The Story of Fluffy the Pigeon:
June, 2007:
I have a pet pigeon which laid eggs and became broody. I gave her two
fertilized eggs from the loft to incubate; and she sat alone for three
weeks. One egg did not develop; but the other quickened.

On June 14, 2007 the pigeon began to get nervous; so I thought the hatching
would be soon. On the afternoon of June 15, I saw the egg had pipped and
waited;the pigeon hen was getting hysterical, coming to me and flapping her wings.
The squab was not progressing and looked stuck; I could see its head but
could not make out the rest of it. Touching the egg brought forth a small
amount of blood. By early evening I decided to check further and opened my
pigeon encyclopedia. In the chapter on hatching squabs, it showed the
presentation of this squab labeled: 'this presentation will probably not be
able to hatch because the membrane has dried and trapped the squab'.

So, with nothing to lose, I took some cotton swabs, tweezers, and tissues
and carefully located and lifted the membrane, freeing the squab's upper
body which was really twisted-up. The lower part of the body and umbilicus
I left alone in the shell; as I could see the yolk sac still outside the
body. The squab looked exhausted and was breathing hard. I was waiting for
its breathing to stop; but it kept on. The squab needed to go under the hen
to dry out and warm up.

When I showed the squab to the hen she pecked it in her frenzy, giving it a
nice sore on the side of the neck in addition to its other difficulties. The
umbilical was bleeding a bit from the jerk of that nip. I put an herbal
poultice powder on the sore to absorb moisture, turned-on my special heated
nest dish, and rested the squab there until late night. It was still
breathing by then and dry.

I was able to slip the squab under the hen after she fell asleep. She
accepted, brooded, and protected it the next day; but she did not feed it.
It was still very weak and had not finished absorbing the yolk sac, which
sustains it for up to three days. I thought surely it will die. June 16 in
the morning, I was able to lift the squab from the half shell. Its
umbilical was messy; so I painted it with iodine tincture. The hen
continued to brood it all day. By evening, it still was not fed; so I mixed
some hand rearing formula and gave it two watery feeds before bedtime. June
17, it had digested the feeding from the night before. I painted the navel
again with iodine tincture and hand fed it whenever the crop emptied, which
was slow at first then picked-up a bit toward night.
There were droppings in the nest. The squab was so weak that the food
dribbled out as well as went down creating a danger of aspiration of the
food. I cleaned its mouth with a cotton swab after the feeds to try to
prevent this. I decided the squab was too sleepy from its ordeal to wake up
and beg for food; so I gave it three doses of a homoeopathic remedy
in water during the day. (I am a homoeopath).

On June 18, I gave the squab an early feed. Its sore was smaller. By the
time for the second feed at noon, I found the mother pigeon feeding it
herself!
Now that it was being fed pigeon milk, the squab had a chance for survival.
The baby pigeon grew and was weaned without further mishap. I named her Fluffy;
and she has the run of the house.

Pidgee the mother Pigeon

Fluffy the Pigeon

Sarah

You are such a good egg!! Miracle worker you! We love Fluffy!

What a lovely story. Your diligence to save this little one is to be admired.

Well done. Good to have pigeon in the house.

What a great story. I loved the descriptions you took the time to put together. I felt like I was there.

There is no way I would be able to look after a little one like that. What would have happened to the hen if she hadn't been given the fertilized eggs - would you have put her in the loft? It must be hard to work homeopathically [sp] with such a small creature.

I love their little tuft of feathers on the back of their heads [like a Woodpecker] - what type of Pigeon are they?

I'm glad you didnt give up. You saved a little life.

I have to agree, it was excellent. I was reading as fast as I could, hoping for a good ending for that chick.

I'm glad you enjoyed reading the story. I wish I had pictures of the event; but, believe me, it was really scary at the time.

I gave my pet pigeon eggs because I spoil her; my house is her loft.

The little tuft on the back of the head is called a 'crest' in pigeons. I love the look. My original pigeons had this characteristic as a recessive gene.

Mine are Middle-Eastern mongrel pigeons possibly mixed with Rock Dove. The original pigeon, the Rock Dove, is a native species in my country; so a lot of our 'feral' pigeons are really wild birds. The Rock Dove is a real looker.

Years ago, I bought a heated pigeon nest pan from Belgium. It plugs in to the wall and gives a very low heat just about right for hatchling birds, better than a heating pad. That nest pan has been put to good use for abandoned or unwell baby budgies and squabs.

I am not unwilling to call the veterinarian; if I can't deal with it, the vet gets a call.

However, fortunately, homoeopathy works great for birds and is easy to administer. The little birds get their remedies in a spray mist or in the water bottle. The pigeons can get the remedy in the water or by popping a sweet pill into the mouth. I have had very good results treating my birds homoeopathically both for their ailments and as preventative medicine.

Sarah

What a great story!

Thank you for sharing the wonderful story with all of us, I am very impressed with your determination to assure the little one lived the life given to him/her.
You sure have won my heart.
Take Care
Arty