Pigeon? Sure looks like one... What to do...

[Snowkitten714]

Update to say yes, I caught the little thing and brought it home. I don't want to keep it as a pet, seeing I already have a parrot and chickens, but I do feel for the little guy and want to give it a fighting chance in the world. Right now it is in a big plastic bin in my garage (same set-up I did for my chickens). I gave it a heating pad set to low, wrapped in a towel, and shredded newspaper on the other side so it has a choice of heat or not. Closer inspection at home, its breastbone is very protruding, so if it had parents feeding it, it seems to have been a while since last feed. Like the crop is non-existent. Also, I picked the little thing up, and its underbelly is all greasy. I am assuming this isn't normal for a bird, or at least any of the birds I am familiar with. Likely upon learning to fly, or venturing out of the nest due to eaten parents (whatever the case) it could have easily gotten into something at my work (it is a gas processing plant, after all).

So I guess my questions would be... how do you know if it's warm or not? I tried the traditional feel his feet method, and they were pretty cold last night. My garage isn't freezing, but not exactly warm either. I guess I could bring it into the guest bath if it needs to be warmer than just the heating pad. Don't want it adjusting to the indoor climate though? It's about mid-30s at night, 60s during the day outside. Second, I picked up some Dove seed mix at the pet store last night, and also some baby bird formula and a syringe. I also have my parrot's organic pellets I could mash, and I have my chicken's layer fermented feed. Not sure what to try and offer it?

The little thing really hasn't budged from where I placed it in the bin. Should I try and feed it, or just offer food? Should I attempt to bathe it to remove the greasy liquid from its belly, or leave it alone? I just hate for the thing to starve to death when I have plenty of options available. Thanks again for all the input.

Oh, and forgot to ask, what's the big no no about feeding when cold? I've seen that come up a lot when Googling, but nothing really says why.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

*claps* woohoo! Good to know!
So far your doing pretty good. I always check the feet - if the feet have good blood flow and are warm, the rest of the body should be fine. A heating pad should be sufficient, but the warmer the better. Where they are at should be ~70 degrees, OPTIMUM. I've kept sick birds at 60 and they healed fine.
Personally, I'd opt for the guess room, since he'll have time to adjust once he's healthy.


Your choice on feeding. If you have no hand rearing formula, peas are fine. Just put them in a pasta strainer, run hot water over them, then hand feed. For the first few feedings I'd give ~10 peas, and work up to 30, then 40. When the peas get cold, run more hot water on them. If he hasn't eaten in a while, we want to build up the crop. I'd give 10 peas in the morning, 10 at night, for 2 days, then 20 in the morning, 10 at night for 2 days, then 20 at morning, 20 at night, etc. just want to be gradual as not to shock his system

Do you have a scale? If he's super thin, weighing him would be very beneficial. However, understand him being super thin means you will be stuck with him until he gets a good weight.
And I'd give him a good bath with dawn. He certainly won't like it, but if he preens his feathers then ingests it... Bye bye birdy.

You shouldn't water or feed when they're cold because they cannot digest it. A watered, cold bird can result In a bird with pneumonia, and a fed, cold bird can have crop stasis (or whatever it's called). They need to have a healthy body temprature before they can digest things properly
I've never fed fermented feed, but like others have said, regular feed is fine. I'm not sure about parrot feed though. IMO, for now (and until he gets a better weight) he needs to be fed peas. You can hand feed them at first, and then 'teach' him to eat them himself (which can be as easy as offering him some warm peas).

Also, we own a parrot, chickens and pigeons the pigeons have their own seperate area, and I never cross contaminate with my parrot, but I will say - they're very enjoyable. Of course, if you don't want to keep him that's fine, but we had the pigeons and chickens peacefully living together. You can always modify the chicken coop - adding 2x4's to the wall (cut up), maybe add a hanging or high up feeder, a separate water - and they can live fine. He'd just need to be kept flighted. Then you could get him a lovely wife and they can live out their days together. Lol but only if you'd be even slightest interested in keeping A pigeon, I'm just trying to say its not that hard. If you choose to release him still, he'll live a happy life in the wild


Also, can you get a good pic of its wing feathers - dry and clean, preferably - spread out? The length will help in his ability to fly and general age. A freshly fledged squab will have short wing flights, and hav difficulty flying, whereas a 1 1/2 month squab would look similar (same if you have nothing to compare) but be pretty much ready to live on its own


Once he's healthy we can go over releasing, too. Releasing takes a week - 2 weeks to do properly.

 

[Snowkitten714]

Thanks for all that great information! Yet another update...

I brought him/her into the house, where it is now residing in my guest bathroom. I'm still hesitant to have a strange bird of unknown health and background in the home with my parrot, but I threw my air purifier in the room with it, and of course lots of washing and changing clothes between handling.

Pij (my generic name for the little guy, since if all goes well, will be released eventually) got a sloppy version of a bath today. It most definitely did not get all the oils off of it. Not sure how you bathe a bird that doesn't want it, but I'll give it a day of rest and bathe again on Wednesday. One thing I did notice, the poor thing really does look like pure skin and bone. When bathing a bird, do you rub soap on hand, then on wet bird, put soap straight on bird and lather, or mix soap in bath water and splash?

So it's clearly not eating the dove seed mix I put in the bin with it, and the BF failed at picking up peas today, so I went with the baby formula and balloon syringe method. Holy moly the little thing is starving!! I had to pull it away for fear of he not come up for air! New question, how much do you feed it? I watched the crop, and didn't want to shock it, but he probably mowed down 10mL? It wanted more, but I wasn't sure. As a delayed thought, I did weigh it, after feeding, at 223 grams.

He's definitely more active, probably warmed up. Looks around a lot more, still doesn't move from one spot much, but aside from looking too skinny, seems to be doing well. I hope he makes it, I've such a soft spot for birds.

Oh, and edit to add, I really have no idea if this is male or female. Can you tell at this age?

 

[Snowkitten714]

cochinbrahmalover.... The pigeon has now been bathed twice and is flying around my garage with a decent ease? It's been eating on its own for about 4 days now. I got a dove seed mix from the store a few days back. Other than its weight I guess, what else do I need to do for this little guy to get him ready to release? I guess I have another week until it's natural oils are back from the Dawn bath? It just looks so bored in the little travel cage I have it in. :-(

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

I'm so sorry I haven't responded until now!

I usually lather than apply to bird.


That's great it ate from a syringe, and good he's eating dove seed now! You could've gave him chicken food (not sure if I said that, sorry!). But dove seed will put more weight on.

Has he gained much weight?

For entertainment, if he's living in with your parrot it should give enough entertainment.. Lol.. But you can always get a little cat ball, the ones with holes and a bell in it. Or you can give him treats, like corn, in a hard to reach area (make sure he understand its food first), and let him figure it out. They're smart creatures, but pretty simplistic.

Also did you wean him off formula, or did he just start eating so you stopped suddenly? Just curious. I have problems with weaning sometimes, so just curious - glad he's eating!

Just make sure he's healthy. You can pick up some parrot vitamins, and maybe some 'feather sheen', but really he should be fine, so long as he's a healthy weight.

Do you have a scale? If you do, can you weigh him? He should have gained some weight since then.


Again, SO SORRY, but you're doing everything great! With hand feeding babies, I tend to let them eat as much as they want, given they don't look like their crop will burst. I'm not sure how many ml it is for a bird that age (~4 weeks I think?), but so long as the crop is squishy, and not too tight, he should be fine.



Its also great he's flying well.. If you want to do some flying exercises, than (if he'll hold still) grabbing his feet while he's perched on your hand, and moving your arm up and down so he flaps, is a good way to increase wing strength. Or give him ~2 hours a day of flying around, and hide little treats (corn, peas, parrot food - my doves enjoy eating a few pieces, but I have budgie sized, if it's too big I wouldn't use it - pieces of broccoli, etc.) for him to find. It'll also give him some foraging skills.


I'm not sure how much he weighs now, but by now I'd think he's close to being released. If you don't have a scale to weigh him, then you just have to go by his breast bone... It should round and even, the breast bone can be felt, but have little to no indentation on either side. A round, full chest. If he's ready for release I can explain, or give him some more time to recover.

 

[Snowkitten714]

Thanks for the reply, but sad news to relay. Pigeon is no longer with us.

In prepping him for release, I put him in my parrot travel cage and cycled him between the garage for free flying, and outside in the cage. He was flying great, eating well, and had a nice rounded chest. He was even getting in the lighter grey feathers like the adults tend to have.

I was ready to release him, and scouted areas for other pigeons, but my boyfriend, who helped me raise him, wanted to be there for the release, and he got home too late. We decided to release him the next day after the BF got home from work. Well, the morning of release (between 9-10am), I decided to go to the gym and I had him in his travel cage outside on our covered back porch like normal, and some predator got to him. I blame myself, knowing that we have a resident Red Tail, a smaller bird of prey I haven't yet ID'ed, and a stray black cat that I have found in the backyard before (and have shot with a pellet gun). I don't know which one got him, but I saw pigeon sun bathing in the corner of the cage a few times catching a snooze, and whatever got him, pulled his wing thru the bars where he liked to lay. Very minimal blood, no major wounds, possible broken wing? We buried him in our planter bed in the front yard. I feel simply horrible for the little guy who lost his life before he really got to live it. If I see that cat again, it just lost its nine lives. Lots of guilt too, in my eyes, a very preventable death. I should have known better (especially reading all the threads on this forum). So sad.

RIP Pigeon.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Oh no, I'm so sorry!


You gave him a fighting chance. He went from a starving, cold squab to a happy fat one, and there's nothing more than a pigeon enjoys than being fat. You made his last weeks happy, and that's all you should think of.

He wouldn't blame you - he'd thank you, and understand the mishap, you're human after all.

I'm sorry for your loss, but you're only human, and like I said, you made his last weeks happy.


Rip little pigeon!