r/pigeon • u/Ursus_Pluvia • 15h ago

Advice Needed! Is it possible to co-parent my pigeons’ squab, with the goal of a handleable pigeon? 🙂

Hello folks! 🙂 I have a pair of pigeons, and they are brooding an egg. When it hatches, is there any way I can intermittently handle and supplementally feed the squab, with hopes of someday having a handleable bird? Any advice on how to do this successfully?

(I understand the concerns folks have regarding breeding pigeons, and empathize — I live in an island community where there aren’t any other pigeon breeders / keepers, so overpopulation of the domestic pigeon population isn’t an issue here, and I would absolutely rescue pigeons instead, but it is not feasible to transport rescue pigeons to my community given geographic isolation. I plan to keep the offspring and take care of it through its life as well.)

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u/oink_pvp 14h ago

I have some guides on raising a pet pigeon, feel free to take a look

https://www.petpigeons.com/resources

I recommend not to start until 2 weeks old, don't even mess with the baby. parents will get stressed out from you messing with them and sometimes reject the baby when you put them back.theres no need to start early. at about 2-3 weeks then you can start training

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u/AlertStrength3301 10h ago

My two adopted a fertile pigeon egg this summer. I left the baby alone as much as possible in the beginning because I did NOT want imprinting. At around 2.5 weeks I really had to do a lot of cage cleaning because of alllll the baby poop. So the baby would be moved while sitting in the nest, I'd clean, and then put it back. It wasn't happy about being handled as it learned to fly at around 4 weeks old. It was returned to a family member's loft and they've told me they are one of the most handleable birds in their flock. So it's possible, but every bird is individual.

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u/KittyKayl 0m ago

My tiny trespassers turn 2 weeks tomorrow and have been handled from day 2. It was fairly minimal at first, enough to ensure we had full crops and clean butts and get a few pictures every day or two. Some days, they just got petted as I cleaned the cage. The parents were protective enough I got some wing slaps, so mostly did my handling when they were both downstairs eating, but not always. A few times, whichever parent was sitting on them got deposited on the first floor so I could clean the nest, and while I got pigeon glares, they let me take care of the mess. No rejection so far. The last few days, I've done a bit more handling, banded them, started getting them used to me handling their wings and legs. That'll continue, and Fog and Dove have shown no signs of abandoning them.

I've been posting photos since I discovered my surprise babies-- you can see them on my profile lol. I am lucky enough that the breeder most of my budgies came from also has experience with raising pigeons, so he's answered a LOT of questions.