How to fatten baby pigeons. Not squabs

[Aaron nassery]

Hey guys. So I own some 4 day old pigeons. And they were abandoned several days before their hatch so I put them in my incubator and hatched them. I’ve done this many many many times before. For about 4 years, and in the past 2 years I’ve only lost about 3 or 4 to issues not involving nutrition. Well maybe one was due to nutrition but the others were food unrelated. Anyways, one of my little ones isn’t gaining weight as much and I just wanted to know what would be some good ways to fatten it up. They are not squabs yet which would have made it easier to fatten up but at this age , what do you guys do or think would help fatten it up? I’ve raised more than 30 pigeons this way. All hand fed with no mother giving them crop milk and out of those 34-35 pigeons, 28 have grown to adults and the rest died from other a multitude of things. So I know exactly what I’m doing. I just never could figures out how to fatten ones up that were not gaining weight properly. The ones that weren’t gaining weight properly either died eventually or grew at a rate 8 times slower than a normal baby would

 

[biophiliac]

Hey guys. So I own some 4 day old pigeons. And they were abandoned several days before their hatch so I put them in my incubator and hatched them. I’ve done this many many many times before. For about 4 years, and in the past 2 years I’ve only lost about 3 or 4 to issues not involving nutrition. Well maybe one was due to nutrition but the others were food unrelated. Anyways, one of my little ones isn’t gaining weight as much and I just wanted to know what would be some good ways to fatten it up. They are not squabs yet which would have made it easier to fatten up but at this age , what do you guys do or think would help fatten it up? I’ve raised more than 30 pigeons this way. All hand fed with no mother giving them crop milk and out of those 34-35 pigeons, 28 have grown to adults and the rest died from other a multitude of things. So I know exactly what I’m doing. I just never could fingers out how to fatten ones up that were not gaining weight properly

Have you considered Salmonella as a possible cause?

 

[Aaron nassery]

I don’t think it’s salmonella. They are in a very clean environment and when get the eggs I sanitize them to make sure no infection are transferred. But I’ve have been checking there dropping very carefully and checking for sudden weight loss and that doesn’t seem to be the issue. The issue is weight gain. He hasn’t lost any weight he is just gaining weight very slowly

 

[biophiliac]

I don’t think it’s salmonella. They are in a very clean environment and when get the eggs I sanitize them to make sure no infection are transferred. But I’ve have been checking there dropping very carefully and checking for sudden weight loss and that doesn’t seem to be the issue. The issue is weight gain. He hasn’t lost any weight he is just gaining weight very slowly

Ok, I trust your experience. Just saying that despite good loft hygiene, the parents may be asymptomatic carriers and certain squabs may be more vulnerable.
Keep us updated and good luck!

 

[biophiliac]

For extra fat calories I think first of safflower and peanuts.

 

[Old_Strain_Lover]

Not every baby will thrive and survive. Sometimes it's genetics, sometimes it's sickness... don't always know the reason, but it happens (it's often why parents abandon babies). If they are only 4 days old you are basically limited to feeding them some kind of formula. Fats and protein is about all you can do as they don't digest carbohydrates yet at that age.