Baby found, please help help him...

Hey there, I am new here so please bear with me while I try and detail everything the best I can. All questions here are with the bird's best intentions at heart and I ask that you please take that into consideration as I explain everything. We did not go looking for an animal to just bring home, we are fully convinced we landed onto an unfortunate event and could not just allow an animal to suffer, anyways, we are looking for help. We have never owned birds before and came across your website, after looking around you all seemed to kind to those who have tried to help pigeons, we don't know much but we are trying out best to help our new little friend out as much as we can but we could use some guidance/reading/suggestions.
I also want to point out before I go forward that the wildlife conservation and rescue were contacted and they told us that pigeons are dealt with as pests and our friend would be put down as he was too young to survive and would be too much work to help, and we couldn't locate a vet willing to help us either....

Anyways our little friend who we have named 'Junior' was found in a parking lot on friday. A big, open one with no surrounding trees. Actually. our pup came across him and ran up to sniff the little guy which made him spread his wings, and hop away, which made it clear he was either hurt or unable to fly. We called our pup back and upon looking at the little guy, we realized he was a very young baby bird. It was pretty hot out, about 90 so degrees and pretty sunny. The bird wobbled off into a corner with cement and was left alone, hoping a someone would be back to check up on him. We brought the pup back home and went back and checked on him, it would have been about half hour 45 minutes until we went back. We stayed a distance away to see if anyone was back to check up on him or if we saw any other birds around, and saw none. We checked trees (all very small, potted ones in small grassy areas in this parking lot) with no luck of a nest or other birds. With no sign of anyone being around for over an hour and the fact the bird was so small, the decision was made to scoop the little guy up (using gloves and putting him in a medium size puppy carrier carried lined with paper towels and a bowl of cool water, to try and help him out from the sun and heat. We brought him back to the house and placed him in a quiet area with just a window open so he wouldn't have the stress of being inside a home with unfamiliar sounds and smells and made sure we had him with plenty of cool water and the familiar sounds from outside about him.

After checking the bird I can give you this description of him to help with his age:
He has a wet looking head with small yellow hairs in it. His underbelly and under his wings are bald. His wingspan is large about the length of my hands spread apart thumb to thumb. He squeals a lot when we feed him. He is unable to fly but can flap them, and sort of 'scuttle' across a floor. He can grip onto my finger or hand.

Anyways its been the weekend now and we have spent a lot of time trying to make the right decisions about this little guy, from handling, feeding and getting him to a home where he belongs. Nobody will take him in and we have been unable to find a rescue to help us so we have decided to take the little guy in for good... We tried to make it a point not to handle him much since we wanted to get him into a rescue which would eventually release him, but now since we don't think its going to happen we are doing all we can.... We have been feeding him the baby food about 4 times a day on a solid schedule since from what we read thats what he needs. If we should change that please let us know. We are looking into getting him a cage asap this week but for now we offer him a cozy area fenced in a separate room and also left the puppy carrier down for him. He spends most of his time in that but has started to come over to us now to check us out, and has realized we feed him, and has taken and learned how to eat the food from the tube we give him (food is prepared at a thermometer-tested temperature to make sure he can digest it properly- again from what we have read) and put into a tube with a piece of glove tied to the bottom with a slit in it, which we then cut a hole in for the bird to stick his beak into to eat. One of us holds him wrapped in a small cloth to keep him from hurting himself while the other holds the tube and we let him eat until he looses interest. After that we try and spend some time with him getting him flapping his wings and trying to fly. He seems to like to perch on my hand and will flap his wings a lot and sometimes hop on the ground but then he gets scared and starts to squeal. We try and keep inside noise around him to a minimum and always make sure the window is open so he can hear familiar sounds. We put an old tshirt in the box for warmth but he doesn't seem to like it much...

We apologize if any of this seems wrong at all but we are just trying to help. If anyone could please help us at all, with reading on feeding, homes or cages, what we should be doing to make sure this guy gets the chance he deserves, we would love to see it. Again, we have his best interest at heart which is why he is home with us and not at some animal rescue being put down... All of our pets in our home are also rescues from animal shelters, so we we're familiar with the ides of helping out animals in need and dedicating them the time they need, but this is a first bird for both of us..

Please help us help him? Any reading you think we should do, or anything that needs to be attended to immediately, let us know. Our concern is do we need to be worrying about him being warm? How do we know he's not eating too much or not enough? Teaching him to fly, and are we feeding him the right food? (the name of the food we give him is Kaytee Exact Hand Feeding. We give him water in a bowl fresh about every hour or so. He is a pretty messy eater and gets covered in the food, suggestions for cleaning him up?


Thank you so so so much.

Hi Kat,
Welcome to Pigeon Angels.

First and foremost, bless you for taking the time to help this little one, as so many would only have walked right on by without heslitation. You are a true

Could you give us your general location so we can see if there is another member, rehabber or vet that could assist you?

It sounds like what you are doing is spot on.

From your description it sounds like Junior is about two and a half to three weeks old.
If possible, could you post a picture of him?

Kaytee exact is just what he should be eating.
Yes, the are messy eaters. As far as clean up, you can use a damp (warm )wash cloth to gently clean off any excess food on or around his face.

Here is a picture of two of my babies at 1 week old (They are now 3 years old).

Dumpling, on the right, has a pretty full crop, while Dolly's is partically full.

These are photos of two, three and four weeks of age.








I hope these help you to determine his age and how the crop should look after eating.
How are his poops?

Here is a photo of them all grown up.



Please keep us posted on how things are coming along.

Thanks so much, it made us (me and my boyfriend) feel so much better about the situation!!!

Looks to be along the farter end of the second photo. How many times a day should we be feeding him at this point?

Today has been a big day for us and 'Junior' He is a lot more noisy!! He also is flapping his wings alot when we let him out and has actually started to I assume, show us when he's had enough by wing tapping me! We decided to try some smushed blueberries, and he gobbeled them right up! (hopefully that is okay!) We also put some toiler paper and my fuzziest warmest winter socks I had into the cage with him to give him some heat if he gets chilly. Hopefully that will help him out but he spent a little bit of time checking them out and now for the most part he stands in front of it. We also got one of those bird sticks with small seeds so he can spend some time pecking at seeds. After some light instruction, he took right to the blueberries but seems completely uninterested in the stick.

Can we give him any 'toys' or items to interact with to help him along? I feel bad just having him in a box with nothing much to do as far as interaction or learning anything....Also, do we give him water? We have a bowl in there but Im worried he might get dehydrated...?

Here are some images of him. Luckily this was right after feeding time and you can see some of his poop. It honestly looks lightly whitish around the ends but tends to be usually a little larger then a few rice grains of dark solid. He's an amazing little bird!! But as you can see from the picture, he is very messy!!!!

We are located in staten island, new york.

OMGosh!!! Junior is just absolutely adorable.
They are so precious at that age.

He is old enough to begin learning to eat on his own, but will need a little instruction
since he doesn't have his parents to show him how.
He is probably ignoring the bird stick because he doesn't know how to use it.

My suggestion would be to get a bag of dove mix or small seeds and place a
few in front of him. Then mimic picking them up with your thumb and index finger.
He will become curious (they are curious little ones) and will start to
mimic what you are doing. And before you know it Junior is eating on his own.

I would also have a small bowl of water for him to drink from. You may
need to introduce him to the water as well. Just gently put his beak into the water,
making sure his nostrils don't go under. He will soon get the hang of it.

You can try feeding him his Kaytee using a human baby bottle nipple, filling the large end.
I have raised a few that way and they loved it ( I used to place a few seeds on the
Kaytee). It's just another way of getting them started on seeds.



His droppings look good.
The white is good. It indicates urine which means he's getting liquid.
Ball park figure, about how many poops does he produce in a given hour or so?

Junior is at the age where it will be easy for him to imprint on you and vice versa.
A couple thoughts to ponder:
1. If you decide to release him, is there a safe place where other pigeons flock?
It would not be an ideal situation to release him by himself.
2. If you are contemplating keeping him (pigeons actually make wonderful pets)
then you could offer him a mirror to entertain himself, and/or a small stuffed animal.

If there is absolutely no way this would be possible, then I would suggest not
giving him any toys and only feed, water and clean his quarters without any
other interaction.

Once they become dependant on a human it's hard for them to fend properly
in the wild.

You and your boyfriend are doing an awesome job with Junior.

Please keep us posted.

How is Junior doing, Kat?

Hi Kat,

Thank you so much for looking after Junior!

From the cautious way you started your post, it sounds like somebody has told you that the baby should have been left where he was found. Not so. Your gut feelings and observations were absolutely right: a baby that age, unable yet to fly, eat or drink, alone in a parking lot in high temperatures, wouldn't have survived a day! If the heat didn't get him, a predator or a car would.
I admire the way you looked up all sorts of information and effectively taught yourself how to look after him.

You've already got lots of good advice from Cindy, and you seem to be coping admirably well.

The only thing I would like to add is that I'm a little concerned with the bald patch on his neck and chin, which could indicate that he has canker (Trichomoniasis). Trichomonas is a protozoan parasite that, in small numbers, can live in equilibrium with a pigeon's system; but when the bird is stressed or weakened, like after a period without food and water, they can increase in numbers and cause an infection. This isn't difficult to treat, either with Flagyl (Metronidazole) or Spartrix (Carnidazole) but, if confirmed, it would need treatment asap, as the disease can debilitate a youngster very quickly. One or both of those medications should be available from http://www.jedds.com/StoreFront.bok or http://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/ or

Information about canker: http://www.pigeonangels.com/t238-canker-trichomoniasis

We have a very experienced member in NY, and I hope she may find the time to comment and give you some advice.