New arrivals

[diogenese]

Hello everyone, I've just been given two chicks that were brought home by some local children. they were found on a football pitch and the kids were told to take them to us by their parents as we have parrots and ducks at home!
They are under a heatlamp in a shoebox at the moment.
I was wondering if I could feed them on dampened duck starter crumb as I have plenty of that here?
Also what temperature would you suggest to keep them at?


I've weighed them, one is 70g the other is 47g. they are taking the mushy duck food, and there is some poo around!
they both had empy crops, how much do they eat at this age? (i'm geussing at about 4/5 days)

[cyro51]

Hello,

Are duck starter crumbs similar to chick crumbs? If so, soak them in hot (but not boiling) water for half an hour, liquidise them and strain them three times. At this age the food should be quite runny.

I gather they are wood pigeons...probably 5 days old?

Feed until the crop is plump and soft, like a 3/4 inflated balloon.

Are you tube feeding? If not, cut the tip off a 10 ml syringe, fill the syringewith food, tape a piece of balloon across the bit where the tip is, make a slit in the balloon and poke the pigeon's beak in the hole...don't let it get its nostrils covered. It should then take as much food as it needs.

The photos below show the syringe and balloon method of feeding and a week old wood pigeon with a full crop.

Cynthia

[bigbird]

It is important to keep the food rather watery, so as to not let it set up thick in their crops. As time goes by, the food can be made a little thicker, but as young baby birds, be sure their crops are being emptied.
Baby bird formula as used for young parrots is great food, feed from a syrenge.
Nice pictures...thank.
Good luck,
Carl

[diogenese]

They seem to be doing well on stewed duck crumb, it's slightly higher protein content than chick crumb. there is plenty going in at the beak and a good amount coming out the other end too all good signs!
We havn't reared any parrot chicks, only ducklings so they are stuck with duck food.
They have put on weight too, they are up to 86g and 62g, not bad for just over 24 hours!
we are feeding them with a teaspoon bent into a tight U shape that we had used for an adolesent pigeon that had been hit by a car and lost a lot of feathers and skin last year. messier than a syringe but we don't have any of them.
I've found a picture of the other pigeon, this is him midway through rehab.




He had lost all the skin off the top of his head and most of his feathers off his flanks, belly and shoulders. Luckily he had nothing broken.
He is still around the area but at least he's stopped trying to get back in the house!

[cyro51]

Hi Diogenese,

They put on weight at an amazing rate!

You hadn't mentioned the other pigeon before. Can we have his story? He looks young in the photo although his beak is quite grown up!

Cynthia

[diogenese]

The first pigeon Mike spotted whilst driving, he was all huddled up in the gutter on a scorching hot day. He stopped to pick him up and found him all bleeding. when he got home we washed out all the gook from his wounds and tried to give him some food but I think he was in too much shock. he looked like he had been through an automatic potato peeler!
We left him in a dark box to calm down, not expecting him to last the night but in the morning he seemed perkier and took food. We had no antibiotics to administer so we kept the abrasions clean with a dilute TCP solution, it took about a week for the skin to close over his wounds.
he soon was able to feed himself.
it took several weeks before feathers started to grow back, when he had regained most of his flight feathers and tail he kept trying to get out of his cage so we took him outside and he spent most of the day around the garden trying to fly again. It didn't take too long before make short flights around the garden but he always came back to the house in the evening to roost in the utility room where we nursed him. it took about a month before he stopped pecking at the door to be let in
He's back in the wild now, local, but independant

[TAWhatley]

That's a great picture of the big, fluffy baby! Thanks for posting it. I love the "threatening" (as in don't mess with me) look on the face!

Terry

[diogenese]

Another 9g each today both are feeding well and active, the big one seems to be trying to preen though he only has a few pin feathers! The younger one is keeping up with his sibling, I thought he might have a problem being so much smaller but i suppose he just hatched a couple of days later.

Matty.

[cyro51]

Hi Matty,

As long as they are both thriving everything should be okay.

One of our last year members raised tow woodpigeons by feeding them eggfood using disposable icing bags...something to consider if the feeding gets to be hard work.


Cynthia

[diogenese]

Not quite a week later and my havn't they grown!
they have doubled in weight and have enormous wings compared to their body size
Only having reared ducklings from eggs before it is quite a difference. Ducklings wings are the last bits to develop and get feathers, completely opposite to these little monsters

A couple of questions, when do pigeons wean and can you tell the sex visually?

Cheers, Matty.

[TAWhatley]

Hi Matty .. the babies should wean at about 4 weeks of age (if you're lucky .. LOL!). No, you usually can't visually determine the sex of young pigeons. Your two are darling and looking very good! Well done!

Terry

[cyro51]

They are looking so well! And it is great to have photos of developing woodies for others to refer to.

Are they still on the duck crumb? How much did you feed them and at what consistency?

You also mentioned feeding them with a bent spoon. Did they suck the food out of the spoon or did you feed the mix into their mouths? I read once (ages ago) that baby pigeons will accept a bent spoon as the parent's beak, but have never tried that method. I am anxious to find the most effective and simplest methods of hand rearing woodies so that I can pass the information on as required...this year has seen so many wood pigeon rescuers!

Cynthia

[diogenese]

we have been doing it like this Cynthia, first open their beak and pour in some food, they lap it up quite happily. after a few days they began to finish off what was left on the spoon on their own. They won't open ther beaks for just the spoon initially but after the first mouthful they will take the rest.
it takes about 15 spoons to fill their crops to "squishy beanbag" levels, you can't get much on the spoon due to runnyness of the mix. We are making the mix a bit stiffer now they are bigger.



Matty.

[cyro51]

Bumping up for pictures of baby wood pigeons

[cyro51]

Diogenese, Thank you so much for the wonderful photographs. I know that they are going to be so useful to this site!

Cynthia