Seraphim are often inattentive parents. They usually feed only one baby, they feed lightly, and they leave the baby to themself most of the day by the time they are ten days old. There are exceptions, but it’s the norm. Daily checks on any two newly hatched youngsters should begin on day two to make sure they are both being fed. If the parents always ignore the second hatchling and let it die, you may want to be prepared to have a baby fostered by a pair of another breed, hand-reared in the house, or supplemented in the nest with baby bird formula. If you don’t want to deal with any of the consequences of inadequate parenting, you can candle the eggs at one week and, if both are fertile, simply discard one (or put it under another pair of another breed) so the parents have just one baby to manage.

Thankfully, if it is necessary to hand-rear a baby it is remarkably easy to manage for the few weeks it takes to grow it up to weaning size. Here are the steps: 1. Keep some Kaytee Baby Bird Formula on hand. You can order it from Amazon. 2. Make sure you have a Toomey Syringe (50-70cc’s with a large tapered-tip, or an equivalent device) to feed it, as this will work for all babies from age 3 days and up. 3. Decide if the threatened baby can stay in the nest or needs to be fully managed in the house. If it is secure where it is and is just being underfed, the best option is to leave it in the nest and supplement it twice daily with formula. The parents won’t care – just make it a quick in and out visit.

If you’ve left the neglected baby with its parents, keep an eye on the crop when you go out daily to give formula, as sometimes the parents will start feeding the baby. If so, that’s great, but keep a watchful eye and check it daily. They are never as attentive to the second one as the first if they start with that pattern and may stop feeding it again at any time.

In the house it’s easiest to keep the babies in a regular pigeon nest bowl in a small pet carrier. I put a coconut fiber pad down, a paper towel, and then put the baby on top of it, pack Kleenex snugly around it, and then cover it lightly with fluffed Kleenex. If the baby is just three – five days old it may need some supplemental heat, but after five days they generate enough on their own that simply keeping them covered is enough. They DO need to be touched, handled, and stimulated in order to grow up without neurologic deficits, as all babies do, so don’t just feed them and otherwise completely ignore them. Rub their heads and backs when you walk by and talk to them. A small soft furry stuffed animal can be put on top of small babies so they can burrow into something that feels vaguely soft and alive. Make sure they are tucked in snugly for the first two to three weeks to avoid splayed legs; never put them on a smooth surface where their legs can slide off to the sides – they will grow like that and get stuck. Splayed legs can be treated by tying them together with twine for several days so they are tucked back under the baby and remain straight, but if it’s bad enough and uncorrectable your baby will have to be euthanized. Once they are 8-10 days old, they can be left uncovered but snugly tucked in on the sides with nesting material of your choice. They begin to get pretty lively and generate a lot of heat once their quills start coming in, so you have to keep expanding their space as they grow.

The babies above have just been fed. Both babies are very alert and content, and their crops are stuffed full. Below is a video of the same two babies at about three weeks of age demonstrating how quick and easy it is to feed baby Seraphim:

Once they are approaching a month old it’s time to start weaning. Leave a small bowl in their cage with a typical seed mix in it. They will automatically start pecking at it little by little, especially if you let them get hungrier between feedings. Continue to feed formula as needed, as it’s a gradual process. By five to six weeks of age they can be put out into the loft with the other pigeons. Put them in a box in the corner, tipped on its side so they can run in and out. A bowl of food and water is placed just outside the box. Check them twice a day and feel their crop to make sure they are eating and drinking. They may still need a formula schedule for a few days, so just keep a close eye on them.

If one is attending to an incubator hatched Seraph, special nutritional issues can arise due to the baby having no source for pigeon crop milk, the high protein, high fat fluid that comes from the parents’ crops for the first 7-10 days. It is always better to have newly hatched squabs fed by parents for a week or so if that is possible. Using foster parents if you have them is the best way to go. 

However, if you do have tiny 1-to-3-day-old babies to attend to which likely didn’t get enough crop milk from the parents (or none, if hatched in an incubator) it can get a bit tricky. Here’s some advice from Pearlie Guerzo of Little Beaks Loft in Wisconsin: “Ideally, you have a bird or pair feeding and raising the baby at least for the first 10 days. In cases of absence of parents or rejection of the baby, the following may be of benefit. 1. First of all, use supplemental heat, gradually turning the temperature down to room temperature by age ten days. As hatchlings, keep them in the incubator unless feeding. The formula for feeding should be warm. If the babies get chilled, they get crop slowdown and food may not pass out of the crop. 2. Although Kaytee Baby Bird Formula is used successfully, it is really made for hookbill type birds which have different nutritional requirements for the first two weeks of life than pigeons and doves. The company Roudybush makes a Squab Formula specifically for pigeons in the first two weeks of life. In my opinion newly hatched babies seem to do better on it. The only downside I notice is that there are tiny pieces of grit in it and unless you sift it out, it gets stuck in the tiny syringe tip used to feed them for the first five days. After ten days one may switch to Kaytee Baby Bird Formula if desired as nutritional requirements change. 3. Once the babies are 7-10 days old, it is extremely beneficial to switch them to regular pigeon feed that has been soaked for four days, with a pinch of tiny grit added once a day. They will practically eat by themselves by age 10-15 days. It is extremely important to switch to seeds after ten days or they don’t grow as well. Soaking the seeds for four days increases the nutritional value of the seed as they are almost beginning to sprout. Also, having them see the seeds and eat them so early makes weaning a non-issue. If you syringe feed for too long you end up with a two-month-old bird that still won’t eat on its own.”

I have no doubt there are many other ways to handle the feeding of orphaned babies, but the above two definitely work. If the reader has additional experience that may be helpful, please drop me a line at cozmd@aol.com!  

David Coster