Caring for a young Pigeon based on age
If you are breeding pigeons then it is advisable to get supplies in prior to breeding in case you ever need to intervene at any point.
The products I mention in this guide are linked on this site under the "Product Recommendations" tab.
A Pigeon will need different levels of care depending on how old it is. Please see below for age guides.
Please note, Pigeons do not eat insects so please do not feed them worms etc.
Methods of feeding a Squab or Squeaker:
There are 2 methods you can use & one of them is far easier if you are not experienced in feeding squabs, but it is far messier & takes a lot longer. The easiest method if you were not prepared to be raising a squab is to get a plastic bottle or something you can use to contain the formula, secure a rubber glove, a dental dam or something similar over the top of it & then poke a very small hole in it. Then gently poke the squab's beak into the hole & gently tip the bottle up so that the liquid can be reached by the squab, whilst being careful not to let it all run out or cover the beak entirely. Wherever possible, ensure the squab's nostrils are not covered by the liquid as they will inhale it. The squab should start to drink the liquid, in the same way, they would if they were taking "crop milk" from the parent bird. The easiest & quickest method for breeders with more experience is to syringe feed the squab. This is a very delicate process that can cause irreparable damage (or fatality) to the squab if not done correctly, so it is important to understand the anatomy of the pigeon before attempting this method. Hungry squabs will lunge, even at only a few hours old & if this happens, it can cause the syringe to puncture the throat or crop. See here for a video covering the basics of syringe feeding. If you are planning on breeding pigeons then it is advisable to examine your birds, by opening the beak & looking into the mouth & down the throat so you can see the layout as it is far easier to see on a larger bird than a tiny squab. Also, if you have older birds or squeakers, you can practice the syringe method with less risk, by syringe feeding them a few ml of water. If you feel any resistance at all, stop & gently remove the syringe. If the throat is open correctly, then there should be no resistance at all. Resistance implies that the syringe is not in the throat correctly. This will allow you to practice smoothly inserting the syringe into the crop & gently pushing the plunger to deliver a small dose of liquid without it being enough to cause undue distress to the bird.
From Hatching to Weaning: Age important info
Pigeons and doves are radically to other birds when it comes to rearing their young. Both parent Pigeons are very involved & both will help raise their young, with usually both parents producing a semi-solid food known as pigeon milk or crop milk for their offspring. It is not the same as regular mammal milk so DO NOT give a baby Pigeon human baby formula, dairy or other animals hand-rearing formula. The “milk” is secreted from the lining of the crop, which is a food storage organ located at the end of the oesophagus (base of the throat). It is very high in protein & full of vitamins & minerals needed by the squab for very rapid growth. Due to the unique nature of crop milk, it is very difficult to duplicate & consequently, orphaned pigeons and doves can be quite troublesome to hand-rear with many dying. Also due to the way Pigeons feed, taking over care of a young pigeon can be quite difficult if you are unsure how to feed them correctly, making it easy for those who are untrained to accidentally introduce formula into the trachea rather than the oesophagus & end up causing pneumonia or death by affixation. If you need to raise a squab and lack a foster parent & are not experienced in raising Pigeons, please contact a licensed wildlife or Bird Rehabilitator for help. Please note: If you are going to care for or hand-rear a baby pigeon, you need to commit fully until the bird is able to fend for itself. It is an intensive full-time job & can be quite exhausting. You will need to ensure you are available every few hours during the squab's first few days of life, so if you cannot commit to this level of care, then please seek help from someone. Knowing how to take care of a baby pigeon means understanding each stage of its development and what to feed it, how to feed it, and when. It means mimicking much of the behaviour of pigeon parents, including feeding them hatchling formula milk. Assuming you are in a situation where you need to look after the youngster for a period of time or are going to have to hand rear them, then below is a guide to what you will need to do for the bird depending on its age.
Caring for Newly Hatched Squabs:
For the first few hours (anything up to 12 hours after hatching) the squab will be exhausted from hatching. They won't require feeding for a while yet. During this period the squab will need to be kept warm & dry, somewhere away from drafts. They will need a gentle source of warmth, such as a heating pad set on the low level or a 40-watt heating bulb or mat the same as you would use for a pet lizard. In a pinch, a hot water bottle with a towel around it or a snuggle pad from a pet store will suffice. You want to provide a temperature of around 90 degrees F or 30 degrees C, but it is important to ensure your bird can escape the heat to a cooler area of its box/nest if it becomes too warm, otherwise, it will die from overheating. Line their box or nesting area with newspaper to help hold the heat inside & also make cleaning easier. If you are able to do so, then purchasing a brooder heater is ideal since they should maintain a constant gentle heat & can be angled or lifted up/down etc. At around 12 hours after hatching the squab should start moving around & you will need to provide the first feed. Make sure the squab is warm before feeding. If you try & to feed a squab that is cold then it won’t be able to digest its food and feeding it could kill it. Also, DO NOT heat food in a microwave as you don’t want to risk scalding the bird. The correct temperature for baby pigeon food is 39 degrees centigrade or 100 degrees Fahrenheit - IE body temperature. If you have a food thermometer then you want to be using this to ensure it is the correct temperature. The easiest way to ensure the squab is getting adequate nutrition is with a hatchling hand-rearing formula products at pet supply stores. 2 brands that most Pigeon breeders & rescuers will use are: Kaytee Exact Hand Rearing Formula for Parrots Kaytee Exact recommend the following proportion of powder to water when hand-raising baby pigeons: Hatching – Day 2: 1 parts powder to 6 parts water Days 2-5: 1 part Exact to 2 or 3 parts water Day 5 – weaning: 1 part Exact to 1 1/3 – 2 parts water Nutribird A21 Nutribird Recommend the following proportions for pigeons: Hatching – day 2: 1 part Nutribird to 6 parts water Day 2 – day 3: 1 part Nutribird to 5 parts water Day 3 – day 4: 1 part Nutribird to 4 parts water Day 4 – day 5: 1 part Nutribird to 3 parts water Day 5 – weaning: 1 part Nutribird to 2 to 2 1/2 parts water These proprietary feeds are designed to mimic crop milk and will contain all the nutrients a baby pigeon needs as well as the enzymes to enable the food to be digested. Good feed brands will include instructions to achieve this, but a newly hatched squab will need a consistency similar to skimmed milk. It is super important to ensure that the formula is mixed completely. If you have a hand whisk or blender I seriously advocate using it as lumps of formula can very easily block the crop & cause a number of issues such as sour crop or vomiting etc as well as leading to slow digestion & malnutrition. At a few days old, the squab will only need a few ml per feed, but they will need feeding every few hours. Ensure the crop empties between feeds - DO NOT keep feeding a bird that has not emptied its crop from a previous feed. If needs be, skip a feed to allow it to digest the food already in the crop. If you don't have hand rearing formula then you can use some other feeds for a short period of time until you can acquire adequate food. Chick-rearing crumbs (these are usually available from poultry suppliers) soaked in hot (not boiling) water for half an hour, liquidised and sieved. Baby biscuits such as Farleys Rusks or equivalent can be used if they do not contain milk solids. Again, soak in water until broken down into a mushy consistency then mix very well. In an emergency and for babies that are over 3 days old you can use Ready Brek Original or Quaker Oats Original made up with warm water if the other products are not available. Outside of the UK, Nestle’s Nestum or Cerelac without milk solids and mixed with warm water (not milk) can be used or a similar dairy-free baby cereal. Puppy biscuits soaked in warm water until they are fluffy can also be used in an emergency. Always blend the mix to a fine liquid & remove lumps. Use a sieve if necessary. Feed the squab just enough that the crop looks like a little water balloon cushion, but do not overfeed other wise the squab will vomit the formula back up & risks inhaling it. It is better to feed little & often than trying to feed too much in one go. When the crop is full, there may be 2 "bubbles" appear on the bird's shoulders. This is normal & these will go down as the feed is digested. For the first few days, the squab will only be able to take 1-2 MLS or formula in any one feed. You will need to feed approx every 2 hours, even throughout the night for a 1 - 3 day-old squab.
Caring for 3 - 5 day old Squabs:
Whereas a squab is still going to require a lot of care & attention at 3 days old, the good news is the number of feeds needed can be reduced a little. Whilst they are not going to require every other hour now, you can look to feed approx every 3 - 4 hours, with one or two during the night.
Caring for 6 - 10 day old Squabs:
A week-old squab is still going to require a lot of care & attention, such as heat & feeding, but feeds can now be reduced to around 4 - 6 times a day. Ideally, you should feed as soon as you get up & last thing before you go to bed so that the squab is not going longer than 8 - 9 hours without a feed. The formula or feed should now be made to a consistency similar to sauce, but it should still be fairly runny. The squab should now be starting to grow pin feathers which is a good sign that they are doing well. They will need around 10 - 20 ml of feed per serving depending on the size and breed of pigeon. A heat source should still be available as the bird cannot maintain its own body temperature at this point, but they will not get as cold as quickly, so the imminent threat of freezing to death is less.
Caring for 11 - 21 day old Squabs:
Depending on how well your squab is doing, you may be able to reduce feeds down to around 3 - 4 times a day. Ideally, you should still look to feed as soon as you get up & last thing before you go to bed so that the squab is not going longer than 8 - 9 hours over night without a feed. The formula or feed consistency should now start to resemble runny porridge or custard. The squab should now be mostly feathered and as such will not require quite as much heat depending on the time of the year & location of your next box. If it is winter then continue to offer heat until the bird is closer to 3 weeks, whereas if it is summer, you should be able to remove the heat source at around 14 days. They will need around anywhere between 60 - 100 ml of feed per serving depending on the size and breed of pigeon.
Squeakers 21 days & older:
Depending on if the bird has been raised by someone or has been taken in for care at this age, will now vary the approach needed to feed it. If the bird is able to feed itself, then ensure adequate pigeon seed & water are always available. If you have been raising the squab prior to this, then you can now start introducing seeds into the diet to wean your bird. There are a number of ways you can do this. If you are using the bottle-feeding method, then you can start adding some small seeds into the formula. You may have to make the formulas slightly thinner as the seeds will bulk the mix up. This method is not ideal if you are syringe feeding however since the seeds won't go through the syringe without causing a blockage. Because I personally prefer to use the syringe method, I start to wean my squeakers using a sauce bottle with the nozzle stretched wider under heat (hot water works well) to allow the seeds to pass through. I simply open the birds beak & put the nozzle in, then tip the bottle up to allow some seeds to pass into the bird's mouth. I then allow the bird to swallow the seeds before repeating. If you do not have a bottle you can use, then you can simply open the bird's beak & pop seeds in. This works well but can take some time. It is easier to do with larger seeds such as peas or dari, so is an ideal thing to do whilst watching tv or sitting on a video call (with yourself on mute since there will no doubt be a lot of squeaking coming from your side of the screen). You can of course just carry on feeding formula whilst leaving a bowl of seed out to allow the bird to wean itself. You can easily check the crop for seed at each feed, to see how the bird is doing at feeding itself. If there are a few seeds in there but the crop is mostly empty then you can top up with either formula or seeds. You can show your bird how to eat seeds by "pecking" the seeds with your fingers when the bird is standing at the seed bowl. They will most likely ignore the seeds at first & keep nibbling your fingers & squeaking at you for food, but they should start to show an interest quite quickly since they are naturally drawn to small round shapes, so their inquisitive nature will eventually lead them to start exploring the contents of the bowl & rummaging around in the seeds. ou will know when the bird starts to master the art of eating by itself since it's crop will start to fill up with seed & it will also start to resist more when you come to feed it. Once you are now moving to a seed diet & no longer going to be providing formula then it is important to ensure the bird is getting water. At this stage, water should always be available but sometimes the bird won't have learnt how to drink yet. You can gently hold the bird and put the tip of its beak into the water & see if they start drinking. Be careful to only dip the tip of the beak & not allow the water to cover the nostrils. If the bird starts drinking, then ensure you offer them a drink at the end of each feed to wash the seeds down until you witness the bird drinking by itself, so you know the bird is hydrated. If the bird is not as yet able to drink by itself, then administer 20 ml of room temperature water at the end of each seed feed to wash the seeds down & stop dehydration. Ideally, you should feed your bird when you get up & last thing before you go to bed until the point the bird is feeding itself. At that point, you can leave seed down all day to allow them to graze since they will still be picking at food & it will take a while for them to fill their crop until they master it. The squeaker should now be feathered and as such will not require a heat source. If it is winter then continue to keep the bird somewhere indoors, or sheltered from the cold, as harsh temperatures can still prove fatal to a young bird. If it is summer, then ensure the bird can escape hot temperatures & stay cool otherwise it can die from overheating.