So my cat did it.

[FEIGNPHANTOM]

Please do not flame me because my cats go outside, we have a fenced off yard with cat fencing so they never leave it. They are a danger to nothing except things that fly In, most of the time nothing does as we have bird scarers and various other things.

I do own birds and have owned chickens before and never had any issue with " family members" being harmed.


Sadly today, my cat managed to get hold of a pigeon and somehow she managed to get it inside the cat flap. It was a very large pigeon. I investigated outside and a tree inside my yard had a nest in it with 2 eggs, presumably the pigeons (i checked my cameras that cover my garden and it appears a pigeon chose the tree to nest)

My problem now is I don't want to "throw these away"

I plan to try and incubate them, as it seems they are fertile and they have started incubation.

I'm unsure exactly what the best way to do it would be, I know temp and humidity and I have an incubator that hasn't been years for years.

Can anyone throw any basic tips at me that may help? I already have them under a heated blanket every now and then so they don't die, but pigeons aren't my usual thing and my birds are far too small to incubate them.

Thank you for anyone who helps or advises.

I've already checked locally and nobody has pigeons who can take them on as theirs already have their own.

 

[Debbie292d]

From what I've seen in hatchalongs, they get incubated like chicken eggs. 99.5F and 40-50% humidity. They take 17-19 days, so I guess lockdown would be their 14th day when you stop rotating the eggs and turn the humidity up toward 65-70%. You don't know how much incubation they have, so try candle as guess how many days old they are.

Perhaps someone who actually hatches them will come along and correct me though, but for now, it's best to get them into the incubator asap!

 

[townchicks]

Your problem will come when they hatch. Pigeon s feed their babies with crop milk which the birds produce from partly digested food. It's hard to replicate. Even wildlife rehabbers struggle to raise them .it's kinder to toss the eggs now.