When an Ellicott resident decided to evict pigeons from her barn to prepare for horses, she had no idea what she was about to find! After chasing the adult birds out of the building, she was shocked to find she was left with a whole lotta babies-approximately 50 in all. She didn’t know that unlike most other birds, pigeons don’t have a “baby season;” they have babies all year long. Not knowing what else to do, she placed the bigger, feathered babies in a stall with seed and water, and then loaded up the neonates into a container and drove into town, where she searched pet stores in an effort to find baby bird formula, to no avail. She ultimately caught up with Phil and handed the babies to him. Phil brought the babies to EWRC. The tiny babies were only a few hours old, and were icy cold and wet on arrival. A few were DOA. The remaining neonates are doing well so far, and are on syringe feedings. An enormous THANK YOU to Laurie, Aurora, Nancy, Lynette, Chris, and everyone who responded to help take some of the neonates and bigger babies into their care. Update 03/02: The “teenie weenies” are doing well, receiving more concentrated formula via more feedings, and able to take a little more at each feeding. I think a few eyes will be opening very soon!
Same babies, same container…
Update 03/08–What a difference a week makes! All the babies are growing very quickly and seem to be doing well. All of their eyes have opened and they’re getting fuzzier. They’ve been divided into 2 groups, larger and smaller. They are still on heat 24/7 and snuggle together after feedings. Lifting each one up for feeding is like pulling from a Barrel O’Monkeys-their wings are growing and they sort of tangle together. Already the babies are opening their beaks for food. They can’t yet stand, but are very mobile, scooting along and very active. The smaller babies are fed first, and the larger ones weeble-wobble themselves up to the cloth wall and tumble over into the area of the smaller babies, where they hunker down and try to blend in with the smaller ones, hoping to get fed sooner!
Update 03/15–Now the “teenie weenies” have been separated into two large containers. They are growing so quickly! This rowdy, boisterous, noisy group is very mobile. The yelling, flapping and frenzied activity combined with their scrambling up to the the tops of their containers and then flinging themselves over remindes me of the spring break crowds, so instead of the teenie-weenies they are now the spring-breakers! One of them developed crop stasis, so the crop was suctioned free of formula and the baby is being given apple cider vinegar water in small doses, and seems to be improving. Thye’re taking formula well from the syringe, and will have solid food introduced in the next couple of days. Pin feathers are appearing now and they are starting to groom themselves a little bit.
Phil feeds the squabs formula via a 60 mL syringe…
…and additionally, the kids are pecking at seed now, on their way to self-feeding!
Update 03/22–The squabs are now 3 weeks old and wow, what a difference! Feathers are coming in, the kids are alert and active, and beginning to feed themselves seed. They’re flapping their wings and bouncing around, and as soon as the weather is warm enough they’ll be moved to an outdoor aviary to prepare for release!
Update 03-29–Today was 60+ degrees outside-a perfect day to put the flock outside to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air! We left the kids flapping, preening, and picking at seed. When we came out in the evening to bring them in for the night, several came running to the door to meet us but we couldn’t find the rest. We took the top off of an owl box and here they were, snuggled together! Before long they’ll be a free-roaming feral flock!