Last Saturday, I was at work. We have aviaries for the nursing home residents.
One of the mommy doves got spooked when a higher up nest fell downward. The diamond dove flew off the nest revealing a hatchling and an egg. I suspect the hatchling was maybe 2-4 days old. It was half bald and half feathers that had not opened up yet.
I watched throughout the day and the mom wouldn't get back on the nest. The baby was beating its wings pretty hard, trying to stay warm.
I informed the front desk. The lady there said nobody was coming till Tuesday as it was Labor Day weekend. She said just let the baby die. It "happens all the time".
Well, not on my watch!
I managed to coerce her to give me the key to the aviary and got the baby bird. I figured if they were gonna let it die, I was sure as heck gonna try to give it a fighting chance. I had NO prior experience with hand feeding any animals before.
I've had it for 9 days now. Its feathers are all coming out nicely. I was reading online the dismal failure rate of 90% for someone who has no experience, and even those who do, hand feeding is TOUGH.
I was waking in the middle of the night to feed it. Do you know how hard it is to point a syringe that ends in a 3 mm tip onto something who's mouth is so tiny. Those first days, the bird didn't know how to even feed from the syringe. It would take 40 minutes to get it even half full.
But now, it practically chases my finger!
It lets me hold it's head while it opens up for the syringe now.
I think baby dove is gonna make it!
(I'm having a hard time trying to attach a photo???)
One of the mommy doves got spooked when a higher up nest fell downward. The diamond dove flew off the nest revealing a hatchling and an egg. I suspect the hatchling was maybe 2-4 days old. It was half bald and half feathers that had not opened up yet.
I watched throughout the day and the mom wouldn't get back on the nest. The baby was beating its wings pretty hard, trying to stay warm.
I informed the front desk. The lady there said nobody was coming till Tuesday as it was Labor Day weekend. She said just let the baby die. It "happens all the time".
Well, not on my watch!
I managed to coerce her to give me the key to the aviary and got the baby bird. I figured if they were gonna let it die, I was sure as heck gonna try to give it a fighting chance. I had NO prior experience with hand feeding any animals before.
I've had it for 9 days now. Its feathers are all coming out nicely. I was reading online the dismal failure rate of 90% for someone who has no experience, and even those who do, hand feeding is TOUGH.
I was waking in the middle of the night to feed it. Do you know how hard it is to point a syringe that ends in a 3 mm tip onto something who's mouth is so tiny. Those first days, the bird didn't know how to even feed from the syringe. It would take 40 minutes to get it even half full.
But now, it practically chases my finger!
It lets me hold it's head while it opens up for the syringe now.I think baby dove is gonna make it!
(I'm having a hard time trying to attach a photo???)
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