Baby pigeon..... i think

Question
Hi,
today i found a pigeon while i was riding it was on a track mid afternoon. it ran up to the horses hoof and the horse tried to stomp on it. i thought it might have been injured so i took it into my care. its fully feathered and im pretty sure it has its flight feathers, but its extremely tame and is happy to be picked up. it sits on my hand and cuddles up to me on my shoulder but it pecks at my hand and squeaks it seems for me to feed it. its been drinking and i've been hand feeding it bread. i read on a website that i should give it ground up seed with water so ive been giving it ground up canary seed, it ate a little bit of that, im keeping it in an indoor bird cage with rags on the bottom of the cage with a dish of seed and water it seems content to sleep on the rags. what else can i do?, and am i feeding it properly?. please help!

Answer
Hi, Brooke.  Thanks for posting!  What an interesting story.

I can't confirm what type of bird this is, but pigeons can be tame.  If it squeaks when you pick it up, it could be a baby (they are called "squeakers" because of this).  Baby pigeons look full grown by the time they are 28 days old.  Pigeons can be completely tame and make good pet birds.  I've trained several to come to me when I tap my fingers on a surface, trained them to defecate in a certain spot, etc.

This bird should be eating pigeon grain.  If you can't readily find pigeon grain, try wild bird food.  However, it probably won't eat the sunflower seeds so you might want to pick these out.  You could mix millet, safflower, etc., with wild bird food.  Pigeons drink lots of water, particularly right after they've eaten grain (in order to soften up the grain in their crops).  Also, this bird will need pigeon grit.  The bird will also want/need to fly some, so you might want to build it a small aviary or flight cage if you want to contain it.  Hawks will eat this bird if left on it's own in the wild.  You can also exchange the rags for plain newspaper or something similar...s/he'll make a mess of the rags with it's droppings (but using the rags is OK as long as the bird's toenails don't get stuck in any threads).  Also, pigeons do just fine living outside during the winter time without any heat (if you live in an area with 4 seasons).

Come back if you have further questions.  I raise homing pigeons and have so for 11 years.

Chrys