Help! I almost stepped on this baby dove. Now he's in my brooder.

[Kitsap Cluckers]

No more than an hour after I set up my brooder in preparation for my chicks Friday, I was doing some yard work. I saw a wasp and took off running like I always do, and a tiny brown thing shuffled under my feet. It was a baby dove! There are no nests or other doves around, but while we were looking my husband found one of its siblings dead on the other side of the yard with its head missing. I picked it up and put it in my vacant brooder not knowing what to do. If I had left it, I'm sure it would have been decapitated shortly.

I don't know what to do with it, but I have plenty of chick starter. I think I'm going to feed it chick starter mush with a syringe if it won't eat or drink on its own. I may turn on the heat lamp too.

It can fly around a little bit, but can get more than a foot off the ground. It is well feathered, but still has some obvious baby "down". I took a couple pics of it with a light bulb for size reference - it's smaller than the bulb.

Any ideas? Any chance he can live in the brooder with the new chicks for a few days? Any advice would be very helpful!

 

[4hooves&featheredfriends]

I might set up your chicks in a separate brooder next to the dove, only for the reason that you might transmit disease from the wild bird to the chicks. The chicks will not have the antibodies against certain illnesses. That would be my thought.

 

[threehorses]

Don't feed it chick starter, please.

Unlike many baby birds who have the parents stick their beaks into the baby's mouth, dove babies stick their beaks into the parents mouth to get the "milk' that the adult doves make. You'll want to use a paintbrush to simulate that feeding response.

There are some good articles on raising baby doves online. You could also contact people on dove/pigeon boards as they often have to raise their young. The diet will be the same.

Here's a particularly good site:
http://www.diamonddove.info/bird13 Mourning.htm

 

[Kitsap Cluckers]

Just wanted to say that there was a happy ending. This little guy was brought to a wildlife rehab center yesterday. It was near the beach so we brought the dog and made a day of it.

 

[vixchix]

That's wonderful! I'm currently raising one that looks exactly like the one you found! Too big for a brooder! Pretty close to weening time! You did the right thing!