[Black n Proud]

Hey, I'm pretty sad today

A baby pigeon fell from a nest 2 days ago and I have been trying to take care of it with the hopes of it getting better and flying away one day. It was fine up until lastnight, eating and playing in the saucer of water I gave it. This morning I woke up and it was barely moving, and seemed to be struggling to breathe, it died soon after.

Can anyone tell me what went wrong, what should I have done, this is the second time this has happened to me, I cared for a fallen chick when I was a child and it too died very unexpectedly :(

[RubyPitbull]

Hi B n P!

I am not a bird expert and not sure if we have any on this forum. Same thing happened to me as a child. I am sure it is just as upsetting when you are an adult, as it was when you were a child.

I live in the boonies and have learned a lot from watching them. Sometimes when you find a chick that has "fallen" out of it's nest, usually it happens because it is the weakest of the nestlings. I have found that a lot of babies don't make it because of the "survival of the fittest" aspect. Either a stronger sibling pushes it out of the nest because it wants the food the mother brings back, or sometimes, the sibling will peck it to death. Sorry but that does happen. Sometimes the mother will only feed the strongest and she will eventually push the weaker one out.

Here is a link that I think might help you figure out if you did anything wrong. Please don't beat yourself up if you do find you did something wrong. I am sure you tried to do everything you could. You have a good heart! Not too many people will go out of their way for a baby pigeon. Kudos to you for giving it a try! This site might also help you in the future if you find yourself in the same predicament.

FACT - HOW TO CARE FOR A BABY BIRD

Hope this helps.:)

[fhqwgads]

Good for you for trying to help the bird. It's not easy. I used to live with a serious bird lover/rescuer and I've forgotten most of what I learned from her, but I know that her main priority seemed to be to keep the bird warm. When you find a bird, carefully hold it close to you to share your warmth. She used heating pads on low under a cardboard box with some flannel or something in it.

Her formula for feeding babies was usually the same - she used IAMS Eukanuba food. I think it's dog food, could be cat food. But they're small (~1/4 inch) pieces of kibble. She would let them soak in water until they were almost mushy, then hand-feed them to the birds.

That's about all I can tell you, the site the other person referred you to looks very good. And just keep in mind that baby birds can be hard to care for, even for the experienced. Especially if they're injured. So don't beat yourself up no matter what. Most people wouldn't even try.

[KMSRyana]

It's really hard to say. Nice of you to be so caring that you tried to rescue the fallen chick. I wouldn't feel too horribly bad, even though it makes you sad. The chick could very well have had internal injuries from the fall. That being said... if it happens in the future, here are a couple of things that may help, assuming there are no internal injuries.

One, you may need to pre-chew what you feed it some. Your saliva will help pre-digest the food a little, which is why most birds regurgitate food from their craws to feed their young. You'll want to vary it's diet, bread, oatmeal, apples, pears, bananas are all good if it's big enough. If it's really young they make special baby food for birds. It's powder form lot's of protein, vitamins and fats so that they can gain weight quickly and grow. You can find it in pet stores that specialize in birds.

Second, you need to make sure that it's super warm. Baby birds need to be kept nice and toasty. They don't have the ability to keep warm like adult birds do, it's why their parents tend to sit on them a lot when they're babies. Find something fluffy and warm, but not too heavy to build it a little nest and keep it warm.

Hope this helps.

[Black n Proud]

Hi B n P!


FACT - HOW TO CARE FOR A BABY BIRD

Hope this helps.:)

Thanks, it is a very helpful link... I wish it was around 15 years ago :o

But at least if it happens again, I'll know what to do