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!
5 Comments
11 years ago on Introduction
My comment in https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Bird-Spikes/
"Some years ago I allowed a dove nesting in the laundry room of my house, and because of that my apartment was filled with thrips (piojillos in Spanish). It was very unpleasant and dangerous, and required spray the entire apartment with K-Othrine to kill the thrips."
Reply 11 years ago on Introduction
¡Hola,
I'm not quite sure what this comment has to do with my film but I will answer it all the same.
Firstly and just from a linguistic point, always a problem when using translating tools, thrips is a common name for a group of tiny insects, which live on plants, have nothing to do with doves and can be dealt with soap and water.
Secondly, if you mean lice, then the long grey 'mite' which lives on pigeons and doves eats the dead skin which is left when the new feathers form and is thus beneficial to the bird and of absolutely no harm to humans.
Thirdly, if you are talking about an infestation of bird mites in general, then they can be controlled with Essential Oils, I use organic Eucalyptus Citriodora diluted in vegetable oil.
Fourthly, the chemical you mention is highly toxic both to the environment and humans, and is also only for use by professionals if you read the COSHH documentation. Here is the manufacturer's own list of the possible symptoms from contact with K-Othrine: "Discomfort in the chest, Tachycardia, Hypotension, Nausea, Abdominal pain, Diarrhoea, Vomiting, Dizziness, Blurred vision, Headache, Anorexia, Somnolence, Coma,
Convulsions, Tremors, Prostration"
I am sure this is not your intent but please do not use my site here for 'product placement' particularly of dangerous and unnecessary chemicals when there are always safe, environmentally friendly and effective alternatives. Argentina has a strong and growing organic movement, why not ask them for advice?
Hope you enjoyed the film. Saludos cordiales, Pavlovafowl aka Sue
Reply 11 years ago on Introduction
I agree about translators, I think many wars were caused for them. But otherwise I could not read any English written page, then I am forced to use on line translators.
The insects I said are not lice, maybe mite, I don't know. They were tinier, maybe not dangerous but very annoying. I was sleeping and they woke me walking down my face.
I used permethrin because was the better option at the moment. Nobody in the family show bad sympthoms after the application, and the tiny bugs dissapeared.
As I said, this episode occurred many years ago, maybe more than 20.
Reply 11 years ago on Introduction
I'm sure you are right, Winston Churchill used to translate word by word from a dictionary into French - some of his resulting phrases are hilarious!
I think you had mites, they are the most amazing creatures, they become adult in a matter of days and start reproducing more mites. They also can live for years without food. Lice find it very difficult to live away from their host and die after a few hours but mites just wander about looking for the next heat source. We once had a whole colony living in our lap top computer, every time we turned it on they all came out!
If you have trouble again, then I really recommend the essential oil method, it's harmless to you and the environment , is inexpensive and it certainly gets rid of them.
Best Wishes,
Pavlovafowl aka Sue
Reply 11 years ago on Introduction
I often do the translation "go and return", which finds many errors of interpretation. Both languages, English and Spanish, have many words with multiple meanings, and that makes life more difficult for the translators. Example: "mesa de corte" can be translated as "cutting table" (correct) or "court table" (nothing to do).
Thanks for your advice, I'll remember it.