Introduction: How to Hand Feed Baby Orphaned Fantail Pigeons. Caring for the Kompost Kids
The Kompost Kids are two baby fantail pigeons, whose parents were killed by a sparrowhawk. The babies are a month old and can not yet feed themselves. My other fantails would not feed them so we were going to have to work out a method to do so. The film shows how we did it. I made them a paste from an organic mix of sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, brown rice and home-made bread all moistened with water. This was to supplement their attempts at picking up little bits of grass, seeds, soil and stones, plus they can already drink from a water dispenser. They were out all day in the sunshine soaking up Vitamin D. In normal circumstances, i.e. no predators, I would have let them wander around the garden looking for and trying out foods and maybe even finding a willing pigeon to feed them.
With really small baby pigeons I can usually get them to feed from an eggcup of a liquidised version of the above and they will 'hoover' it up. My first step with a baby, however, is to get another pigeon to feed it, birds can count up to at least three but some of them are very good-natured and will take another baby on and feed it!
With really small baby pigeons I can usually get them to feed from an eggcup of a liquidised version of the above and they will 'hoover' it up. My first step with a baby, however, is to get another pigeon to feed it, birds can count up to at least three but some of them are very good-natured and will take another baby on and feed it!