Eggs hatching now, we're not ready, someone call a doctor!

[AZWhitefeather]

The pictures are wonderful. Thanks.
"Josh, you are doing a fine job of helping your Mom care for Peter."
He reminds me of Bonnie & Clyde (not the outlaws, lol) Frank & Jessie's babies.
Be sure to have the camera ready & the battery charged as they grow so fast.
Cindy

[maryco]

Hello,

He is very cute!
Be sure to keep the fabric around the baby nice and snuggly- This will help keep his legs in the right position so he won't develope splayed legs (Which is not good at all)... Also when he is this small try not to handle him too much, at about 4-5 days old his eyes will open and then he will be able to see you.
At this age the baby will start to think you are his parents and will be able to recognize the hand of the person who is feeding him.
I hope you will consider keeping him as a pet (Pigeons make WONDERFUL pets!! )

Mary

[Joshaway]

funny you should mention keeping him tucked in because I keep noticing that he turns himself over alot and I was wondering if that was normal. I will put more stuffing around him and keep his legs and wings tucked neatly beneath him.
Thanks
Chris and Josh
PS I think I heard pecking inside the egg, but then I heard nothing so it may have been wishful thinking. We'll see.

[justcockatiels]

Hi, This is my first visit to this board and I found this thread very interesting. I breed cockatiels, and as far as young and their needs there are some basic needs that are universal between all species of birds.

As to digestive enzymes...PROZYME...which can be ordered from www.omahavaccine.com (or do an internet search for PROZYME) is a good product. Sometimes you can find it at the larger feed stores. With the Prozyme, all you need is a tiny pinch. The Prozyme helps to predigest the food, and once in the digestive tract it aids in nutrient absorption. Prozyme can also be very benefical when the chick gets severely dehydrated and there is slower gut transit due to a slight impaction. Combined with electrolytes (use rice base if yeast/candidia is suspected)it can be a good aid in breaking up any blockages.

As to probiotics there are many on the market targeted towards different types of birds. 'Plain' yogurt works just as well, and in fact better than most of the commercial probiotics.

I don't have the link, but you can do an internet search for: Roudybush This company makes several different types of formula...and they have 2 formulas for squabs. Their formula helped to nourish and save an egg that someone found, and my birds incubated and hatched, and turned out to be a ringneck dove.

As to feeding the chick what worked best for me was cutting the flared end off of the end of a Urological Catheter and slipping it on the end of a syringe. This allowed for a large opening like a funnel the baby could stick it's beak in to suck up the formula as I released it from the syringe. Here is a link that shows the catheter (the long red tubing) which you can find at most medical supplies or order from www.feedingtech.com (They used to carry the Roudybush formulas, I'm not sure if they do anymore, but could probably special order.) http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/Albu...a=30700049&f=0

The topic of the egg white and yolk was very interesting. I do know from working with alot of assist hatches that most of the literature is very general and states for just about 'every type' of bird that the chick uses the absorbed egg in 24 hours. Yet if you look at the abdomen of the chick in reality it can take up to 2-7 days (depending on the sizeand species). The yolk is very high in protein and that should be balance out the ratio if the egg white crop milk replacer was used. Also one of the most important things the chick derives from the internalized yolk is 'passive humoral immunity' The yolk is also an important source of cells for the developement of the immune system, in addition to the passive immunity/protection of infectious pathogens.

Yeast another thing that tends to be problematic which babies no matter the species. The birds that have crops are more prone. Stress and chilling tend to be one of the main culpret to an sudden over growth of yeast in the crop. The probiotics/yogurt are beneifical to help reduce some of the pathogenic levels in the GI tract. Changing the pH in the crop with a drop of vinegar (or if very yound dilute 1 drop on 5 drops of water, and add 1 drop to every other feeding) will help if budding yeast has started to adhere to the crop wall, or there is slower crop movement. Global Pigeon: www.globalpigeon.com has a powdered Nystatin called Medistatin which very good if actual yeast problems arise.

I wish you luck with your little one.

And this is a real nice board. I don't have pigeons 'yet'...I am owned by 400 cockatiels. I stopped by to look up some info for a friend that has a pigeon that flew in a few years ago, and has been living in her large lovbird flight. He now want's to mate, and had an 'indenity crisis' and I was going to look at the photo gallery to find out what type of pigeon he is (white, with grey spots, and a tufted feathers around the neck that curl up)and see if I can find a breeder in S. Florida that would have a mate for him.

Susanne...

[TAWhatley]

Hello Susanne and welcome to pigeons.com! It's very nice of you to have taken the time to write such an informative post for us.

Your friend's bird may be an Old Dutch Capuchine .. they are quite beautiful.

Terry Whatley

[justcockatiels]

Hi Terry...and thanks for the welcome!

When I was looking at the link to the Gallery...the pigeon in the upper left corner (or right if you are pointing at the picture)is similar to Karens pigeon. When young he was almost all white and as he got older (now 4) he got more and more grey spots and patches on him. I can try to take a digital pix of him in the next day or so. Can photo's be posted?

Here is some links to some of my birds (sorry, no pigeons yet) Alot of what they taught me along the way in my ventures of breeding tend to be aplicable with other species of birds...


Susanne Russo Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Website (Under construction) http://www.justcockatiels.com
On-line Photo Albums: http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumList?u=1697854

[TAWhatley]

Hi Susanne,

I'm not sure what type of pigeon that is in the gallery. I'll ask Carl (Bigbird) who is the owner of this site. You won't be able to post pics of the bird in need of a mate here, but you can put them in your epson album and then just post us the link. Meanwhile, I'll ask on another list about that black and white pigeon in the Gallery photos.

Terry Whatley

[justcockatiels]

Thanks...A few years back someone had said it was some type of Japanese or Chinese type of fancy pigeon.

It is banded, but Karen had never checked out the band.

He is actively trying to court any lovebird he can get near. He is mounting the quail. And he found him a little cubbyhole on the ground between a teepee of tree branches and is guarding it like a nest. I'm not sure he even knows he's a pigeon...

Susanne

[Joshaway]

Hello everyone.
Peter is doing fine. He raises up his head and opens his beak to be fed, and misses, and the both of us get covered in more food than he eats. Motherhood.
I discarded the other egg. It was "leaking". At first I thought someone had handled it with spagetti sauce on their hands, but... then it kept changing color, and... see where I'm going.
Anyway, I wanted to thank everyone for all of the information. I have printed it and will keep it handy, and keep you all advised on his progress, but this "thread" is getting pretty long so I will start a new line as PETER'S PROGRESS next report. And I will keep reading as this has become very interesting.
As for keeping him as a pet, we'll see. I have three boys and we live in the country, so you can imagine the pets they bring home and always want to keep. Plus we have a cat that thinks everything smaller that a dog is a challenge to his authority, and dogs are furniture.
My oldest son keeps asking how the "duck" is doing just to annoy Josh.
Well I should go, it's feeding time, AGAIN.
Chris (and Josh)

[maryco]

Hello,

Just one last thing.. If you decide to keep him as a pet that would be great but if you don't then you must raise him with as little interaction as possible otherwise he will become tame to you and there is no way he can live in the wild.

His eyes should be opening very soon now if they haven't already and at this stage he will start to think of you (the person who is feeding him) as his mother..
If he is to be released then he needs to be in a quite area away from any noise of people at all times. And at feeding time it's best to stay as silent at possible.

When he is about 15 days old try introducing wild bird seed to him so he can learn to eat early. Then you can try to find a wild flock and try taking him there once a day or so to mix with the others (even if he is in a cage, simply put it on the ground and scatter some seeds around so he can watch the other birds eat) Then when it's time for release you can try opening the door and seeing if he will go along with the others- if he comes back into the cage then try again the next day and soon he should leave on his own when he is ready..

Again I'm not trying to say that you must release him - If you choose to keep him as a pet then that would be wonderful and you can talk/play with him as you like because then he will be a very very tame bird.

I raised a baby once from about 4 days old and he was a very sweet and loving bird, he thought of himself as human and he would have NEVER survived in the wild this is why it is very important to raise the bird as a wild bird if you are to release him.


Mary

[cyro51]

Bumping up for Avril

[maryco]

Bumping up for dveteto......

[maryco]

Bumping up for maxou !

[TAWhatley]

Bumping up for the MacMilk recipe.

Terry

[BirdDogg10]

Hey Josh I'm sorry to hear about Peter I know how you feel I lost my 11 year old Beagle mix Sienna, last September. She was my best friend we adopted her 1993 we think she was beagle and collie mix beacause she looked like a mix of the two. But since then My sister got a Pug puppy he's 7 weeks old his name is Bentley. He's a nice dog, very cute and always into something. My Friend Lana owns several pigeons in her backyard, their names are Dodie(Girl), Jerry(Boy), Rosy(Girl), Max(Boy) and she has a few others one of my favorites is Mo he's Jerry's & Dodie's son he bites sometimes but I guess that's because he doesn't know any better.

Lana recently got 2 new pigeons their brown pigeons their names are Kiki(Girl) and Stevie(Boy), she said they would breed in about a week or so she said I could keep one of the Chicks after their born. I've even picked out a name "Tory" I was NEVER into writing stories but since I started writing in 2000 I plan to write autobiographies on all my pets and some of My friends pets but I 'm writing them all from the pet's point of view as in the story is told by them. Maybe you should do the same thing for Peter I wrote Sienna's autobiography when she was alive and she seemed to like the fact that I was talking about her only if we were in the same room together, If Peter was around & when he got older he probably would have liked it too. I hope you read Tory's autobiography it's titled "Tory's Journal" look for it on www. FictionPress.com

from BirdDogg10 PS:If you want to read My current fan fiction story go to www.Fanfiction.net My author name is greendog1991