Found a young bird, think it's a wood pigeon, need advice (1 Viewer)

Hi all,
Hope this is the right section. I found a young bird in my chicken/duck coop a few days ago. It was on the ground and there was a cat attacking it. I couldn't leave it there as there are lots of feral cats around, plus an annoying magpie who pecks at injured birds (as well as eating our eggs :C ) and also my ducks and chickens would kill it. It just wouldn't stand a chance if left there. I've seen a pigeon around in the trees, but couldn't find the nest. I didn't really expect it to survive, but it's been alive for two days now. I have it in a cage with some lettuce, clover, layer's mash and porridge. I have some questions:

What should I feed it?
How old do you think it is?
What would the best setup be to keep it in? I have a lot of different cages and sheds.
When can it fly and be released? How should I go about that?

I am located in Ireland.



Thanks

I am sorry in that I can be of no help at all but may be good to "bump" this to give it more attention.....you must be doing something right.....I would google all I could. All the very, very best

Woodpigeon

Hi it is indeed a young woodpigeon and too young to feed itself. Unless you can manage to find the nest and pop it back into it, you will have to hand-feed it. You literally have to open the bird`s mouth and drop a few grains of wheat or barley in at a time and squirt water down the throat using a medical dropper. It sounds harsh but its the only way you will keep it from dying, Iv had to do this many times with Racing Pigeons when parents got lost or killed, and Iv had success with woodpigeons too! Hope this helps.

It died unfortunately, we did not know that it was too young to feed itself.