New arrivals

[diogenese]

I'll take some more tomorrow, they actually look like pigeons now

The smaller of the two is hard to tell apart now they have both grown so much!

Matty.

[cyro51]

Thanks. I was surprised to see how early the white wing stripe appears! the neck ring takes so long to surface.

Cynthia

[diogenese]

I'll get some better ones tomorrow

[diogenese]

We have had the two for a fortnight now, they have certainly changed! The older of the two has got a very healthy set of flight feathers now and is trying to use them, not to any effect yet. He's got a good grip though!

[Lin Hansen]

Hi,

Wow! What a difference.....looks like you're doing a wonderful job!

Linda

[Reti]

How adorable they are.
Great job.

Reti

[cyro51]

Go up a bit to post 13 to see how to feed a baby pigeon with a teaspoon!

Cynthia

[cyro51]

Bumping up for Moleman

[Larry_Cologne]

My wife and I rescued two 8- to 10-day-old pigeons the last day of April. I pried th beak open with a thumbnail and somehow got the food in, since they struggled against it. I saw a reference on the internet on some site or other about using the finger cut from a rubber dishwasher´s glove (since it resembled the mouh of the parent. It worked great! They were wildly enthusiastic about it! (The smaller pidge died after thirteen days with us; I suspect from sour crop, since I did not then have internet access and did not know about letting the crop empty between feedings).
The drawback to feeding them mushy food this way (hard-boiled egg, seed mash, etc.) was that it got their feathers and head very messy and gummy. Always a big clean-up action ensued. The survivor, Pidgiepoo, would eat his fill and then make a mad dash for his sleeping area, a bowl with dishtowel, set on heating pad on low setting before he had feathers. He hoped he would be left alone when he was in his territory. Such wasn't the case.
anyway, this worked for us. We would peck the table with our finger, simulating adult bird feeding. After a while he refused to be hand-fed, and took over his own feeding. Good luck! (I have limited experience, so maybe there are disadvantages to the rubber glove finger that I am not yet aware of). Gotta go!

[cyro51]

Can't think of any disadvantages to the rubber glove method, I would like to try that sometime.

When I rescued my very first squab I was told that hard boiled egg can cause sour crop. However, it is one of the ingredients of the Mac Milk (crop milk replacement) diet, so I don't know whether it causes problems only if the crop doesn't empty completely?

Sorry about the one that was lost, Larry! I thought I had it all worked out when I got my feral pigeons to adopt a wood pigeon squab. They were devoted parents and the squab thrived, then he died when he was about 10 days old. I was devastated and have yet to understand what went wrong!

Cynthia