RIP sweet diamond dove

**marroqui** · 07-20-2019, 04:33 AM

Today out of nowhere, one of our little diamond doves passed away. It was all so sudden. My partner was feeding tweety the budgie and then in the corner of his eye noticed one of the doves at the bottom front corner of the cage, looking like it was already dead. He quickly put tweety in her cage and got the dove out. She was still alive, but only for a few hours. He held her and kept her warm the whole time until she passed. We have no idea what happened. At first we thought maybe there is too much added grit in their food so the foods all got replaced without grit just regular budgie seed. But if it was the grit then all of them should have problems. But then he started to think more and he mentioned she did look like her neck was hurt a bit, and not in the right place. We think she hurt her self when she was flying around the cage, possibly overnight. Once they get their blankets they do flap around a bit. The garage is literally right next door to the bedroom, only separated by a wall, so when I go to bed I can hear anything that goes on in the garage, sometimes I hear eating. Sometimes I hear the doves make small noises. and I hear them flap too. however, they generally make flappy noses when they fly, even during the day. I told my partner to lower everything in their cage so that they do not have higher distances to fly down for now. Plus they like to forage and walk around the cage bottom which is full of hay, as they cannot walk properly on cage bars nor climb them. So everything is lowered now. There is 7 of them left now. We are looking around to see if anyone is selling diamond doves so we can get another one again, so that the numbers are even and no one feels left out in the flock.

I just feel so bad for the poor little dove that lost her life today. I cried a bit when it happened and when we saw her at the bottom of the cage. And for awhile I did not cry. I had to go in the house and clean the food bowls and waters and cages of the indoor ones. But when it was indoor bird blanket time, I just started crying again thinking about the poor little thing. It feels so unfair. The poor little sweet angel. What could we have done differently? Do they need night lights all through the night? It's different with the indoor birds they can climb around their cages so they are ok in darkness and they are comfortable and know their little homes. But the doves can only move by flying so maybe darkness is not good for them. I feel so bad that we lost the sweet little one. They are so precious. My partner buried the little dove in a big potted plant that he has outside. That way if we move, she comes with us.

Even though there are 7 of them I still miss her. I did not know her personality but I loved her, just like I love her remaining friends. I never used to go into the garage before the doves came. I would leave it to my partner to deal with anything there. He usually just used the space to rehabilitate wild birds and then he got the pigeons who was supposed to be rehabilitated but decided they wanted to stay. But I still barely went in there unless my partner was working then I would go and blanket the pigeons when the time came and so on. But once the little doves came, I found myself popping into the garage much more often, I just really adore them. And I adored her. You were loved little Dovie, by us humans and by your little flock and your little neighbours.

We never named the doves because there were 8 of them and hard to decipher who is who. But today I decided to call her little Dovie number 8. Because when I talk to them I like to call them "little dovies". And their neighbour, the ringneck dove is "mr dovey".

Since there are many of them and I dont have singular photos or ways to tell them apart, I thought I would just include a photo of a couple of the doves. I'm actually not sure if she is there.

Rest in peace now my sweet Dovie.

**maxollie** · 07-20-2019, 09:22 AM

I am so sorry for you that you lost Dovie! Fly free, Dovie, over the rainbow bridge. You were dearly loved!

I read your other threads, and will comment here on them as well. First of all, do you ever see your doves mating? Since it soon will be Spring there, my thought is that possibly she was egg bound. Do you see any of them nesting, or spending time on the cage floor, as though they are wanting to nest?

Secondly, in reviewing the ingredients in the seeds you mentioned, I would agree with your partner to return them to the Trill seed. It seems to have a better mix, including grit. If it were me, I would slowly return them to the old seed mix, over a period of 7-10 days, adding more of the Trill, a little at a time until they are back to Trill, 100%. I do not know about doves per se, but in my view, being a larger bird, and not the parrot species, I think doves would benefit from grit, to help their digestion, but that is my own opinion.

Do you ever see them sparing with each other? Is there a chance the males could have been competing to court her, and a fight insued. Did you see any loose feathers in the cage, or was it in disarray? Perhaps that caused her injury.

I am hopeful someone with experience in raising doves will respond to your threads. My sincere condolence to you and your partner.

**boomer girl** · 07-20-2019, 12:39 PM

I am sorry for both your are your partner Laila. Diamond doves are such cute little birds and I always love to go next to there cages at our bird store here and coo to them. They always coo back with there sweet little voices. I think having a little light in the shop might be good for them so it least they could see a tiny bit and maybe not fall off the perch or fall as much. Its funny they do not settle down to sleep like our birds do normally, I never knew they didn't.

Fly free sweet Dovey... and of course hugs to your and your loving partner.

**marroqui** · 07-20-2019, 07:34 PM

Thanks Ellen and Deanna.

Diamond doves are very small, so not big like pigeons. I did read online that they need the grit since they do not peel the seeds, but down here I dont know why we are being told they dont need it. how do they digest without grit if they swallow the seeds whole?

Today I will get one box of the trill canary/finch mix. Assuming the weather is ok (it rained heavily this morning and now its extremely windy), I will be walking so can only get the one box for now. But we will do what you mentioned, just slowly re-introduce the trill seed to them alongside the current seeds, so that will prolong the trill box until we can get more later in the week. I think slowly re-introducing the seeds is a good idea too, because on the trill website they mention having reduced or replaced some of their seed mixes because of a 3 year drought in new South Wales, where the seeds are made I think. Apparently there is no linseed at the moment, and they have either reduced the amount of millet or sourced millet from overseas, and added more canary seed and hulled oats. At least with the trill mix the grit is already inside and we dont have to add anything and it is the shell grit with calcium so even better. They look like really really small sea shells. I've always liked the trill mix even for our indoor birds. They always seemed to like the cockatiel mix. And we never had to add extra of anything like oats because it always had lots of oats as well as safflower. And all their other favourites like millet.

The doves have laid eggs before, at his dad's house. Apparently the eggs weren't good though because he didn't give them cuttlebone. Here they get cuttlebone and also a mineral block which I think has calcium and something else in it. It is a pink mineral block. They have also laid eggs while with us too. But not whole clutches. I think in total there have been 4 eggs. So maybe not from the one dove. My partner said he once saw one of the males spreading his wings really wide, similar to a peacock when they spread their wings to present themselves. He also said he doesnt see them arguing or anything like that either. They seem more gentle than parrots. Sometimes when they are sitting and another dove will fly to where another is sitting they will peck at them a little bit to sort of tell them "move away" and they move away straight away.

We dont think the one that died was egg bound. My partner still thinks its from flapping in the dark and that she started to feel they injury more yesterday in the late morning when we saw her at the bottom all alone hiding. There were no loose feathers in the cage, So I dont think it was a fight. I think we will try to find if we can leave a lightly dimmed light next to their cage so they can still sleep but can still see if they need to move during the night. I am thinking a tea light candle (battery operated, not with actual fire). We used to do this for the conures and it worked for awhile to help them sleep properly.

The diamond doves are so sweet. I love listening to them coo too and I love to coo back to them as well. I have not seen them in the shops here. When my partner purchased them for his dad, he did get a lot of them from a pet shop here, but that pet shop no longer sells any animals, only pet products now. He got two from a breeder I think but he had to drive about 40 minutes away. I know if I saw them in a shop I would want to coo to them too.

I think they used to settle down for bedtime quickly when they first came. But lately I still hear them at around 11 at night. I can hear a coo a few times and then once or twice someone will flap. It's pretty quiet here so I'm not sure why they would still be awake at that time.

**boomer girl** · 07-22-2019, 10:03 PM

That is weird they stay up so late after dark. But then I don't know anything about Diamond Doves. I sure do think they are so cute. We have wild mourning Doves here and I use to love watching them come to my yard to eat the seed I spread out for the birds. Sadly my daughter moved here in our house with her cats so no more feeding the wild birds for me

**marroqui** · 07-23-2019, 12:12 AM

Yeah it is strange. I do wonder if a noise wakes them up and they coo. It has been quite windy here lately too. But even on non-windy days I hear a little coo at 11 at night each night. Maybe they are just comfortable and feel safe. Or to them its night time snack time. I've heard our indoor birds shuffling around during the night sometimes too getting themselves a snack. The mourning doves sound lovely over there, and I just googled them and they look so much like ringneck doves, and we have one ringneck dove too. He is cute and cuddly, and he really likes the female pigeon that is in the garage near him. He always coos to her or coos to the diamond doves. Aw I wish you could still see and feed all the wild birds, it must be nice to, especially in summer time. How does your daughter manage with her cats and having tikki as well? I wonder if the cats can stay inside, so you can feed? Or do they go outside too? But nonetheless, you are really kind to be aware of the cats possible natural instincts and not feed the wild birds as a precaution.