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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Am I doing something illegal? Animal abuse?

125 replies

LookingForwardToMarch · 06/07/2013 12:44

This may be long, I will try to keep this short.

On the usual dog walk with dd my dp found a small white egg on the ground. It was very cold so I promptly stuck it down my bra and went in search of the nest.

We didn't find a nest, all we found was a smashed up nest box which looked like it had been 6 rounds with the local thugs.

I took the egg home and stuck it in a box with some cotton wool. After some googling I realised that it was very unlikely to hatch / survive as it had been icy cold, and I didn't have a heat lamp etc.

But I kept it anyway. I guess it made me feel better than leaving it there. I was just going to l;eave it there for a few days, then give it a 'burial' in the back garden Blush yes I'm a wuss.

Anyway this is where my problem comes in. When I first found the egg I shone a torch through it and it was empty.

I just thought I'd check before burying it and.....the egg is no longer empty.

Cue massive panic! I've since been told havi8ng a wild bird in the house is illegal. I'm a horrible person for picking up the egg Sad and that I am being very cruel....

I never meant for this to happen but what do I do now? I've looked on the RSPB sites etc. and it says they don't take eggs.

So do I raise it? (God knows how)

Is there an organisation that take baby birds?

Am I a complete dickhead?

OP posts:
Original poster
LookingForwardToMarch · 07/07/2013 12:41

Thanks Gobble I will start doing that, do I literally just turn him over?

OP posts:
theodorakisses · 07/07/2013 14:33

You are going to get so attached to that egg!

Original poster
LookingForwardToMarch · 07/07/2013 14:38

I know!

Also I know I shouldn't as all may not be well....

But telling myself not to get attatched to something is always a losing battle!

It's just fab to know I'm not the only one, I mean taping a snails shell for it to heal?
I'm now keeping my eye out for snails in distress!

( When I told dp this he just sort of groaned and slouched off Grin )

OP posts:
gobbledegook1 · 07/07/2013 14:48

Yes you just turn the egg over, you might find putting a dot on one side with a marker pen helpful so you can visually see that its been rotated all the way around and back again.

Original poster
LookingForwardToMarch · 07/07/2013 14:54

Ahh fab idea!

I'll pop up and dot him now.

OP posts:
babybythesea · 07/07/2013 19:03

Good luck. But if he does turn out to be a dove please don't be too upset if he dies. DP has been working with birds for 20 years, with the last 10 being spent specialising in endangered songbirds, pigeons and doves. And his take on it was that there are experts in the field who fail and fail and fail again at rearing doves and pigeons because of the crop milk, so people who do it tend to keep domestic doves to foster their eggs and chicks under. If you find a sanctuary that does this then great. If they simply hand-rear like you would any other baby bird, it almost certainly won't make it.
If it's not a dove then none of the above applies!!

SummerRainIsADistantMemory · 07/07/2013 20:33

Looking, the Envy face was actual jealousy... I have a bizarre fondness for snails and would love to see an African landsnail in the flesh!

Dp made the same groaning noise when I showed him the taped up snail Blush

Sounds like Reggie is in with a chance of hatching if he's still growing. Very exciting!

HaveIGotPoosForYou · 07/07/2013 20:40

Google online pictures of egg shells and see which one it looks the most like.

What a lovely thing to do. I don't know what I would have done as I'd be worried I couldn't look after it but what a lovely thing to do. The chances are it could've died anyway if it began to grow and been out in the cold, so you did a very nice thing. :)

SadOldGit · 07/07/2013 21:26

As an aside we have an African Land Snail we call Fred. He was tiny when we got him/her but is a good size now. If anyone is in the Midlands and wants to see him..........

SummerRainIsADistantMemory · 07/07/2013 22:12

I love that you called him Fred Grin

Original poster
LookingForwardToMarch · 07/07/2013 22:23

Haha Fred the snail! I love it!

Yes I am quite worried about him being a dove, I think I'm going to start hunting out some bird people to see if they can identify mystery egg.

I have a place for him at a santuary if he isn't a dove, still frantically looking for broody dove/pidgeon places!

I have been told of some bird formula type stuff...if there are no other options it may work. But fingers
crossed he can get in somewhere 'proper'

OP posts:
SummerRainIsADistantMemory · 07/07/2013 23:15

Can you post a pic looking?

Were there any feathers near the nest box that could give a clue?

Original poster
LookingForwardToMarch · 08/07/2013 08:27

Summer how do I post pics on here?

OP posts:
HaveIGotPoosForYou · 08/07/2013 11:38

You could upload it to your profile Looking

fuzzpig · 08/07/2013 11:52

No advice here but best of luck with it, I am rooting for Reggie!

Original poster
LookingForwardToMarch · 08/07/2013 12:00

Thankyou!

Ok when I get home will give Reggie a photo shoot ha!

OP posts:
SummerRainIsADistantMemory · 08/07/2013 12:58

If you go to MyMumsnet at the top right hand corner you can access your profile and upload pics to that.

Original poster
LookingForwardToMarch · 08/07/2013 13:27

Thanks Summer Grin I will upload some when I get back

OP posts:
Original poster
LookingForwardToMarch · 08/07/2013 18:31

Ok Reggie has had his photo shoot :D So take a gander

OP posts:
Buzzardbird · 08/07/2013 18:36

Ooo, he looks like a Reggie! Must ask, it is pure white? Can't see on my phone because I picked up one of these off the road the other day which was underneath a tree with a lot of ravens nests but it had either hatched or had been eaten.

Binkyridesagain · 08/07/2013 18:38

looking when the egg was on the ground did the ground look as though it had been dug or scraped at? The nest box you saw wrecked can you describe it?

The problem with the egg image is its a pretty standard looking egg, so it could be any bird of pigeon, tawny owl size.

intarsia · 08/07/2013 18:41

Incubation is really precise with regard to temp and humidity- sorry to disappoint.
We hatch hens eggs using an incubator. Our dog scared a pheasant off her nest in our field. We kept an eye but she didn't come back so after a couple of hours I put them in the hen incubator. Yes, most of them hatched but I hadn't realised pheasant eggs incubate at a different temp from hens' and as a result they all had "splay leg" and couldn't walk. I battled on for a few days but it was pointless and they had to be put to sleep.
I think you are probably on to a loser here, I'm afraid.

Original poster
LookingForwardToMarch · 08/07/2013 18:42

Yes he is pure white all over

No Binky the ground looked pretty undisturbed, mind you it was short grass so not really anything to be disturbed.

The nest box looked like one someone had nailed onto a tree. It was about the size of a printer (closest size I can think of)

There was a chunk of wood quite high up so god knows how they got it down.

Yes that's the problem I've been having, there are so many birds with just plain white eggs!

OP posts:
Original poster
LookingForwardToMarch · 08/07/2013 18:46

Intarsia I know he might not, but he does keep 'growing'

From what I read it does say there has to be constant temperatures and heat lamps and humidity ( and all kinds of things I know nothing about)

Ha that's why I couldn't figure out why he is growing away in my boiler room!

Didn't set out to deliberately try to hatch him. Just felt he had a better chance in my house then he did by that lake ( Or as my dp puts it ' You had to go all bleeding heart animal police on me again didn't you')

Said with affection of course Grin

OP posts:
GerundTheBehemoth · 08/07/2013 18:48

The egg looks too large for collared dove, closer to woodpigeon size. Here's a pic of a woodpigeon egg in someone's hand: 3.bp.blogspot.com/-dGSpkHPwnlg/T5GQyhBPkxI/AAAAAAAAAMI/uF72uRbRcmw/s1600/20120420_153456.jpg. Woodpigeons make crap, flimsy nests, and their eggs and chicks sometimes fall through the bottoms.

Owl eggs are normally very rounded. Not many other wild British birds of that sort of size lay pure white eggs. Birds that nest in standard-sized nestboxes (most commonly great and blue tits) lay really teeny tiny eggs, 16-18mm long (and not pure white but speckled with brown).

I found a formula online for replacement crop milk: www.internationaldovesociety.com/Recipes/macmilk.htm The tricky thing seems to be the digestive enzymes they need for the first three days. I have handreared feral pigeon chicks on cereal-based baby-food, but not newly hatched ones, mine were at least a couple of weeks old.