Baby Pigeon

[sally]

I need help to find the age of a baby pigeon I found 2wks ago. When I found the pigeon it had hardly any feathers, just a few fluffy ones. Now it has all of its wing feathers and body feathers. The feathers are now starting to grow under its wings. It is just starting to find its wings and doing small flights around my living room. It's still brown in colour but has lots of grey feathers on its wings. It's tail has also started to get long.
I need to know when it will be safe to release. It is also feeding its self on small pigeon mix which I am mixing with a little EMP. I hope I am doing the right thing with the pigeon and giving it the correct care. Please help.

[TAWhatley]

Hi Sally and welcome to pigeons.com! Thank you so much for caring for this young bird!

There is a link to pictures of Baby Sara on the home page here. If you take a look at them, you should be able to "guesstimate" the age of the bird you have. There is also a lot of good information in the Resources link at the top of the page regarding caring for both young and adult pigeons.

The bird will need to be fully feathered and have developed its flying skills before release. That would usually happen around 6 or more weeks of age.

Please feel free to post any questions you may have and let us know how you and the bird are doing.

Terry

[cyro51]

Hi Sally,

Ideally it should be given the opportunity to mix with other pigeons before release, and to be released as part of a group of pigoens so that they behave as a small flock. That increases their chances of survival, Can you tell us where you are, so that if at all possible we can link you to someone that will help?

We used to have pictures available of a pigeon growing up, to help age rescued babies, but that seems to haver disappeared. is there any chance of you providing us with a pic? Has he got any fluffy yellow bits left?

Cynthia

[TAWhatley]

Ooops .. yes, the link to Baby Sara doesn't seem to be functional at the moment. Sorry!

Terry

[Lovebirds]

I've got a few pics on my web site if it will help.
http://lovebirdsloft.homestead.com/SQUABGROWTH.html

[sally]

Thanks for your help Guys. I live on Hayling Island, Hampshire in the South of England. I dont have any Avairies near by to put it in prior to release, would it be ok to put it outside in the cage that it is recovering in so it can see all the other birds flying about. I have noticed that there are a few pigeons in the garden, they look like Wood Pigeons and im sure that this is a wood pigeon. The weather is nice at the moment and it has already been outside in the cage and cherps away happily. Also when does it start to sound like a pigeon. Hope you can help me again.

[Lin Hansen]

Hi Everyone,

The Baby Sara pictures are still available, but a little harder to find. To view them, you need to click on "The Loft" on the home page. Then click on the "baby pigeons" box, then click on "Sara."

Hope this helps.

Linda

[cyro51]

Hi Sally,

I am using the same method to prepare a young collared dove for release in my garden. The advantage of an own garden release is that you can continue to provide food and that you are hopefully not in a hunting, shooting and fishing area.

I have asked Alison to post here because she has so much experience of releasing woodies. The one thing I would say is please don't release too soon. i think that after fledging wood pigeons are fed by their parents for longer than feral pigeons are.


You might like to contact http://www.hartwildlife.org.uk/ and see if they have other youngsters ready for release.

Cynthia

[cyro51]

Hi Sally,

Just found out Brent Lodge is probably only 20 miles from you. I am pretty certain that they take wood pigeons. John visits them often and is lavish with his praise of them.

http://www.btinternet.com/~brentlodge/

Cynthia

[John_D]

Hi Sally -

I don't go often now, haven't had any 'patients' for a while, but I do I have a lot of respect for Brent Lodge. I have taken a few sick feral pigeons there, plus an abandoned young one not quite flying, and though some are too bad to make it (else I couldn't catch them so readily, probably) others have been successfully rehabilitated. They always do their best and get quite a few woodpigeons and collared doves in - they had a whole load of baby ones in during the rough weather in June - and are always busy with rescued birds of all kinds.

They could certainly advise about release in the area, or whether they have some with which yours could be eventually released, if you wish to go that route.

Let me know if I can assist in any way - I'm from Worthing, though I work way out in Hampshire.

John

[maryco]

Baby Sara's page:

http://www.pigeons.com/photogallery/...ra/sindex.html

[TAWhatley]

Thanks Linda and Mary for "finding" Baby Sara for us!

Terry

[sally]

Thanks for the link to the Baby Sara photos, but my pigeon dosnt look like Sara. I think mine is a wood pigeon, so if anybody has any pictures of baby wood pigeons I would love to see them just so i can be sure that mine is a wood pigeon. Ive called mine Kelly because it did a poo on me just as Kelly Holmes got her second gold medal. Kelly is really starting to fly well, shes not as clumsy. she shakes her wings and cherps with exitement when she sees me. I am pleased with her progress, I didnt think she would survive when I found her because I found her in a puddle 2wks ago today and thought she was close to death, I wrapped her in some tissue and took her home and put her on a hotwater bottle to warm her up, I then gave her a little sugar water and within a few hours she had the strength to cherp. I fed her for the first 8 days with a syringe using EMP and slowly added some small pigeon seed. Now she is feeding herself and getting bigger each day. I cant wait to hear her sound like a pigeon. I will be so happy when I see her fly off because I know that with all my hard work I helped her to survive.

[Reti]

You did a great job with this baby. Congratulations.
Thanks to you it has a chance in life.

Reti

[sally]

Thanks Reti for your kind words.