Might have a squab!

[Kleonaptra]

Yep I set 2 eggs, the second went in a day or two after. Its been well over 12 hours now.. Not much movement in there so I pulled off a piece of shell that was already cracked. You can see his little beak panting in the crack. Should I assist? Ive helped ducks before, Im quite good at ducks, lots of success, never assisted with a squab before, so Im really not sure if I should help the little guy or not. This morning when I left it was very active, you could see movement in the crack now the crack seems smaller if anything and just the little beak through. My incubator is a cheapo so to up humidity the best I can do is add a little warm water to make it steamy, the heat is set at 37.6 celsius.

I know the odds are against me, every one keeps telling me so, but Ive raised sparrows from hatch point, Ive even raised a silver eye which is a tiny nectar eater - full grown that little guy was smaller than my thumb! I reakon pigeons are tougher than that and feral animals are always better at hand raising than natives in my experience!

So should I jump in and assist?

 

[Kleonaptra]

Upped the humidity and went and had some dinner, came back and the plucky lil thing had made another hole! Sat and watched him hatch out, obviously the extra humidity was what he needed.

Sitting in the incubator drying out, lookin all scruffy. Ive got his brooder warming up

 

[Hokum Coco]

It would not hurt to make the opening a bit large and give the little fellow a hand. I would not take him completely out of the shell as it could cause blood loss. There is a reason it takes them 2 to 3 days to hatch.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Take a pic once you've got him out! I love the look of a newly hatched squab, all fluffy and stuff!
May I ask, why did you set the 2nd egg later? Obviously it won't be bullied out of food, but just wondering if there was a reason.
Glad to know the humidity helped.

 

[Kleonaptra]

I took some especially for you!




And here are the parents


Ten hours in now and doing great. Lil thing is SO plucky, wobbles around the box and peeps, my god, peeps! So cute. The last one I rescued from them was NOT like this, it was obviously hurt or something, this one has heaps more pluck. I use a tiny dish, put the food just at the edge of the beak and the baby takes a sip, picked it up right away, but geez, one tiny sip and the crop is mega full. Im being really careful to only give a small sip each feed and let him empty out between feeds.

Egg two has certainly pipped and is underway. It went in a couple of days later because she laid it a couple of days later. When I took them both, they got started on some more and promptly broke them. I know the male sometimes does it on purpose, because he loves the 'nest building having sex all day' part so much and hates sitting, but I know the female breaks them too.

Onward and upward my friends

 

[Kleonaptra]

Forgot to mention also had about 4 or 5 tiny winy poops. Always a good sign! The lil thing is trying to preen itself it is SO unbelievably cute

 

[Kleonaptra]

Got 2 squabs now, squab one is doing extremely well, I have to admit my hopes are high for him. He's extremely active and noisy, goes for the food when its offered and has not quit since he hatched.

Im really not sure about squab two. The hatch was extremely hard, pipped yesterday morning, still had not widened the hole at 10pm, I widened the hole a bit for him, wrapped him in damp paper towel and upped the humidity. He hatched on his own but it took a long time and he wasnt as lively as squab one. He pooped soon after hatching but just lays quietly barely moves around and has not peeped. Pooped again this morning and takes food but just lies and sleeps.

Im feeding about every 4hrs. I check at 3 but the crops are not totally empty so I wait for them to empty out before I feed. Just one sip and they are full.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Have you considered a different type of less messy feeding?
A good one is the syringe method, where you cut off the end of a syringe (I just plug the end and take out the pump), fill it with some food and cover it with a balloon(or a balloon like thing), cut a slit, and then insert the babies beak in the slit. They then naturally start to eat - I tell if mine are hungry by putting my fingers in a circle, put their beak in it, and see if they try to eat.
Your method sounds like its doing fine, but as they get bigger it will be messy! XD

Best of luck, thanks for the pics! Parents are a beauty!

 

[Kleonaptra]

When I first thought we had a pip on thurs I got out all my little syringes and bulbs - For feeding little birds like sparrows you have to literally shove it down their throat so I have lots of stuff - cleaned it all and experiemented with a bulb on a syringe. I can get it working but its just too much trouble right now, its nice and easy for my to mix it up in a little dish and when I sit the dish on the edge of the beak little one just takes a big sip. I really hope it gets big enough that I experience the mess, and have to change to syringe! Ive got bigger syringes too which might work well if I clip the end.

I lost squab 2 between the 4am and 8am feed this morning. Its a real shame too, yesterday afternoon he was peeping and wriggling about and acting so lively, I really thought he had a shot. Funny thing is, squab 2 was easily twice the size of squab one, you'd think the bigger would be the stronger.

Squab one is now named Inari. The pic does not do him/her justice it could easily sit on a five cent coin! So unbelievably tiny! Still peeping and wriggling and being very active. This is day 3 now so Im really prayin and hoping, come on lil one and pull thru for momma, we've worked so hard!

My partner said its going to be SO bonded to you...I said it already is...Have you not heard the increased peeping when I enter the room?

 

[Veer67]

Isn't 4 hours quite a long space in between feedings? I'm not sure about feedings for doves and pigeons but for my baby zebra finches I feed them every 30 minutes or 1 hour depending on how full their crop and how old they are, http://www.pigeonrescue.co.uk/howmuchtofeed.htm. I have never fed pigeons before so I might not be right. I like to use straw to feed baby zebra finches the only adjustment I make is cutting a little slit so it's easier for them to "lick" or eat the food up.