Pigeon Talk

In my experience hens have stopped feeding the squabs early on (generally only during the 'pigeon milk' stage) and the cocks have pumped until fledging. I always figured it was so her body could recover before laying the next round of eggs.
That makes sense, with most of my pairs the hen still contributes but it would make sense that’s what occurred this time.

Thing is I actually have a cockbird that is really good about feeding random babies, (if you remember a few weeks back I had a cock with babies get sick) and he helped me out, but he wasn’t able to help me with this one this time.

One question: should I limit the squab’s water intake? I made sure the seeds I fed him last night were moistened and let him sip some water out of a spoon. He has been absolutely chugging water this morning. He was very dehydrated yesterday as evidenced by his purple skin but he looks a lot better. I don’t want to give him too much water though…
 
Maybe a good long drink after each feeding? I'm not sure about this. My roller cocks were all good feeders. I would put all fully fledged squabs on the loft floor, and when I would feed there would be a 'feeding frenzy' with cockbirds feeding any and all squabs. No problem with scalping either. I could not have done this with my homers.
 
Maybe a good long drink after each feeding? I'm not sure about this. My roller cocks were all good feeders. I would put all fully fledged squabs on the loft floor, and when I would feed there would be a 'feeding frenzy' with cockbirds feeding any and all squabs. No problem with scalping either. I could not have done this with my homers.
I think a good drink after feeding is reasonable. I gave him a big drink this morning because his crop wasn’t totally emptied, which I expected since he was practically starved beforehand.

That sounds like a dream. I have one homer cock that I can trust to feed random squabs but his instincts weren’t kicking in this time.

The rest, cocks and hen homers, are all scalpers…
 
Picky pigeons WILL NOT eat wet food
They wait by the door anxiously watching as I scoop out the wet food (it stormed yesterday night) and replace it with dry food
6DEBE175-78A1-4F8D-A948-906DEE0458DA.jpeg

Lovebird has no such qualms. She is the size of a pigeon, so pigeon food seems right to her. (She was sort of malnourished as a chick, that’s why she is so tiny. The previous owners thought vegan kitchen scraps were sufficient to feed bantam chicks)
4A79C6D7-F5B6-40EC-A1E7-2CB69DA18D5C.jpeg

The guineas are also frequent visitors to the pigeons’ “leavings”
 
Very wet droppings today from the squab, not nice lumps as the day before. I think I let him have a little tooo much water yesterday.

Thursday night when I brought the squab in his legs weren’t great, but he could definitely walk and even scurry around on the floor, at least when he was frantic for food and water. Today the squab’s legs seem a lot weaker, he’s sitting on his haunches more and can walk a few steps then sits back down. I’m thinking this obviously has something to do with him going from starvation mode to a heavy filled crop, digestion was slow and it took him basically until this morning to get through all the food from Thursday night. So now that he’s much heavier than he was when he came in his legs haven’t caught up.

My question is if this needs to be corrected or if it can be sorted out on its own? The legs aren’t splayed, one leg has one messed up toe but he was walking fine with that Thursday night. He doesn’t have splayed legs or anything, they face forward and the feet sit flat but he spends most of the time on his haunches. Does he need to be put into a full body sling or something to strengthen his legs? I have things like calcium and vitamin powder for reptiles that I could dust on his food if that would help.
 
Picky pigeons WILL NOT eat wet food
They wait by the door anxiously watching as I scoop out the wet food (it stormed yesterday night) and replace it with dry foodView attachment 3835445
Lovebird has no such qualms. She is the size of a pigeon, so pigeon food seems right to her. (She was sort of malnourished as a chick, that’s why she is so tiny. The previous owners thought vegan kitchen scraps were sufficient to feed bantam chicks) View attachment 3835446
The guineas are also frequent visitors to the pigeons’ “leavings”
That’s a good clean up crew! The only birds I keep at the moment are pigeons so I had to do away with wire floor coops, the wasted seed was just attracting way too many rodents. I didn’t mind the chipmunks and squirrels that habituated themselves to come running when they heard me feeding the pigeons, but the rats are what put me over the edge.
 
My question is if this needs to be corrected or if it can be sorted out on its own?
I have been reading, and following your Luv-Child pigeon story... and really enjoying,, and glad you are nursing him back to health.

Oh,, to answer your ????,,,,,,,,,,,, I think it will sort itself out in short time. The growth of pigeon is rapid. I think the muscles, not bones are slightly behind,,,, carrying the extra weight.

Glad the legs are not splayed. Long ago, I did encounter splayed legs in a squab. I tried every effort to correct this. Did not have success:(

Here is my theory about your little one,,,, and his momma.
You notice that his coloring is unusually different than expected. Chances are mom has been escaping,,, and visiting the pigeon red lite district. Likely laid one egg somewhere there,,, or lost in flight. The second egg was laid in your loft.

Now to the reason for abandonment; 2 possibilities from my pigeon psychology thinking.
Could not handle the work/feed load by herself.
Determined, that squab, is a female,, and therefor competition to other mates.
Here is where my thoughts come from.
SCALPING:barnie It appeared to me in my previous observations, that the scalping was done by the males, generally aimed at other males. (future mate competition)
Of course it was not a vicious activity in my loft. Raised many males, and females, as squabs,, to maturity.

I recall one time. Had 2 extra males, and when I set them out for their FIRST loft flight,,,,,,,, they shot out like an arrow,,,, and did not look back,,, or return:old

Usually, my first released, just would hang around on the rooftop, and then decide to return to loft. I initially kept the parents inside loft.
Then I would only release one of the parents at a time. (with squab junior)
Everyone may have different patterns for home-setting their pigeons,,,, and this worked for me successfully. :old
 
Some improvement today - his feet aren’t so far forward when he’s on his haunches and he’s standing up intermittently and better than yesterday. I made him chase the seeds around for a bit and walk around. I did decide to go ahead and dust with some calcium powder. His bones in his toes especially are quite rubbery. Some of them look worse and some of them look better than when he came in. At least they more or less all sit flat.

Any idea when I should offer grit? He can self-feed to some degree but is partial to the white peas as they’re big and easy to hold, so I’ve been working with him getting a better variety. This wasn’t a concern at first when he was shoveling any and all food in his mouth, but now he won’t let me feed with the bag and instead prefers to self feed with encouragement.

He can get water on his own now too, but I’ve been limiting access to only warm water after feedings and maybe a few times a day otherwise. He looks a lot more hydrated now and he was just drinking way too much. I also think he drank comparatively cold room temp water from the cup which impacted his digestion/crop emptying at one point. So warm water only
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9505.jpeg
    IMG_9505.jpeg
    528 KB · Views: 6
  • IMG_9506.jpeg
    IMG_9506.jpeg
    588.5 KB · Views: 6
  • IMG_9507.jpeg
    IMG_9507.jpeg
    607.9 KB · Views: 6
  • IMG_9508.jpeg
    IMG_9508.jpeg
    630.4 KB · Views: 6

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom