Is there any hope for my white dove?

[peepsnbunnies]

I have a pair of white doves. A couple of weeks ago they hatched out 1 baby, the other egg had a crack in it and I threw it away. The baby has been growing really good, but this evening I found the baby on the bottom of the aviary, and Mom was sitting on more eggs (she laid them in the feed dish!!) I picked up baby and noticed that his legs were splayed out. The nest is up too high for me to see in good and I did not notice this until today. I also noticed that baby's crop was empty, so mom had not fed it either, probly because she is on the nest. I brought baby in the house and fed it some baby bird food and hobbled it.s legs like I have done for baby chickens before. It has worked good for chickens.

My question is : has anyone ever had a dove with splayed legs before and treated it successfully? Also, how soon will baby start eating on its own?

Lisa

 

[Daisygirl]

Just did some light reading from another site. For caring for it in general you;
1) handfeed using baby parrot handfeeding formula from a syringe
2) It can start eating normal feed at 2 - 3 weeks on its own
3) They are fully feathered at 2-3 weeks
4) Daddy pushed baby out of nest aged 2-3 weeks for them to fend for themselves.

So how old is the baby?

Also put it on a non-slip surface like carpet or astroturf, and use the technique you have been using already to cure splayed legs.

According to the great Google, many baby doves have recovered from it. However, some just dont and thats the way of life.

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

If you keep the legs tucked up under the baby as much as you can, it will help grow them back to normal. Ringneck doves normally stay in the nest and bother their mom and dad for food for about a month. Even though they feather quickly, it does take them a while longer to get strong enough to fend for themselves completely. Mine never seem to be itching to leave the nest, LOL.
If the nest was built up too much (therefore being more flat than cup shaped), it can be very easy for the babies to fall out trying to get food from the parents. It isn't uncommon for doves to start another nest before the first clutch are out of the nest, but usually they wait until the babies are mostly/fully feathered so that they can spend their time sitting on the eggs and the babies won't freeze. The parents SHOULD continue to feed the babies, with one feeding, one sitting at a time. But if for some reason they parents get stressed out or if they are first time/unexperienced parents, they may abandon the nest and not pay the eggs or babies much attention. I would put the baby back in the nest and if by the end of the day you haven't noticed any feeding and the crop is still empty, then you may want to start hand feeding. The babies won't constantly be filled up with food, since it's more safe for the crop to empty completely before feeding again...but, they still eat pretty regularily, so that baby shouldn't be empty for long periods of time.

 

[95yj]

i'v been breeding doves for 9 years, since i was 8. i'v gotten a number of babies with splayed legs, generaly from bad breeding stock etc. i tried to fix a couple of them but in the end i had to euthenize them. i'v heard of other people fixing them so don't give up just yet, the treatments usualy consist of binding the legs together using string/tape/what ever and placing the baby in a dixie cup so that its legs are dangling. I'v never had any luck fixing dove legs but i had a baby golden pheasant with double splayed legs that i fixed and it grew up normaly. btw the parents most likely threw the baby out because it had a "defect." hope i didn't depress you