Please help! Urgent matter!

[mwense]

So I found this abandoned egg which I think It's probably a dove's egg, I searched how to candle and can't really do it right, but I was able to see veins and what I think may be an embryo.. So, I absolutely don't want it to die and right now it's close to my room heater, I do have an old homemade incubator but never used it, and can't find it now, probably someone threw it away.. I already lost a baby bird once, I won't forgive myself if I can't save this one now.. What should I do??

 

[sourland]

Try to keep the egg warm, but don't beat yourself up if you are unsuccessful. Even the experts have a high fail rate in such situations.

 

[wlantry]

I already lost a baby bird once, I won't forgive myself if I can't save this one now.. What should I do??

Pigeons and doves are not like chickens. When chickens hatch, they're ready to go from day one. When pigeons and doves hatch, they're completely helpless. The success rate for trying to incubate a dove egg, and raise the resulting squab, would be well below one percent. I can't imagine even trying. It may be heart-breaking, but it's pretty much hopeless.

 

[mwense]

I wanted to try at least.. It's pretty hard to find info like the right temperature and so..

 

[Lofty Dreams]

I never had doves but, had pigeons for a few years; I once tried incubating a pigeon egg that I found abandoned in my loft, I didn't have any success with it hatching. The temperature and humidity will need to be managed and the egg will also need to be turned every couple of hours. If it doesn't hatch, I wouldn't worry as much; your doing what you can and shouldn't blame yourself for part of nature's course. It it was abandoned the parents were likely not very experienced or something may have been wrong with the egg/embryo.

 

[mwense]

I almost gave up but I just candled the egg and saw the embryo moving inside! Now I feel there may be hope!

 

[Lofty Dreams]

I have read that the incubator temperature should range between 99 and 102 o Fahrenheit for doves with a humidity percentage of 51%. If the egg does hatch; this might be helpful. This is more complicated (very formal and uses more complicated terminology and comes into some things in great depth) but, it might have some answers for you. Page 144 mentions temperatures, and I haven't been able to find much on humidity.

 

[mwense]

Wow thank you, it'll surely help a lot! I think the hardest part is if the egg hatches, as the baby dove is so fragile!

 

[Lofty Dreams]

I hope you will have better luck hand raising birds then I have had;I haven't had the best luck, but the one that I raised since he was about 13 days would happily greet me, everytime when I went by the lof,t he was probably the closest I had to a pet pigeon (he lived in my bedroom for a few weeks).

 

[mwense]

Thank you! I'll certainly do the best I can, but I know that even if I do, it'll mostly depend on luck... Anyways the embryo is pretty big already, and it's moving, so I think it has a chance of hatching!