Weaning a baby pigeon?? HOW?

[Hapigrl]

Hi. We have a baby Tumbler (we think) that we have been hand feeding for about a week now becouse the parents stopped doing it. It is about 17 days old. I am wondering when to wean and how to wean? We are feeding every 3 to 4 hours. What is the best way? I have tried soaking seeds, and we have water in the cage, but it doesnt even try to drink it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys

 

[laughingdog]

it might still be too young to wean, though had some eating and drinking as soon as can flop or waddle out of nest, then i had to keep putting them back in. did you get a sudden temp spike of even a couple or more degrees? im curious as thats seemingly when my rollers would only stop feeding. i take the chick and put its beak down in the cup (i use tea or coffee cups so they cant get in them), to just before the nostrils are touching the water two or three times and they seem to get it. i just feed out of off my fingers then get the babies to get in cups after the food keeping the cup half full at all times so it can easily see and dig into food, teaching the babies from when they are hatched the food call sound so they expect the parents or me to feed them right after in evening or whenever call and theyll come to me or the bowls/cups. sometimes babies dont remember too well so the feed call reminds them to come to food and that its there.

 

[Hapigrl]

Thank you so much for the reply. My husband ended up with a long weekend from work and we actually found a home for all of our adult pigeons including the parents that Monday. We kept the baby since it become soooooo attatched to my hubby. It is now finally weaned, after your advice and the advice of the guy who adopted the others (who actually had an aviary with temp controls omg! in Florida). It is now eating and drinking on its own, and very very loving and active and hopefully happy in our screened in Florida room with room to fly and be somewhat free . Oh, and yes your question about temp change. Not really a temp change but we had moved them from our Florida room to a part in the yard that we thought they would be happy in, I guess we were wrong. We had only had them for about 4 months and really didnt know what we were doing. They are very neat, but I am certain that they will be much happier in the place we found for them. Its all about quality of life, that is the most important. Thanks again hun

 

[Hokum Coco]

I am glad things seem to work out well for you and your squab. Usually when parents stop feeding an offspring there is something wrong with it.

 

[Holly31]

Oh, help, a person brought me a squab from wild parents and I've been syringe feeding it about 2 weeks now. It's gone from a large pin cushion with yellow fluff to a large fully feathered bird that is doing its best to poo on everything but the newspaper. It still squeeks but is trying more adult sounds, and I can't seem to get it to eat seeds. It pecks at them, but doesn't swallow any. Does he need grit before he can grinds seeds? I am using basically small round seeds, millet and milo and safflowers thrown in. He will drink water from a cup if thirsty. Do I just stop syringe feeding him cold turkey (cold pigeon?) to get his hunger up? I'm feeding about 20 cc exact 2 X a day at 2 pts water to 1.5 parts mix. I've raised a LOT of animals but this is my first feral pigeon. We have LOTS of pigeons for him to imitate - I take him out, feed the adults, and him at the same time, he watches, tries, but still won't take the seeds up and swallow them. I think he is ~ 5 weeks old.
Thanks people !

 

[paramount]

Sounds like you're doing fine.

Sometimes, hand fed squeakers are slow starters. If he is drinking on his own, he is getting there.

If you have a youngster about the same age that is eating on its own, it can't hurt to put them in a small cage together.

Once you do that, start cutting back on the handfeeding. Keeping them a bit hungry works every time.