UNDER CONSTRUCTION
The purpose of this page is to present ways and means to hand feed baby pigeons.
Food products will be presented along with techniques for feeding and keeping the youngsters healthy.
Patience plays a big role in taking care of the newly hatched, and for those older youngsters you chose to hand raise. I personally receive lots of gratification hand feeding the young, and later having very quiet and friendly adult birds
I raised 19 English Short Face Tumblers all at one time and I can assure you it was a labor of love. I learned most of all to take my time and make sure I did everything right in order not to cause a problem for the bird. Take your time, practice hygiene; keeping your utensils clean, the food fresh and the very young warm when necessary.
There will be problems from time to time and these will be addressed as best as I can from my experience, and hopefully from input of other fanciers. PLEASE CONTACT ME WITH YOUR TECHNIQUES SO OTHERS CAN LEARN.
BABY FOODS
Roudybush, Kaytee, Purina Products and other products that will be added as we go along.
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ROUDYBUSH SQUAB ROUDYBUSH SQUAB & FORMULA 3
AGE (Days) Formula % Water % Formula Feedings/Day 0-4 Squab 86 14 5
5-7 Squab 80 20 4
8-14 Squab 75 25 3
FORMULA 3 TO WEANING: 75 25 4 * Formula 3 can be purchased from Roudybush or other retail outlets
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GRAIN
Feeding young whole grain
Some will use water in the grain, so moisture enters the youngster as it is being fed. Kind of messy, but it works very well. I have also placed dry grain in a bird and later used a small latex tipped syringe with vitamin water to finish the feeding. Later I will post a couple of photo's showing how to open its beak and place the grain in the birds mouth You can place one grain at a time or several at one time. Large grain such as peas or popcorn I place one at a time. With the smaller grains, I pinch a group of grain and place it in the mouth. I also give the youngsters that are taking grain, a pinch of small grit when I have finished feeding grain.
UTENSILS
This baby was the only hatch. I found it in the nest bowl cold. I removed the baby and placed it under another pigeon that was sitting on plastic eggs. This was done to warm the baby naturally. After it was warm, I removed and fed the Roudybush squab food, one small drop at a time. After I placed the baby back under the same pigeon to keep it warm. I did a feeding every couple of hours or when I got off work which was a few hours. I did this for 4 days. I had a pair who were sitting on plastic eggs which were due to be able to give the baby milk, so I placed the bay under this pair. They are feeding it and it is much larger now. The 4th photo is of this bird. It is doing great!
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INCUBATOR
Recently I purchased an incubator. I will attempt to hatch some eggs that do not match up by date with another pigeon pair, which will lay in a few days.
I will hatch the eggs in the incubator, feed and eventually place the youngster under a pair of pigeons that by date can continue feeding it.
Photos and narrative will continue here, so you can see what is possible with an incubator.
