Rearing baby pigeons

Every baby bird is different.  This little squab may look just like the last but they couldn’t be more different.   Our other squabbie is a placid bird, thinking only about food and wanting to be held and carried round.  He had to practice for a long time before he dared flutter even a short distance.   (He’s still doing well, by the way, feeding himself and it won’t be long before we can release him.)   This latest baby pigeon is a real livewire, he still wants to be fed but he mostly wants to fly – and he’s certainly good at it.  No practice necessary for this little fella, he’s a natural.   At first he flew to me, now he circles the ceiling.  I have to wait till he roosts somewhere before I can get him to feed him.

Feeding baby pigeons is a messy business, I make up a mix of seeds, oats, chick crumbs (for the grit that’s in them), oats, water, a drop or two of goat’s milk, make into crumbly, moist pellets, gently open the squab’s beak and down it goes.   The aim is to replicate the pre-digested food in the mother’s crop, if she was rearing this baby she would open her beak and he would feed himself from her.   Trying to replicate this is impossible – we get mash everywhere.   What you need for rearing baby pigeons are wet tissues, for clean-ups, dry tissues for nest building and lots and lots of patience.