handfeeding young pigeon

Question
Spasa is a special bird: i got my pigeons from a woman who had to move and could not take them with her, Spasa in her native language means "the saved one" as the pigeons parents were both taken by a hawk, Spasa was still a blind bald baby and the woman hand raised her.
so Spasa is smaller than the other birds and has always seemed a bit weaker and more frail, she is not a big robust bird like the others, she is very daintily built, i assume this may be due to being handraised, i have had her for over a year and she has always been a bit thin/light, but she has one big personality and is the feistiest pigeon i own ...
         its just when i felt her craw there was not much seed in it and her feathers are dirty, she was not like this before her mate disappeared.
i was wondering, do the males tend to feed the chicks more than the females? i had another pair where the female flew off (it was the first time i let her out and she flew off!) the male raised both chicks just fine.
another thing i should mention about the situation is that now that Victor is gone a bachelor male, Vester, has been courting Spasa and sitting in the nest with the chicks, i have never seen him hurt the chicks, or feed them, is there a chance the new male may care for them? is there a chance that him following Spasa and cooing at her is making her worse? Spasa is not acting sick or weak, but she does seem grumpy latley.

i cannot afford a vet but i will care for her as best i can, so far i have been lucky with my birds.

see i have this story about one of my pigeons. Miss Gray is a rescued wild pigeon, i found her in the garden section of home depo unable to fly and spinning in circles and twitching when approached, i picked her up, stuck her in my purse and took her home, i thought it may be dead when i got home, but she was alive. i called around to bird vets and wildlife rescues and the conclusion was that she has west Nile virus and the spinning was from pressure on her brain. i was told that without treatment she would die. well i could not afford to treat her and knowing what she had was not directly contagious i put her with the other pigeons. well a week later she was still alive and she had regained enough composure to get up on a wooden box in the coop, a week later she could get on the perches, a week after she could fly perfectly well again, and now she has raised 3 chicks and has one squeaker in the nest. i was told she would die and Miss Gray is now in perfect health. plus the male she paired up with was the one who's mate left him to raise 2 kids!

i will continue to monitor Spasa and her 2 chicks, and i will continue to feed the chicks at least once a day and increase that if i see she is not feeding them at all. i thought maybe soaking the grain in water to make it softer may make it easier to give them and easier to digest, and i will mix some cooked pasta in with it. they are nearly fully feathered so hopefully they will catch on to eating on their own. They are both active and alert, just very hungry.
-------------------------------------------
The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
i have had pigeons for a year now, Spasa and Victor were my first pair, but now Victor has disappeared leaving Spasa with 2 babies. the squeakers have pinfeathers and some full feathers. i must admit i was not keeping a close eye on them as i had another mate get deserted and he raised both babies just fine, but this time its not okay and i was shocked by their state. the babies are undersized, they are smaller than another couples baby that a week younger and is just pinfeathers, the babies are also thin and the gullets have hardly any seed in them. Spasa herself seems thin, i think she may be depressed that victor is missing. the babies are very hungry and squeak and rub their heads between my fingers when i touch them, i have never had a baby do this, they usually attack me. i have been giving them bits of feed by hand in their mouths but its just so slow and i find it hard to get their mouths open. i have chick-start but its meant for chickens, its a processed grain that looks kinda like grape-nuts cereal and get mussy when wet. Can i feed them chicken chick-start mixed with warm water and feed them by putting the mash in their mouth? is there anything i could feed them that would be easyer to get in their mouths than the pigeon grains? like rice, pasta or bread?
-----Answer-----
Hello Miss West and thank you for your post.
I would not advise you to use Chick-Start for these babies.  Their digestive systems are more sensitive than a chicken's is.
You can get some hand feeding formula at your local pet shop, and give this to them.  You can also pick up some bird food and try putting some into a food dish and see if they'll eat that too.
I would also recommend that you take all of the babies into a Certified Avian Vet for a wellness check.  You should probably take Spasa in also.  It sounds like there might be something physically wrong with her and she is unable to produce for these babies.
I do not recommend giving rice to any kind of bird.  Even cooked rice can swell up in the bird's stomach and cause a number of problems with the bird, and most of the time these problems can be fatal.
If the pigeons will eat pasta, you could try it.  Enriched bread is a start, but they also need more nutrients than bread.
Please do not wait to take the babies into an Avian Vet.  The vet would be able to better tell what to do.

Please keep me updated on their condition.

Good luck and God Bless.
Dianna

Answer
Miss West,
It is possible for the new male to start caring for the babies.  
If it looks like they're losing too much weight, you can try feeding them some warm, cooked oatmeal, but still put some food in a dish for them so that they can experiment with learning to eat on their own.
It sounds like Spasa might have been the equivalent to the runt of the clutch, and usually when this happens, the parents will abandon the baby or even kill it, so her name really does fit her.
Keepa watch on her to make sure that she doesn't lose any more weight.  Try giving her a little bit of oatmeal too.  She might enjoy it.
As far as Miss Gray goes, she might have simply flown into a wall or window and knocked herself silly.  That would explain her not being able to fly and walking around in circles.

Good luck with the babies and please keep me informed on their progress.

God Bless.
Dianna