Handraising pigeon questions

[prin23]

Unfortunately the little guy is not doing so well today. He's only pooped twice and his crop is not emptying properly. He is still acting hungry, but was a bit lethargic this last feeding. I've been told warm, diluted applesauce helps with digestion, so I am going to give applesauce in about an hour to see of that helps. Any suggestions would be great.

Sorry I am just seeing this. Sometimes (very) gently massaging the crop after giving the warm apple sauce can help.
If you are on Facebook, please join Palomacy Pigeon and Dove Rescue’s page. They are wonderful, I was a moderator on the site for a few years.
They don’t need to eat often like songbirds do, but should definitely poop more than twice in a day.
They are so resilient but also such fragile babies.

 

[TundraFang]

The applesauce seems to be working. His crop was emptier this time and he seems to have perked up. His tummy was extremely swollen with poop so I decided to try giving him an enema with Vaseline. I got a pretty big pile of poo and he seems to be a lot more comfortable. Still not pooping on his own but no longer listless. Crossing my fingers he pulls through

 

[TundraFang]

Good and bad news: He is a lot more active and pooping regularly again. His crop still does not fully empty but it's looking emptier than before. He has begun displaying wry neck symptoms. Should I give vitamin e?
He's asleep right now since I just fed but I will get a video when he is awake again

 

[LamarshFish]

What are you feeding him other than apple sauce?

 

[TundraFang]

What are you feeding him other than apple sauce?

Kaytee Exact formula. I stopped giving applesauce and gave plain formula and the symptoms stopped. His crop was almost completely empty this time, so I think the applesauce helped but he wasn't getting all the nutrients from the formula. Behavior is back to normal and he's pooping regularly. I think he's trying to preen himself already!

 

[LamarshFish]

Great to hear. As I said above, I had great success with the Kaytee Exact. I did not feed him anything but Kaytee Exact for the 3 or so weeks I had to hand raise him. It has digestive enzymes and things like vitamin E already in it.

Regarding your concern of wry neck, keep an eye out, but keep in mind baby pigeons do have a hard time keeping their heads up for the first 3-4 days of life. From seeing dozens of baby pigeons, I can tell you it would not surprise me if a person new to raising baby pigeons suspected wry neck when nothing was wrong. They often sit with their heads tilted over to one side for the first few days of life.

Best of luck. Keep us posted on the progress!

 

[TundraFang]

Great to hear. As I said above, I had great success with the Kaytee Exact. I did not feed him anything but Kaytee Exact for the 3 or so weeks I had to hand raise him. It has digestive enzymes and things like vitamin E already in it.

Regarding your concern of wry neck, keep an eye out, but keep in mind baby pigeons do have a hard time keeping their heads up for the first 3-4 days of life. From seeing dozens of baby pigeons, I can tell you it would not surprise me if a person new to raising baby pigeons suspected wry neck when nothing was wrong. They often sit with their heads tilted over to one side for the first few days of life.

Best of luck. Keep us posted on the progress!

I may have just been paranoid haha. He wasn't doing the usual floppy baby neck I've seen the first two days, it looked like he was struggling to tell which was was up and would tilt his head back/to the side until he flipped over and got stuck. It definitely spooked me since I've never seen a baby bird do that (I've hand reared several wild birds), but as you said, I'm brand new to pigeons and have no hands on experience with them

 

[TundraFang]

He stopped pooping again and crop is no longer emptying. I gave him another enema. Still has an appetite but not as energetic anymore

 

[TundraFang]

I think the problem may be that his crop is full of air. What could've caused this and how do I fix it? It goes down a bit when I massage it but I'm not able to give a full "dose" of food into him.

 

[prin23]

If you have Facebook, please join Palomacy Pigeon and Dove Rescue’s page. It’s a wonderful resource. I’m not sure where you live but there may even be a member close by that can help.