Saturday 26 April 2008

My latest houseguest

I have a houseguest at the moment......He/she's a collared dove!


He was found in the riding school where I train for agility. Whilst it's usually best to leave birds alone, this guy had obviously fallen from his nest which is about 30ft above in the rafters. The riding school has a large population of rats - there's no way this little fella would have survived the night. If by some miracle he had survived the parents still would not have been able to feed him as the arena is busy with people all day. I then didn't want any of the kids to find him in the morning....Anyway, the upshot is that he's now living with me.

After a quick call to the local bird expert (Mrs Wren - honest, that's her real name!!), I put him on a diet of weetabix and water and he seems to be doing OK, well he's still alive anyway which is always a good sign with birds!I have been hand feeding him, its not an easy job as he doesn't gape so I've had to physically open his beak and shove food in, then stand back because he shakes his head and sends weetabix everywhere! However today he's started to peck at seed, it took him about an hour and a half to get the hang of picking up a seed, turning it the right way round and swallowing it without dropping it, but I think he's got the hang of it now!

I'm hoping that this one will make it but my past experience of birds is that just when you think they're doing well, they die. So, we'll see.

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