This little guy and his brother (who didn't make it.. sob) were blown out of the elm tree in my back yard during the storms last night. My first thought was to drop a big rock on him and walk away (lol) but I didn't.. I pulled an old bird nest out of a bird house in my Greenhouse and put that in a hanging basket and hung it in the tree and waited all day, but nobody came for him. :( This evening I brought him in and fed him boiled coke and egg yolk with an eyedropper until my daughter can get home with powdered baby cereal. He peeped at me after I fed him, so now I am in love with him and I don't want him to die. He's still in the nest in the hanging basket here in this room and I'm not really sure what to do for him because I never tried to save a bird before. I think he's a dove. Anybody know more about this than I do?

here's some pictures of him... the one in my hand shows how widdle he is :(
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/deadlyblondearcher/detail?.dir=/9ffe&.dnm=8f1cre2.jpg&.src=ph
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/deadlyblondearcher/detail?.dir=/9ffe&.dnm=552are2.jpg&.src=ph

Call the local Audubon society or the SPCA..they can both tell ya what to do... (ya big softy)

I looked up stuff here in the Audubon website, but it was pretty useless. I did find an emergency bird rescue recipe for the coke and egg thing somewhere else. Doves are grain eaters so I'm going to feed him baby cereal next. I just wonder if besides keeping him warm there's anything else I need to do. He perks up and flaps his wings when I hum lullabyes to him. :D I just know he's going to die and I'll be heartbroken, I knew I shoulda thrown a rock on him.

Why not take him to the vet DBA, he can tell you one way or another. Sorry to hear that, I've lost too many pets in my day. Ya, Poppa's right, you are a big ol softie.

Try calling Audubon tomorrow...I bet he makes it

The vet here would laugh at me... (no, I'm not... he's just not big enough to eat, is all :) I just couldn't bear to leave him out there - the ants would have eaten him up.
(okay, I'll call them)

Call the vet! And also call the audubon society too. He is too tweet to drop a rock on and having been eaten half alive by our Texas red ants...that is not a fate i would inflict on any living creature! It sounds pretty healthy if it is eating, it can prolly be saved. You go DBA!! :)

I crack up every time somebody says vet... he's an old cow/horse/cowdog doctor. He tells people to shoot their cats when they call with a sick cat problem...he says... yeah, if you wanna bring it on down here I can charge ya $300 bucks to put it out of my misery) lol... (which is one of the reasons I like him) :D

Widdle boy birdie is sweeping now. ssssshhh. :)

this makes me smile :D

you shoulda seen a minute ago, he woke up and he ate three droppers full of gerber baby cereal, and then he flapped his wings and he pecked my finger and he snuggled down in my hand and went back to sleep. He CANNOT DIE!!! I WON'T LET HIM! (I'm sleeping with his nest on my pillow tonight so if he 'peeps' really little bitty I'll hear him)

Cindy how is he doing? Now I am all involved in his welfare! Wellllllllll...my beloved cat disappeared a while back and I am petless right now! :)

aw, sorry to hear that. Well, he slept all night in his nest and this morning I fed him three little droppers of baby cereal (I still have to pry his beak open, which isn't easy... he doesn't get it just yet) He's really rambunctious and he peeped again! Sad thing is he keeps rooting around in the nest looking for somebody to snuggle with and there isn't anybody there. He sleeps better if I hold him against my chest and put him in the nest after he's asleep.

wow.

I think Marcello would sleep better that way too..against your chest

who wouldnt? i mean seriously. boobies

lol tish gwine get you cam ehhehe

Try putting a soft wooly sock in the nest. Keep us updated, he is so kewt! :)

Marcello likes socks in his nest? heheheeheh

I hope the little one makes it Cindy. I have a cat that was found as a young kitten and had to be fed with an eye dropper for the first few weeks. The vet couldn't be sure she would make it. That was years ago, the cat is alive & sleeping on the bed behind me.

I don't know, it doesn't look good right now. I still have to pry his beak open, and before he was helping the food out of the dropper, he stopped doing that, so I had to get a tiny straw and suck the food into it and blow it gently into the back of his beak. He swallows it and looks like he feels a little better right afterwards, but then he goes back to sleeping and he isn't moving around alot. :(

awww he probably misses his momma...

well, I took him out and whistled to him and he perked up and he did a bird doody in my hand and then he peeped and hopped around, so maybe he just had a tummy ache? This is soooo stressing me out. lol
I gotta take a break from this... i'm getting in the boat and going fishing.

I know you are stressed DBA, but do not, I repeat do NOT use that lil bird as bait!!!! If you do though, I heard if ya hook em right behind the back they stay alive, no wait, thats shrimp! jes kidding ;) Good luck with da wittle bird!

don't worry, it's going to die anyway.

Yep, Marcello's definately trying to make us emo. I knew it.

funny that you should mention that... when I said I was ready to go fishing my husband said hey, that bird'll make good bait. He was peeping and hungry when I got back, and he was easier to feed and is alot more alert now. I know he'll probably die anyway, Marcello, but at least he'll die full and warm and snuggly and not with fire ants all over him.

(the fish weren't biting, anyway)

We fish in galveston Bay all the time, so the comment was jes kinda natural *L* Sending good vibes for the birdie.

alright, I don't know if you've talked to anyone and gotten any advice, but here's my two cents :) At the zoo I work at, we get lots of baby birds we have to hand rear, mostly duck babys, and those are a little more hardy. You want to get food they'd eat out in the wild more then human food. I would go to a bait stand, buy some nightcrawlers, crush them up and give him those. You could even do that with crickets! You want to feed him somewhere around once ever hour, or whenever he wakes up and is active. Get him a few stuffed animals so he can cuddle against something and keep a nice 60 watt lightbulb on him 24/7 (but not so close he gets over heated) We're rearing a baby duck right now that was abandoned by mom cuz it's the runt and couldnt' keep up :) he just kept falling on his back and peeping, but momma duck was pre-occupied with her 17 babies!! I'll be praying for your little birdie :) I hope this helped and please feel free to email me or whatever if you need anything else!

Thanks so much for the input, Opium. I'm pretty sure that Dove are grain eaters, and from the research I did I found it recommended baby cereal for them...so I got the mixed grain kind... plus, it has to be liquid enough to go through an eyedropper or the straw since he won't open his beak for me yet...(i have to pry it open and put a tiny straw far enough back to get past his air passageway,) I have been feeding him about every hour and a half (less frequently in the night)... one reason why I'm feeling so tired and stressed (and a little silly for doing this? ) He's sooo tiny...(the sibling I found with him was 3 times the size of this one, I think he's the runt, as well) and so fragile, but he's a fighter... one reason I am so determined to try to save him. I do have him under the lamp on the nightstand in this room, but I don't think I have any stuffed animals small enough for him. :)l I think what usually kills them is pneumonia? (possibly from having to be fed like I'm having to do this one)... I'm just going to keep trying as long as he's willing to try with me. Funny thing is, come dove season I'll be frying them and making gravy ... (being a deer hunter didn't stop me from nursing the newborn deer back to health that my husband found in an ant bed, either, though) I'm either really confused or very well rounded... LOL. (If he makes it, I'll take him to the place I took the baby deer.. there's a crazy old woman a few miles from here who runs a wildlife refugee on her ranch that has everything from lizards to monkeys)

Yep, Marcello's definately trying to make us emo. I knew it.

Nah.. He's trying to brainwash us all to become his 2draw army who will help him take over teh world :3

one bird at a time....
one bird at a time

i helped one of my friends hand-raise a good few baby parrotlets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrotlet - cute little buggers) and we used to feed them with syringes. not with a needle or anything, just the plastic kind. warmed up the food mush in the microwave a little bit and put some in a syringe and fed them. and for some reason most of them would puke all over the place at least a few times a week. but apparently it wasnt unhealthy.. birds just do that i guess. if you try google there should be a lot of stuff you can dig up on the topic.

good luck!

that's good to hear Cindy! You could try putting clear pedialite with the grains then to keep him hydrated :) Those kind of baby birds are so helpless! I wish you all the best luck. Our baby duck enjoyed his first cricket today! well, he's a little too small for the entire cricket, so it was more of the legs of the cricket. And I know what you're talking about, I've got all these rescue animals, and have four pet rats, but at the same time I find it fascinating when the snakes kill live rats, I even have it on digital video! hehe and that crazy woman, I think I just saw a flash of my future....

The syringe was a really good idea, I'm going to get one from the vet, it's hard to regulate how much cereal I get into him with a little coffee straw, and the pedialyte I hadn't thought of... thanks. He's still hanging in there and getting a little stronger all the time... this every hour feeding thing is making me feel like Raggedy Ann, though... somebody might have to find a shoe box to bury ME in when this is over. :)

(yes, that woman is a hoot... she's one of those really eccentric, interesting people)

So, you'll kill a deer...but you won't kill a bird :P lol just foolin~ yeah pedialyte should help...

Well, I'd kill a bird, too, if I needed to eat and that's all there was. (I do eat doves, I just let the guys kill them, I don't like to hunt in a sunflower field in Texas when it's 120 degrees :) I believe there's a natural chain and a cycle to everything... I just can't leave a helpless baby anything... or a helpless wounded animal, period. I don't want anything to suffer if I can stop it.

Yeah, we eat stuff from the earth, animals, plants...all cells evolved from slime so whatever. We have these great emotions...there's no need to explain the soft versus the hard spots in your heart. It's very wonderful and sweet to hear this story, and it's a great memory regardless of the outcome.

*sends a great many hopes to Texas* _{(I don't want baby birdy to die neether!)}

thank you so very, very much :)

keeping up with the thread, still rootin fer lil birdy! Yoo hoo! Still hanging in there! Pedylite, what a good idea! Too bad we are not closer, i'd take over some of the feedings..I have empty nest *giggles*...no really!!!!

I just finished feeding him AGAIN... boy couldn't I use some back up feeding reinforcements... but hey, it's the thought that counts... thanks :) Guess I'll go take a short nap soon so I'll have enough energy to feed him again in a couple of hours.

Awwwww...good luck with the cute little cheeper...

I left you a reply to your comment here http://cellosoft.com/2draw/view/68186/ when ya get a chance to look (which will prolly be when birdy goes off to college!!). I don't know the html to make that a link, sorry. Hope you and birdy are doing well. :)

I went to your drawing to reply to that, sorry... didn't see it there. The little bird is doing fine... he was kind of quiet last night and it worried me, but today I fed him with a syringe so I was able to thicken the food more, and although he isn't opening his beak initially, I don't have to hold it open or gauge where to put the syringe, he takes it in on his own. I took him outside today under the elm tree where his home was, and when he heard the birds singing he started peeping (it's such a teeeeny tiny sound) and he hasn't stopped peeping since. I also got him a little birdhouse shaped mirror to put in his nest, and he is hopping back and forth looking at himself and ruffling his wings. :) If he dies after this I'll fling myself off a cliff.

edit: hah... just noticed the bird going off to college thing... actually my daughter IS graduating this May and we are doing all the college prep stuff, her Senior prom was this weekend, there's all the banquets and the parties and she has to have the right dress and so do I (of course) and you know it doesn't exist when you NEED it, you hate everything, it's a complete madhouse around here anyway and on top of it all I have to be a mother bird? lol (swiffers make great nest liners, by the way...)

awwww! that is absolutely precious!!! sounds like he's doing really well! Especially if he's getting up on his own and hopping around. That means he's got some energy! Very good sign :)

Don't care for birds that much but the little babies always make me smile. There was a chick that fell out of my neighbors tree. At first I couldn't understand why the birds were going crazy chirping away and I realized it was because one of the young fell. I won't finish the story...

Rootin for you and the little Chipper, hey, that'd be a great name. Keep us informed.

thank you... never considered having a bird as a pet, although I do spend hours letting them entertain and amuse me when I'm deer hunting. The redbirds fight, the mockingbirds "mock" the other birds... the golden warblers sing and hop around. I actually love birds and the world outside would have a frightening silence without them... like right before a tornado or hurricane... they don't sing... you know something bad is about to happen... it's a very scary silence when they don't sing.

Heh... Hey! Chipper Jones is the sexiest Atlanta Braves baseball player (and my favorite baseball player by farrrrrr)... been in love with him for too long. Too bad I already named the little guy Peep. :) Maybe I'll change it to Chipper Peep and call him Chipper... if he makes it? :O... I'm doing everything humanly, birdly possible but I still worry. I have this thing where if I start something I'll be damned if I'm not gonna finish it, and finish it to the best of my ability... so... this bird will live if he has it in him to live. (and I think he does) He's stubborn and now he's fighting me when i try to open his beak, he's trying to do it himself, but he just can't get it around the syringe so I let him try till he's tired and then I help him. I bet in a couple of days he'll be doing it on his own. It's a good thing my husband thinks I'm cute while I'm doing this and that this is funny and amusing for him... because nobody but the bird is getting fed or cuddled around here. lol

Peeper Chipper? Cheeper Peeper? Peep Chipper...?

Yeah, baby,,,, Chipper Peep. :) with a name like that, you can't lose. :)
Besides, I'll be in heaven when I have the only bird that wakes up singing sweetly at NOON, not at the crack of freaking dawn, which I hate. lol He's keeping my hours. :)

Your turning him into a nooner. haha.....

Your a sweet soul to do this. I know when I see a stray cat or dog my first impulse is to take them in, and when I see an animal abused, physically or by mere abondonment it raises the old Euro blood in me (I got's me a temper)

You've got my prayers and crossed fingers and toes rootin fer you and your bird Cindy. Your peeper's gonna make it. If you have anything to say about it.

Very understanding hubby, lucky you.

Sweets I will use my rose for now. Happy? *L*

He opened his beak all by himself for the first time just now! I just touched it with my finger and he ate without me having to pry it open for him! Yay! :)

yay!! what a good little birdy! You've got him trained now :)

Ahhh, nature always finds a way. Wonderful news Cindy. Soon as you know it he'll be eating worms and grubs and all those icky things. ;)

I think it's a miracle we made it this far... here's a picture I took of him this morning after I fed him. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/deadlyblondearcher/detail?.dir=9ffe&.dnm=5240scd.jpg&.src=ph He always spreads his wings when I put him on my finger like this, but I couldn't catch him doing it with the camera, because he topples off. :) His feathers are alot shinier and he's getting plumpy.

such a good mom!

Yaaa, before you know it he'll be chirping *momma, momma*.

Birdies gonna do alright.

Jes dropping to see how lil peeps is doing. He looks great. So love a happy ending! Good job Cindy!! :0

thank you :) It isn't over yet, still feeding him constantly (only about every two hours now... he eats more but less frequently) I think he's going to make it but I don't know about me. :P

We gotcha back Miss Cindy, we gotcha back.

Now I'll be expecting a pic of the little chipper when he's all grown up and weaned so you have the time. Before you know it he'll be asking for the keys to the roost x)

Hehehe...it seems all babies are cute :).

this is an ugly baby animal but then again I dislike all monkeys that looks like primates or are primates. Yuck.

ohhhh... wow... that is ugly... haha. Actually, Chipper is not the prettiest little thing, but he's a Mourning Dove, and they are pretty birds as adults. He was really kind of lethargic in the wee hours of the morning this morning and I was really worried about him. I kind of had to force feed him later this morning, but he's perked up a lot this afternoon. I just can't give up on him.

hehe I think baby birds are so ugly, but they make up for it because they're so helpless and that is adorable :) Oh! Our baby duck we were taking care of got better and went back with mommy! But now we have a baby river otter who's mom was hit by a car :( she's way mean and way freaked out. I'll have to post some pics :)

oh cool... we have beavers in the creek that branches up from the lake here, I love watching them. I don't think I've ever seen a baby otter

help i have a hurt dove who seems to have a cut in his wing he is very friendly and i have himm in a bird cage how do i help him recover and what is rong with him

oh bullshit "dovegirlhelp".

why is that

Cause it is. Besides, you are a fucking alternate account.

As for the dove, DBA, keep at it.

ill wait till some one who wants to help me gets on as for an alternate acount i have no idea wat that is

throw a rock on it

Hehehe...I just noticed something.

The dove that she mentions has a cut on its wing, yet she does not know whats wrong with it. wtf logic is that?

Nice catch Nightmare. When will they teach these youngsters to lie properly.

And honey, if you can figure out how to get one account you would have no problem getting another. Trolls... gotsa get some green afro bread and sour sourcream.

Glad to hear the storms aren't too bad down there Cindy, keep us updated on the little pecker.

We had extremely high winds, (no tornadoes right here) there were lots of large tree limbs all over the yard this morning and when I started to walk around picking them up, it occurred to me there might be another bird nest and.... I dropped the bundle of limbs and said "screw this"... somebody else can do it. lol

Chipper is doing great... he ate more today than ever, I take him outside every afternoon so he can feel the sun and the wind under his wings and he loves that. I put him on the bed in here so he can hop around and get some exercise... he's so funny... I lie down here and no matter which way I point him he plops himself around and hops towards me till he gets close to my head and he tries to bury himself in my hair. There's still a chance he might not make it, he's so fragile still.... I try not to get my hopes up too high, but like I said before, I won't quit trying, I can't.

He will make it..!

This is so sweet, when i was little about 6 years old a baby bird fell from the ledge over my front door right infront of me when i was playing out in the garden and i cried and begged my parents to save it. I remember it must have been really young cos i dont remember it having any feathers when i found it but we took care of it just like your doing and the little bird made it. I remember the 1st time it flew around the room i was jumping up and down clapping my hands and cheering lol. Then once it was ready we let it go (i cried because i wanted to keep it lol).

Im sure you will get to see little Chipper Peep fly away into the wild once its back to full health, sounds like your doing a great job keeping it alive so far and i wish u all the luck to keep it alive and well :)

He didn't make it. :( He died just a little while ago...Im not sure what happened, he seemed to be so strong yesterday, but he acted really weak this morning and he wouldn't eat much, and then the last time I tried to feed him he wouldn't eat at all. I feel really sad but I had kind of prepared myself for this. I just wanted to say thanks to ya'll for being so supportive.

:[

Well, at least he'll be warm now...Where he is.

:( aww so sorry, *hugz*

bummer Cindy......you tried your best. :-(

So sorry Cindy *hug*...you did a great job tho! Now go and get some well deserved sleep!

Awww....poor lil guy :(.

Well, at least he died happy getting all that food and love from you :). I mean, if it were between getting your help and dying or sitting outside starving and being eaten alive, I'm sure he feels VERY lucky to have gotten the better option. I'm curious what you did with his body though. Did you bury him out back...?

Yes, when I tried to feed him the last time and I could tell he wasn't going to make it, I just held him till he died, and then I thought I was going to be really tough about it, but I cried all over him and then I wrapped him in some cloth and I dug a little grave under the elm tree where he was born and I put rocks on top of it and some daisies, and I cried some more and I felt silly but I couldn't help it.

I did alot of reading on it while I was caring for him, and I learned that the female Mourning dove regurgitates the food with a secretion she makes in her beak that contains more fat and protein than even cow's milk. There's no way I could have reproduced that. Also, doves typically have only two, and usually only one lives. He was so much smaller and weaker than the other one that I think he would not have made it anyway. I did everything I could, and he tried his best to live but it just wasn't meant to be, I don't guess.

..could of added lard to the cereal mix...

yes, but I'm sure the secretion is more complicated than just the fat...also I read that usually if they survive past 3 to 5 days they die from bacterial pneumonia because of the method a human has to use to feed them. (I was hopeful, but still kind of expected this to happen)

It's a good thing you did, girl, for peepers and for us. As we read, most everyone here felt love, compassion, hope and joy because it welled up in you, you took action, put forth effort, sacrifced time and sleep and peace of mind and you shared it, with peepers and with us and I thank you.

You gave him several more days of comfortable life than he would have had. ((birdie))

ya'll are so sweet... thank you. :)

Is there a way that we could 'archive' this thread to look back upon?

THATS SO SWEET

I am late reading this story of the little mourning bird :o( It is so sad. I'm so sorry Cindy! I don't think I was reading forums then but I would have done what I could to help. He was happy for a while thanks to you. God took over where you finished and the birdy is happy once again! ((((Cindy)))) ((((birdy))))

Thanks. I still feel a little sad when I think about him.... especially when I hear the Mourning Doves singing in the evening... it's a sad sound, anyway.

I think they got the right name. A good friend of mine always knows when something bad has happened in her family. When her brother died they gathered on her roof and porch and gave that sad mourning sound. Same thing when her mother died. By the way when I looked up little chipper's picture, I also looked at all your other photo's. You've got a right nice lookin' family. Your mom's lovely. I hope you didn't mind.

So do these birds gather for all who die or just your friends family?

I think that's just a superstition... I hope it doesn't mean somebody died or is dying... they sing behind my house every day. They got their name because they have such a "mournful" sound when they sing.

Ya think?

Yeah, only today they didn't sing so much, because Russell the PooPoo truck guy and his Dad Larry the Big Red Dump Truck guy had the PooPoo truck making a lot of noise pumping out the septic tank.
(oh, and thank you Cameo... of course I don't mind :)

aww, mourning doves are one of my favorite birds, I love their song. The happiness and warmth that little bird felt being held in your hands, I'm sure made all the difference in the world to it.

I like to think so, it might seem kinda silly, but during the time I cuddled him, and fed him with the dropper, and he got full and was all snuggledy and warm in my hand, and a few days he felt happy and he even sang to me... I know it was better than leaving him in the grass to be eaten by fireants.

It wasn't just a joke about the birds mornful sound for this lady I know. And there weren't just a few, I mean a large flock. They were everywhere. It wasn't very long after that, that she got the bad news. I've never know them to do that with anyone else I know. It's like they talk to her.

....say, I have this bridge for sale and uh....

Puh-leese! I'm telling truth!!!

I believe that you believe it.

Usually when I see a large flock of doves, it's the doves that are getting dead. :) (Typically happens on our ranch in the middle of the sunflower field in September)

He's such a lil cutie. He's in good hands! Hey a friend of mine found a sparrow in much the same way. He fed it canned cat food (really!) and it is doing great now. All grown and happy/healthy! I would give it a lil comfy piece of material to snuggle against in that basket. It needs to keep warm. I think he'll be just fine as long as you feed him and he's warm. Whatcha gonna name him?

Donna, I know this would have been an awfully long thread to read from the beginning, but if you back up some you'll see that he didn't make it. He only lived a little more than a week... 9 days or something, I think, and I buried him behind my house under the elm tree that his nest fell out of. There are a couple of Mourning Doves that have a nest back there again, I hear them singing in the evenings and on cloudy days, and the other day I saw them... it could be the same doves because they mate for life. Maybe they'll have better luck this time. :)

I'm sorry Cindy! I read the beginning and decided to post. I'm sorry he didn't make it, but you gave him love and comfort for longer than he would have had, so that's a good thing. He felt the love in your heart. What a nice gift to give him while he was here! :o)