This squeaker's name is Cedar. Robee said he never gets to name the babies so this one was his to name. We still don't know if it's a hen or a cock so I just say it, for now. I might have mentioned in some post that the nest mate to this one died. I still feel bad about that but it happens.
This baby is almost 4 weeks old but it is as large as my other two I hand fed who are almost 3 months old. That's what happens when a human gets a hold of an animal; over feed and over weight. I really don't think it's over weight, just a lot bigger than a normal, pigeon-fed baby would be.
It is finally out of the office as of Sunday. Getting way to big for the box and starting to crawl or fly out of it.
The crap all over the front of it’s chest is the liquid bird food I've been feeding it. It is a messy process each time but at least I'm not having to force feed the bird into it's crop. That was scary every time I fed because there was always a chance I was going to miss and shoot food down the wrong pipe. After that, death.
Hopefully we won't be feeding any more baby pigeons. That season should be over for the year. Today I'm cleaning out the pigeon coop (finally) but first have to run to the store for a gas mask to prevent me from getting Pigeon Breeders Disease. Boy, does sound like fun or what?
Symptoms of this lovely health issue CAN include but are not LIMITED to: wheezing, and dry coughs that shake the entire body as well as chills, sweating, aching, and fatigue. Ooooo …. goody goody. I can HARDLY wait for that to hit me.
The great thing is that I don’t actually have to be working with just pigeons to get this. It’s also know by these other names: bathtub refinisher's lung, mushroom picker disease, mushroom worker's lung, laboratory technician's lung, pituitary snuff-taker's lung (what in the hell is that?), plastic worker's lung, epoxy resin lung, maltworker's lung, maple bark stripper's disease (a really good reason NOT to move to cold Vermont), bagassosis, wheat weevil disease (dang, and I love weevils so much- especially in meatloaf), farmer's lung, ventilation pneumonitis, and cheese-worker's lung.
I feel SOOOOO much better about shoveling pigeon sh*t now. Tons.
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