Hi. New to doves with one about to hatch

Oh and they have food except from about 8pm till 6am-6:30 when I get up and water all the time. They are blind in the dark the breeder told my sister so at most it might be 15mins in the morning they haven't got food access that they would go looking for it.

We have a lot of mice that I've even spotted while I've been there checking them so I'm trying to not encourage them in the cage at night.

They are just ignoring him? Do I put him under the heat lamp till they go back on the nest or will they not get back on the nest without him there?

Luckily it's our first warm day for a week.

Or is normal for them to stay off more and just come back to feed?

Ok so have been doing some googling and its normal for them to start having a bit of "me" time around 10 days and around then mum tends to start loosing interest. As long as they still feel warm when you feel them and the crop is being filled it's all good. I'll keep an eye on its crop but he still feels toasty warm.

Good grief, its the never ending saga. Mum seems a bit sleepy today and just noticed she has a dirty bottom?

She was sitting in the nest with bubs and I put a little seed in there as a treat and she came straight out happily to eat that then went back on the nest and straight away started dozing on and off.





Now what?

appps said:

Good grief, its the never ending saga. Mum seems a bit sleepy today and just noticed she has a dirty bottom? She was sitting in the nest with bubs and I put a little seed in there as a treat and she came straight out happily to eat that then went back on the nest and straight away started dozing on and off. Now what?

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You may get conflicting opinions on this, but I'd treat the whole family with a water soluble antibiotic in their drinking water. The parents will give the antibiotic to the squab when they feed. Use an antibiotic for intestinal infections; I've used tetracycline/ornacycline with good results. If the parents stop feeding you will need to hand feed with the antibiotics added to the formula. If this is an in intestinal infection you should see quick results. I wish you the best of luck.

Thanks! Will keep an eye on her and if she doesn't perk up I'll see if the breeder has some.

I got on to my sister and she said they can get really pooey especially if they haven't had their bath dish to play in so to give her bottom a wash. So did that and it turned out to be way worse than I first thought. There was a huge lump that must have been almost making it hard to poop. So got it all cleaned off and then sat her in the warm for 20 minutes so she wouldn't be wet if she sat on bubs. Hopefully she will start to perk up now with that load gone. Would have been dreadfully uncomfortable.

Note to self, next time you agree to babysit, read the fine print!

appps said:

Thanks! Will keep an eye on her and if she doesn't perk up I'll see if the breeder has some.

I got on to my sister and she said they can get really pooey especially if they haven't had their bath dish to play in so to give her bottom a wash. So did that and it turned out to be way worse than I first thought. There was a huge lump that must have been almost making it hard to poop. So got it all cleaned off and then sat her in the warm for 20 minutes so she wouldn't be wet if she sat on bubs. Hopefully she will start to perk up now with that load gone. Would have been dreadfully uncomfortable.

Note to self, next time you agree to babysit, read the fine print!

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Keep in mind that birds are expert at hiding illness; watch carefully.

I will do, I lost one babysitting years ago for her. It just had a fit and dropped dead in front of my poor daughter. Probably why I'm so paranoid this time! So will be watching her like a hawk!

How's baby Maddox and the parents?

All good . I really expected to get up and find mum dead the other day, she was just literally nodding off all day. She'd nod off and startle herself when her head dropped and wake again, and at one point was just sitting with her head against the wire holding it up while sleeping. But the next morning she was back to her normal self. I suspect the poop dried on her was blocking things so getting it all off seems to have fixed it.

Young Maddox is growing like a weed . They aren't sitting on him as such because he is getting too big now, but mum still likes to sit in there with him cuddled up with her. Dad tends to feed and run these days as he has perfected the art of nagging to be fed I've noticed lol

I will grab some photos later.

Now starting to think about when to seperate them and send mum and dad home. It's been pouring rain here on and off lately and where I have them is more waterproof than my sisters so I'm going to keep them at least another week. By then he will be three weeks old and starting to feed himself so I think not long after that they will go home and he will stay. Thinking he might be tamer than his parents if I feed him after that rather than them. What do you think? Is the 3 weeks onwards feeding pretty simple? He should be almost feeding himself by then shouldn't he?