Baby Pigeon Won't Peck

Hi - I'm new to this forum having been recommended by Cynthia. She's been a huge help.

A baby wood pigeon fell out of the tree in the high winds on 25th August. He was only about 6 days old, but we thankfully found Cynthia's website which showed us what to do. He's now a gorgous little chap (or lady - how do you tell?) and sits on my shoulder.

We're going to keep him and hopefully find him some mates to pop in a large aviary in our garden as he's too tame to let go.

The thing is, I'm still bottle feeding him. Cynthia told me that hers were pecking at a very young age, but little Tweaty just picks it up and drops it again. I've tried pecking with my fingers and he seems to want to copy, and I've tried making him hungry so he's got to feed himself, but then I get worried he's too hungry and give in. At which time he goes mad at the bottle.

Please help!

Wendy
x

Wendy!!!

I think you should not be too worried about this yet. Some start earlier, some later. Perhaps you could try taking unshelled sunflower seeds between two fingernails and offer him to eat this way. I have done this with our little ones and realized when they fail to pick it up from your fingers they try to pick it up themselves from the floor. Give it a try and have patience. It will work over time...
Our Pina even picked the seeds from between my teeth!!!! :That\\\'s so f

Hi Wendy,

I am so glad you have joined us, I started a welcome thread for you here :

Welcome Little Fledgling

Wood pigeons learn a lot from other wood pigeons (as do ferals), you can often see them watching the adults pick up seed and swallow it. Once Tweaty has friends he will be able to observe them and learn.

What you could try is to slip Tweaty's beak between your fingers to encourage him to gape and pop warm defrosted peas into his mouth when it is open. Once he gets the taste for them, let him see you pick up each pea before he gapes, so that he associates you "pecking" with the food. If he doesn't like the peas, try it with something else that he likes.

Tweetywood was older than Tweaty whan he arrived and still needed a bit of weaning and readjustment (he had been eating porridge, spaghetti and bananas) but once he was in the aviary, surrounded by pecking birds , he learnt very quickly!

Thanks so much for your reply. He's just been having a go at picking bits out the bottom of his water bowl, then dropping them, looking at them thinking mmmmm.... is that food, and having another go at pecking them.

How do you tell if he's hungry or just picking (or pecking ha!)? I notice his crop always looks more rounded after he's had a bottle feed, and in the mornings you can see his sternum quite obviously when he's not eaten all night. Is there another way to tell - I don't want him suffering. Very nervous about all this at the moment - like a new mother!!


Wend
x

Hi Cynthia - I was posting the same time as you! Thanks for that little tip. I have a freezer full of frozen peas, so will give him a go this afternoon. He's flying around our summer house at the moment - he was desperate to get out of his cage.

We must get sorted on that aviary - will ring the chap tonight as he's not got back to me yet.

Wend
x

PS. Thanks for my welcome - I feel honoured!

Hi Wendy,


When they are bottle fed, or fed by their parents, they get their food in one go, so the crop shows as full, but in the wild they forage so the crop t has food going through all the time and empties completely at night. The best way to tell if they are getting enough food is to weigh them at the same time every day.

When I am concerned about whether a pigeon is eating enough I give them a good top up when they go to bed as I can't bear to think they might be hungry during the night, when there is nothing that they can do about it.

Cynthia

Thanks Cynthia - that's a help.

What should he be eating now - I've still got him on chick crumbs, but with some wild bird food mixed in (it's got maize, corn, etc in it, but the bits aren't too large).

x

That recipe sounds fine!

Cynthia

Sorry for all the questions.

Little Fledgling wrote:

Sorry for all the questions.

Hi Wendy,
Please don't worry about asking questions. That's what we're all about.
We have a wonderful group of 'crazy pigeon people' here and we're always eager to help one another as best we can.

You're doing a wonderful job with Tweaty.
Any chance of posting a or two of him. We love pictures!!

What a cutie!!!!!

We had the same issue with one of our ferals... It wasn't until Cindy mentioned that I should try a baby nipple and put the peas inside, DID we have success. It wasn't as frustrating for him. He could move the peas only so far and the he would gobble them all up a nd the nipple was soft and didn't scare him....he hated pecking at the hard dish....lol.... PICKY... picky After that he realized what that meant and slowly I added seed and then put the nipple in his cage... soon enough he was a champ at eating on his own.

Best of Luck and

Thanks - that's a great idea. All this help, it's wonderful!

Another question how do I insert an image?

I'm not getting any work done this afternoon

Quote :

Sorry for all the questions.

That is what we like! The questions keep us all activate and interested and as none of us knows everything we carry on learning. For example, I had never considered:

Quote :

then put the nipple in his cage

What a good idea!!!! Of course! He associates the nipple with food and will investigate and start to eat.

Cynthia

Quote :

Another question how do I insert an image?

Click on "gallery"

Choose "your personal album"

Click on "Upload Pic"

Upload a picture from your computer and save it.

Alert me, Cappuccino, Matilda or Fancyfeathers that you have a pic that needs approving. Once one of us approves it it will appear in your album.

Select the pic you want to insert.

Copy the BBCode of picture (not thumbnail)

Paste BBCode staright in to thread.

Hi - done my pics - hope that you can find them. There are only two.

Good luck.
Wend.

Your pictures have been approved and they are adorable.

And this is Tweaty about 10 days ago. He's grown since then.





This is Tweaty when we found him. He's smiling

Oh my - this little fellow is sooo cute just like a cuddly toy!!!

Hi Wendy,
I just wanted to let you know, I re-sized your adorable photos so they would fit better in the post.

Matilda wrote:

Your pictures have been approved and they are adorable.

They sure are.

Here's another option to post pictures, which will go directly into a post.
These are the directions I sent to Naomi.

When you click on reply, scroll across each option box with your arrow, a description comes up. You want to click on Host an Image .

Once you have clicked on Host an Image, the Upload an Image box should appear.

Click on Browse. From there you need to pick the folder where the photo is that you want to upload.

Click on the picture, then click OPEN.

Before doing anything else, click on the down arrow and choose the 320 px width (for blogs). This makes a nice size photo.

Then click Host It.

The link you have chosen will appear in the middle of the Upload an Image box under IMAGE.

Highlight that link, then right click and choose Copy.

Go back and click on the Host an Image box (that will close it).

Wherever you want the photo to go, right click and the click paste.

I hope this isn't too confusing.
It may take a few tries, but it does work well.

If you are having any problems, Charis said she will be more than happy to call you and walk you through it.

Thanks for doing that for me and for the new instructions. They were rather large to start off with

Hi,

I sorry I've only just come in and found this thread, looks like I've been missing all the action.

Oh isn't he just too sweet.

I have two at the moment, one that's been hand reared and is still people friendly although I'm trying not to have anything to do with him, the other one was raised in the wild and isn't so keen on my presence. The hand reared one is so greedy and always gets stuck into the seeds first. They are also very keen on chopped water cress/greens.

The weaning process does seem to vary a little with the each Woodie I've had in the past. Generally I move from the formula to defrosted peas as an interim food, popping one at a time into their mouths, rolling them to the back of the throat for them to swallow.
Once they find they like them they find these easy to pick up themselves as they're soft and easy to grip, and once they've mastered the technique of getting them to the back of their throats with their tongues they are able to do that with seeds.
Apart from one fledgling, they have taken to picking up seeds by me scattering them around and playing with them with my fingers.
The first one I ever raised I left a little too long before I tried to wean him and he couldn't get the hang of picking them up for a while. Neverthless he got it in the end.

I too haven't tried the nipple idea, sounds worth a try if he's still dropping the seeds at present.

Janet

I've not managed to post pictures here as yet, thanks for the instructions, I'll give it a try later.

Tweety is adorable!
It is always easier for babies when there are more birds around to actually show the process.
Maybe I’m wrong but I prefer to carry on hand feed them even when they eat seeds alone. I reduce feeding quantity gradually, but continue week after normal weaning date. If youngster is under weighted even longer. Some of my adult birds still get exited when they see me with syringe in hand.

plamenh wrote:

Tweety is adorable!
It is always easier for babies when there are more birds around to actually show the process.
Maybe I’m wrong but I prefer to carry on hand feed them even when they eat seeds alone. I reduce feeding quantity gradually, but continue week after normal weaning date. If youngster is under weighted even longer. Some of my adult birds still get exited when they see me with syringe in hand.

That is another good way to wean. We all have our own special ways to arrive at the same result and it is so valuable to be able to share.

Just to let you all know Tweaty has gone absolutely mad over warm peas. He's wolfing them down (although I'm limiting them so he doesn't get too many). We started this morning and he was playing about with them. Picking them up and dropping them. So I offered one in my fingers and he took about 1 in 3 and managed to get them down his throat.

This afternoon I've tried it again, to excited shreeks and flapping of wings. He's snatched them from my fingers and wolfed them down, and then picked them up one by one very quickly and swallowed them as if it was his last meal.

On the up now - thanks so much for all your help. I'd never have got this far without all this advice.


Sorry had to use that emoticon!
Wend.
xx