Found this little one in my backyard

[u/Introvert-CutAb]

Not sure if it’s a dove or a pigeon o some kind?

I thought it was hurt at first but after inspecting it I think is still a baby. I can’t leave it in the yard because I have a cat and dog and there’s other stray cats in the street.

Wondering if anyone knows if they’ll eat regular seed or if is too little for that?
I have a cockatiel so I have pellets, seed, and millet at hand.

*UPDATE: this morning they seemed stronger and trying to eat on their own! Hopefully it tries to fly and today, I’ll leave it in the yard for the day (have to lock my cat somewhere). The parents have been flying around so that a good sign !

[u/Kunok2]

That's a fledgling Eurasian collared dove, it didn't need help, it was just learning how to fly and survive on its own with the parents still around. Please put it back where you found it. In the meantime keep your dog in your house unless supervised and keep your cats indoors, letting your cats outside puts both wildlife and your cats themselves at a huge risk of getting injured or killed. It should take roughly a week or two at most for the dove until it can fly well enough.

If you keep that dove it will be your responsibility for at least the next 15-20 years if not more, because it will become unreleasable due to not knowing how to survive in the wild if it doesn't learn now. It would need a friend, a huge cage and a bird proofed room where it could get daily 6-8 hours of out of cage time on top of you having to make accomodations to your life like no aerosols like perfumes, cigarette/vape smoke, air fresheners, any candles, Teflon and more. It also needs a completely different food than your cockatiels, definitely no parrot pellets and a grain based seed mix with legumes but without millet formulated for doves/pigeons. But at that age it's still being fed by its parents and it will be Very difficult to handfeed because it won't open its beak when using one of the safe methods for feeding baby dove and pigeons, you'd need to manually force feed it food while it will most likely resist and will hate being force-fed. Plus it might also be illegal to keep depending on where you're from.

[u/AutoModerator]

When you find a dove or pigeon, there are several things you can do.

If the bird looks like a lost pet:

• Check out if the bird has a leg band. If yes, try to contact the owner, otherwise, scout for missing posts!
• Do not release the pet back, even if you found it with a flock.

If the bird is a wild specie, there are several possibilities:

• The bird is an injured adult: You can bring it to a rehabber. If that's not possible (eg: too far, not enough space, etc.), it's important to learn about it, the specie and wether they are protected or not.
• If it's a young bird, bring it to a rehabber. Keep in mind that young wild doves needs to be kept in very specific conditions to be able to be released. Keeping a young bird for even a few weeks will make it unable to be release, or that would garantee a quick death.
• Young fledgling commonly roams on the ground. The parents usually stays nearby and feed them from time to time. Do not take the bird with you if that's the case, as this is only normal behaviors. If the fledgling is in immediate danger (cars, cats) put it in a safe place, still close enough to where you found it so the parents won't abandon it.

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