird come to me to get a drink out of the cap. They will recognize the cap. For seed, I use Pennington Wild Bird Seed, and I top it with safflower seeds. I use red pigeon grit seperate. Make sure you and the little one are seperate from other birds, especially if any are afraid of you and won't fly to you. You have to be one on one to tame it!
Out of about a half a dozen pigeons I've had in less than two years, this is what I've figured out on my own. I've got a baby (Doonie) here now that I recued July 2 of this year, and already Bonnie, who isn't that wild about me yet (she was aquired for my male Clyde that was hand raised), has taught Doonie to be afraid of me even though I hand raised him, and he isn't the first. These birds live in my office and have free range, and are NOT caged but don't go outside either. They will drink water from me. Clyde is over a year old, and is tame as ever, but had no "outside influence" when he was raised. A falcon got my first bird (Walter) almost out of my hands when he was a little over 2 months old. That WON'T happen again. He was also more than tame and had no outside influence, just one on one. He followed me everywhere, including outside, but he stayed in the yard, and wouldn't fly any further than maybe across the yard to come to me, or back into the office cuz the door was always left open for him, and he would beat me to my desk when I was headed that way.
I've learned a lot from these people on this board, they have much more experience than me. I don't post much, but I check this site probably 5 times a day if not more. But what I've just told you I won't back up on, simply because it has worked for me. I'd love to learn how to get Bonnie to be my friend, Doonie too, for that matter. I believe it's Devorah that has posted pictures of pigeons all over her. I'm honestly jealous, and amazed. And envious.
A side note: this last 2 weeks I've had to spend over $400 because the birds got sick, Clyde the most, I thought I'd lost him. I had to take them to the vet (Avian vet, Dr. Brothers) for syringe feeding and medication (Baytril plus Clyde had to have Veleramycin if I read this right) after blood tests and such, and Clyde was the only one that was easy, Bonnie and Doonie didn't want to be caught. No fun. So bottom line is go one on one, and have a GOOD friend, you won't regret it!!
Russ.

[Pigeonpal2002]

Russ, Good advice...you're doing perfect with your birds. The suggestions you left are sound and I'm sorry that you lost Walter to a falcon. I too, have spent a lot of money on my 2 pigeons...probably very close to your $400 figure. But they are worth it.


Brad