New to doves..help appreciated

[oliviad51]

Hello, someone contacted me a few days ago and asked if I would house a baby dove that had been blown out of its nest during a storm. I've had chickens for years and have always been pretty good at nursing sick ones back to health (partially due to BYC) and figured I would take on the challenge. The baby hatched six days ago, and has been on my screened in porch under a heat lamp. I have been feeding it a Kaytee Exact Parrot Food formula every time the crop empties. The past couple of days, I have noticed the crop being slower to empty than normal so I read that it could have slow crop. I have been mixing applesauce in its diet and its been helping. I moved the baby inside, still under a heat lamp, so the temperature would be more constant. So I have just a couple questions that I couldn't find anywhere else online, so I was hoping the BYC community could help me out a bit!

1) How long should it be fed the Kaytee Exact formula and when should I introduce seed (and what kind of seed?) to its diet?

2) How often should I give it water? I haven't been worrying about the water much the first few days I had him, since the formula was so watery but now that it is getting thicker, I don't want to dehydrate him.

3) The applesauce has been helping, but the crop still isn't emptying as fast as it was the first few days. How often should I give him the applesauce?

4) If there are any other tips or advice any of the experienced dove/pigeon owners could give me, I would appreciate it.

Thanks so much! I have attached a picture of the little guy. Although they are closed in the picture, its eyes are starting to peek open and feathers are starting to come in on the wings.

 

[loftkeeper]

you control how thick or watery the mix is so do not understand this question if slow or hard crop not enough water dip beak in water see if it drinks hate using heat lamps on doves pigeons at this ag they cannt move away from the heat like chicks can when my incubator was running found some place in it laying pellets or crumbles can be offered about two weeks

 

[oliviad51]

Thank you very much for your help! I have been monitoring the temperature very closely with a thermometer right beside the baby. My incubator and brooder is being used right now, so a heat lamp is the only option I have. It seems to be working well. I will start offering it water more often. I guess I was worried I would give it too much. Thanks again your help!

 

[loftkeeper]

also need to think about burning baby with heat lamp chicks have fuzz where dove pigeon has only a little down and exposed skin