I stumbled across a ferile chick wood pigeon which looked like it had
fallen from a nest under a bridge. My initial thought was to leave it
be but it was making no attempt to fly or run away from me, so I decided
to take it home and hand rear it until it was ready to be returned back
to its nesting site.
I searched google to gather some info on feeding and also found this
site which helped me to determine its age,
http://www.speedpigeon.com/baby_racing_pigeon.htm
from the pics the chick was looking closer to 20 days old
so I kept it in a fairly large cardboard box close to a radiator. for the
first 3 to 4 days it was very chirpy and was eating corn,peas,seeded bread
and oats from my hand. I also gave it milky water via a syringe dropper. I
tried to feed it 3 times a day and every feed time it was the usual
pecking at my hands and chirping.
I was starting to get quite fond of this little chirpy chick and feeding
it was a pleasing experience as it was always huddling close to me.
On day 4 after feeding it, I noticed it was a little quieter than usual so
I just thought it may have eaten too much and left it at that, but I was
upset to find it motionless in the corner of the box a few hours later.
I was looking forward to seeing it fly.
Is it common for hand reared ferile chicks to die so quickly ?
(I did notice some fluid around its mouth).
I've rescued other animals sucessfully but birds not so successfully.
