ADAM'S ANIMAL STORIES:
Hand-Feeding Doves
by Adam C. Burke
INFORMATION ON HAND-FEEDING YOUNG WHITE-WING DOVES
(This information may apply equally to other types of doves and pigeons, though the author's experience, photos, and descriptions here are specific to White-wing doves, only.)
Before reading further, please consider this: Unless you are an experienced bird handler, or you have special patience, lots of time, and determination to hand feed the young dove(s) that you have acquired, it is always best to take the birds to a wildlife organization, veterinarian, ornithologist, or specialist that handles these types of birds. You can find local resources by searching on the Internet (you might type "phoenix dove" into your search browser, for example). Here in the southwest U.S., Liberty Wildlife is the best resource for wild bird care: [NOTE: Please endeavor to take the bird(s) to specialists who can care for them, especially Liberty Wildlife. See more resources at page bottom. You may also wish to contact veterinarians that handle birds, an ornithologist, pet stores, libraries, and the Internet for all the information you can find related to care and facts about doves.]
If you decide that it is appropriate for you to take care of your young orphan(s) directly, I offer the following tips from my own experience, which have proven effective for the birds I have cared for.
Please read all of this information and try to follow along, step by step.
INTRODUCTION AND "TRIAGE"
First, it is critically important to immediately assess whether the bird(s) is injured in any way. Some sure signs are: presence of blood anywhere on the body (check carefully under wings, as well); bent or misshapen wings, beak, or legs; sections of missing feathers where they would otherwise normally be present; bloody excrement or fluid coming from beak, or any other obvious indications. (It may be normal for the young bird to have a droopy wing or wings, so long as they are generally in place and fully intact.)
NOTE: If you have taken the bird in directly from the wild (the outdoors, whether in a rural or urban setting), chances are good that it will be in a state of shock. Whether the bird developed shock prior to you capturing it, it will surely go into some degree of shock upon capture. Wild birds instinctively fear humans, so being taken into a human hand will be traumatic for the bird, in addition to whatever else it has experienced up to that point. Shock is extremely serious, though it can be dealt with effectively.
The most important emergency treatment for shock is to keep the bird warm, which is to say, away from any cool drafts. If your environmental (room) temperature is below 80 to 90 degrees F, then you will need to provide some warmth. In any case, it must be kept in a quiet, warm location, preferably without too much light.
An easy solution is a clean cardboard box lined with a clean towel, old t-shirt, or other soft cotton cloth. Newspaper is not the best solution, because the inks can be toxic. Make sure the box will be deep enough, because when the bird comes out of shock, it may bolt upward and out of the box.
Line the inside box bottom with the cloth, then gently place the bird on that. You can cover about 80% of the box top with another cloth or towel. This will keep out drafts and excessive light, but will allow for fresh air. If room temperature is cool, then place the box on top of a heating pad, and set it on low or medium. Be careful not to overheat the bird. Keep the bird box away from young children and pets.
Also, it is best to place into the box a small dish or jar lid with clean water at room temperature. Be sure to put it in the corner to prevent tipping, and also that it is neither too deep nor too wide, such that the bird might get in it and drown. Also, avoid large amounts of water in the box, because excess moisture can be problematic should the water spill. A lid from a mayonnaise jar works well, because it is low, relatively shallow, and it will not tip over easily. Check this water often. If it becomes soiled, refill with clean water after washing container with mild bleach solution or anti-bacterial soap, being careful that it is thoroughly rinsed clean.
If the young bird is featherless or nearly so, then warmth is even more important. In that case, you should additionally lay a light handkerchief directly on and covering the bird's body as it rests. In this case, water will have to be administered later in food, as birds this young will not drink on their own. In this case, it would be best to not put a water dish in with the baby bird.
After the bird has had plenty of time to rest and recover from shock (probably about 4 to 6 hours), next look carefully for any signs of illness. Examples might be listing to one side, falling over, eyes swollen or infected, or bright-red feces or foaming at the mouth. If the bird obviously appears sick or limp and inactive, you will need to take the bird immediately to a specialist.
(Generally, the feces should be black or dark green, sometimes lighter, toward brown. The bird will probably be quite listless at first, but should otherwise be alert and breathing steadily.)
If the young bird is alert, active, and apparently free of any health issues, you may proceed with administering care. Otherwise, you must take to animal directly to a vet or specialist qualified to handle these types of birds/issues.
HOW OLD IS THE BIRD?
Before attempting to feed a young bird, one must get a sense of the bird's age, generally. This is important, because the age of the bird determines both the method and the type of foods to administer. If the bird is naked, or nearly so, you are in for a challenge to feed it and keep it alive, as it is extremely fragile and vulnerable at this point. Again, in this case you should consider taking the bird to a specialist.
If the bird has most of its feathers, but they are not fully open, you will be able to feed the bird, and you will have to do it by hand directly into its beak, as I will describe, below.
If the bird has all of its feathers and they are mostly fully open, and the bird can fly across the room, the bird is nearly ready to be independent of you and may need only to be provided with water, seeds and warm shelter until it can fly well enough to be set back into the wild outdoors.
(New feathers are covered in a sheath of keratin and, in this stage, are called "pin-feathers." It is generally observed that doves whose pin-feathers are still present under the wing are not ready to feed on their own; they must be hand-fed.)
We will focus primarily on the very young and young birds with most of the feathers not fully open, and the methods and foods for hand-feeding. The following pictures show two young doves, roughly aged two weeks and three weeks. You can examine the subtle differences in the beaks of these birds, such as color and shape. The younger bird has a lighter colored beak and is not yet ready to eat seeds, while the older bird has a darker, narrowing beak and is beginning to try to eat independently.
HAND-FEEDING:
NOTE: While doves tend to be among the easier of young birds to hand-raise, they will need to be fed often, in some cases as much as every two to four hours, and they may require a commitment of up to three or more weeks on this schedule before they can eat on their own or be released. If you are not able to make this commitment, then take the birds to a specialist as soon as possible. Young birds must be handled with extreme care, as they are very delicate and fragile. If you are not confident that you can handle a bird carefully, again, take it to a specialist for this care.
The best times to feed are during the day hours of 7am to 7pm, as this corresponds to the birds' natural cycle.
A good commercially available mixture for feeding the doves is "EXACT," which is a young parrot food. Check a your local pet supply store. Until you can get some of that, you can try to mix some feed at home.
My mother, a long time bird rescuer, recommends a mixture of Cream-of-Wheat and applesauce for hand feeding. Youngs birds need protein, as well. I have added a few "magic ingredients" to this mix and have successfully brought a number of Whitewings to robust adulthood with this formula:
Prepare one package of plain Cream-of-Wheat, just as you would for yourself. In a small dish, or Tupperware-type container, add this to slightly-less-than-equal parts of commercial applesauce (preferably one with as few additives as possible).
The "magic ingredients" I have added include Gatorade (for electrolytes and potassium), and good quality breakfast cereals (such as Oat "Os" or Grape-nuts), fully ground to fine. You can do the same with very small quantities of almonds or local nuts, or wild bird seed, all fully pulverized. For protein, protein rich nuts willl be helpful. You can also finely grind and add small amounts of hard dog food. (A tiny pinch of acidophilus and of spirulina, such as from your fish food supplies, can be added. The Gatorade may be helpful, especially if the bird has been exposed to high heat and stress prior to capture. I have also added a drop or two of high-quality aloe-vera, as Whitewings live in desert regions.)
Add water or Gatorade until the meal is of a smooth consistency, thick enough to hold between your fingers, but otherwise quite wet and thin. Make sure the food is at room temperature or slightly warmer as you begin to feed the bird.
The following pictures help to show the process of hand-feeding.
You will see that I am holding the bird very gently, but firmly enough to restrain its movement. Especially hold the wings against its body to prevent flapping. As the bird begins to eat, it will calm down and require far less restraint.
Doves, unlike many other birds, eat from inside the mother's beak. Also, they are able to draw water and food into their beaks. The young dove is expecting a mother's beak to plunge its own beak into, but it will learn to do the same from in between your fingers, instead.
As the bird begins to learn to feed from your fingers, it will begin to thrust its head forward and also move its beak along the sides of your fingers. When feeding, it is necessary to gently "hold" the beak between the fingers where you have taken up the food. The bird will open its beak and you can then gently work the meal into the sides of the beak, moving the fingers up and down and around the beak to keep the food going in.
The bird will expend lots of energy feeding, and will probably act ravenous with hunger. Allow brief periods of rest for the bird so that it can swallow, "burp," and breathe.
Also, be careful that the food does not get into the bird's eyes or build up on the feathers where the beak meets the face. It will be hard to avoid getting the food on the nostrils on the upper side of the beak, but you can move your fingers around in order to push that food into the sides of the beak. When finished, you can rinse the beak and face, if necessary, as you will see later.
After a while - or depending on the bird's age - you can encourage the bird to take the food directly from the container, rather than from your fingers. The sooner this can happen, the better. It is more efficient for the bird, much easier on you, and it begins to "train" the young bird to eat on its own. Adult doves can draw water and food up into their beaks by essentially "sucking," and your young bird will learn to do this.
You can put the food container gently around the beak, and then move the meal side-to-side so that when the beak opens, the food will go in. If the bird responds to this by trying to eat on its own, continue. If it does not draw the food in, it is not ready, and you will need to continue the finger feeding method until it is. You may try to encourage independent feeding at each feeding period, always watching carefully for the bird's reactions.
Continue feeding until the bird appears to lose interest. You may also gently feel the crop area (front of breast, below the neck). If it is expanded and feels full, the bird has eaten enough.
After feedings, if the meal has gotten all over the bird's beak and face, you should carefully rinse the beak and face. Otherwise the meal will harden onto the beak, the nostrils or the face. Also, while rinsing, the bird may like to drink more of the water, thus "rinsing down" the food it has taken.
IMPORTANT! NEVER force either food or water directly into the beak! Do not put water into the bird's beak with an eye-dropper! Great care must be taken in offering water to young doves. It is generally best to make the water available, only, and let the dove take it on its own. It will derive adequate moisture from the wet food alone.
You will see when the bird is wanting to take food and water when you offer it. If the bird fails to take in food or water with the above methods, or if it appears to be weakening rather than strengthening, discontinue attempting to feed the bird, and take it to a specialist as soon as possible.
At some point, after the bird has begun to consistently eat the meal from the container, rather than from your fingers, you can then add very small wild bird seeds into the meal, checking to see if the bird takes these in. If it does, you are well on your way to helping the bird eat independently, and you should then offer dry seeds in the bird's cage or container, again in a small, low dish. Watch carefully: if the bird begins to peck at the seeds and is successful in eating some, you can and should begin to wean the bird quickly away from hand feeding. Offer a variety of small wild bird seeds ("Finch mix" provides a good variety). Always keep the seed dish clean. If it becomes soiled, dump out the seeds, clean the dish (as described above), dry thoroughly, then replace with fresh seeds.
WHEN TO RELEASE THE BIRD BACK TO THE WILD
The bird will need to "exercise" its wings before it will be able to fly well enough to fend for itself. Provide ample opportunities for the bird to fly, either in a large cage or in a safe, windowless room until it flies and lands confidently every time.
It should be able to fly up as well as straight, and it should not crash into things. If it sees a window, and it wants to go, it may fly headlong into the glass. This can cause serious injury or death to the bird.
The bird should still be somewhat afraid of human contact, and it should show some desire to get away from you. When it can eat and fly well, it is ready for release. Try to release the bird in the cool morning and on a calm day, as opposed to at night in a rainstorm. You want the bird to have the best chance possible, and it will need time to adjust to its new, wild world outdoors.
A FINAL NOTE:
I would recommend that, unless you plan to keep a dove for its entire lifetime, that you keep all physical contact other than feeding to a bare minimum. Also, avoid talking to the bird. You may want to comfort it, but you will be acclimating it to humans, which will be undesirable when the bird is later released. Also, doves are highly affectionate and generally monogamous beings. As you hand feed your orphaned bird, it may "fall in love" or bond with you. Once this happens, it could then present serious difficulties for the bird if released to the wild. It is likely that the bird will continue to feel bonded to you in this way and therefore may not adapt well to life in the wild.
If you plan to keep the bird (check with your local regulations), then you may lavish the bird with affection as you raise it. Be aware that it will need proper food, a large cage, and lots of emotional and intellectual interaction from you for the remainder of its lifespan, which can be as long as 20 to 30 years in captivity!
Make sure you are clear about your intentions for the bird(s) as you proceed. If you are unsure, then take them to a specialist, rather than attempting to care for them yourself.
MORE RESOURCES IN AZ:
AZ Game and Fish Department Wildlife Center (formerly, Adobe Mountain Wildlife) (623) 582-9806; After hours, Sat/Sun: (602) 789-3925
Fallen Feathers (623) 566-0155
More information on animal welfare (links) Adam's Animal Stories Home Page Photos © 2005 Forrest Redford Burke 
© 2005 Adam C. Burke (Please e-mail me with any corrections.)