Diamond Dove Care

[dreamer5577]

I am getting a diamond dove in one week! I'm so excited.
I have been doing research on them for the past week and have learned a lot. However, I still have many, many questions.

What kind of food should I buy it? -I've heard finch food, is there anything else? Would it be okay eating wild bird seed?

Does the dove NEED grit?

(Not sure if it is male or female) If it is a male, would I need to buy it a little nest-y thing or something to sleep in? Or is he good on the perch?

What exactly do I buy my dove? Cuttle bone? Timothy Hay? Toys at all? Bird Bath?

Please, just share all you know. I'm going to be going shopping sometime next week and I don't want some store suckering me into buying things I do not need!

--THANK YOU

 

[Kevin565]

Quote:

 

[elmo]

Here's a good site to start you off:

http://www.dovepage.com/

Doves as softbills won't be able to do anything with a cuttlebone. If you are going to provide supplemental calcium, it needs to be crushed so the dove can consume it.

Doves don't generally use nests for sleeping, only for sitting on eggs.

 

[chseeads]

I feed mine canary/finch-sized pelleted food (like Zupreem or whatever) as well as finch type seed.

 

[magical_unicorn123]

Diamond doves do very well on a wild dove seed mix! However, they will need much more than just seeds. I would not recommend an only seed diet, because they are high within fat. And, an only seed diet can then lead to fatty liver disease. An dove’s diet should be 50-60% of an dove seed mix, then 15-20% pellets, and the rest being fruits and vegetables along with grit. Doves shallow their food whole, unlike parrots. So, they need grit in order to help digest and break down the food. The best kind of grit to have is an high calcium grit. Doves, along with other birds, need a lot of calcium. And this is especially true for females laying eggs. When females birds lay eggs, there loosing a lot of nutrience and calcium within their body. If you want plan on breeding your doves, then give the female dove lots of calcium, D3 vitamin supplements, protein, and overall nutrition. And, if you do plan on breeding your doves, some good nesting material would be coconut fiber, straw, strands of hay, and bird nesting material on Amazon. If you have an male and female, the eggs will hatch within 14 days. And, the eggs should be about the size of a quarter. Both partners will take turns sitting on the egg, and when the baby doves hatch, the paraents will feed the baby doves an liquid substance that there bodies made from their food. The female typically only lays an clutch of only two eggs, but she can lay more. There are a few ways to tell if the egg is fertile without breaking the egg. One is by taking an egg, and shining it under an flashlight. If you see vains, or what looks to be something forming, then the egg is fertile! Another way is to put the egg in warm water to see if it floats. If the egg sinks, the egg is fertile! You want to put the egg in warm water so it doesn’t stop the development of the baby invade it is fertile. And, make sure that the egg is warm when it’s away from it’s mom incubating it. If the egg turns cold, then it stunt the growth of the baby dove. If you don’t plan on breeding the doves, then don’t put any nesting material within their cage. And make sure that there isn’t anything in their cage that would cause the bird to be hormonal or see a place as an potential nesting place. Anything like bird hammocks, snuggle huts, mirrors, plastic toys, plastic perches, dowel perches, and sand perches should not be in your birds cage, and can cause health problems and some of these could cause death in an severe case. Things like natural wood perches, vertical ladders, and some toys are good for your dove! Your dove needs natural wood perches in order to trim down its nails and for its feet to get exercise. Things like a sand perch is harmful to your birds health, because it trims an birds nails to short to fast, and it could cause them to beed and for infections to get in and make the situation worse. Dowel perches serve no good for your bird. Having a few of them in a cage is fine, but, you really want to add natural wood perches to. Having only dowel perches could give your bird bumble foot and feet problems. Any perch with texture to it is good, as long as it’s not an sand perch. And, doves do like to sleep on a perch. Doves don’t need toys, they can do well without it. And, doves won’t use regular parrot toys. Toys will bells, tassels, leather straps and foraging toys do best for doves. Doves don’t need toys, but they’d like a few. There is a chance that your dove won’t even use the toys, depends on the dove and depends on the toys. My diamond dove named diamond (I know, so creative. I got him when I was 11.) Didn’t use the first batch of toys that I got him. The toys were made for parrots. Doves don’t really use cuttlebones, only use it when your doves break is to long. The only thing that doves can do with a cuddle bone is to nibble it. You can use the cuddle bone as a source of calcium, by scaraping some off into their food. Speaking of food, there are a lot of things that you can’t feed your bird! Like caffeine, alcohol, chocolate, onions, garlic, meat, dairy, animal based products, tomato stems, high levels of iron, xylitol, too much salt and milk. A dove can have a little bit of salt and milk, but not to much. And, your bird can’t have too many citric acid fruits/vegetables/foods. Only feed your bird an limited amount of citric acid foods. Things like leafy greens, and corn do well for doves! And, doves need a bath three times a week. And need at least 8-12 hours of sleep. Along with an cage that is at least two times wider than their wingspan. It’s better to have an cage that is wider rather than it is taller, because doves spend most of their time on the ground and can’t climb on the side bars like parrots. And, they also like their food bowls on the ground to. And, doves are happiest within pairs. They can do well within a pair of the same gender or opposite gender. Due be careful when you have one female diamond dove and two male diamond doves. The males might fight with each other for the one female. Diamond doves do mate for life. And can live anywhere between 15-25 years in captivity. And 3-5 years in the wild. There is a way to tell the different between an male and female diamond dove. The male diamond dove will have an thicker and more vibrant eye ring than the female. And, he will have layers of tail feathers on top of each, and have an very thick and full tail. And the males have an more stocker body than the females. The females have very thin and few feathers on their tails, and thinner and less vibrant eye rings. The female will be smaller and curvier. I would not recommend to breed your doves, because the female dove will loose a lot of important nutrience and have vitamin deficiencies. Along with the chance of being egg-bound... which could kill her... even thou I did tell you everything that you need to know on how to take care of a diamond dove, I still recommend that you do your research! I know so much because I research as often as I can, and from years of experience with my baby boy and princess.

 

[SulkyBantam]

Will s/he be living with your other doves? Or will you get her/him a companion?

 

[magical_unicorn123]

I know I only mentioned one of my diamond doves, but I actually have three diamond doves. I got the other two yesterday

 

[SulkyBantam]

Ok thats very nice? Do you have pics of their enclosure?

 

[magical_unicorn123]

Yes I do. Before you ask, “why isn’t there any toys or a platform?” And “why aren’t the birds In the same cage?” The bird toys and platform are coming in the mail off of Amazon. And the birds are separate so that the two brand new doves get used to each other before hand. They’ll only be in the cage for a week. And then, they can be free ranged like diamond. And, I’ll make more perches.

 

[magical_unicorn123]

I understand if your trying to make sure that my birds are taken care of. Don’t worry, they are! I try my best that I can! And, my baby boy and my other doves get at least three hours of attention! And my doves are healthy! There eyes are shiny and not watery. There nostrils are clear. There feathers are organized. And there vent is clean and clear. There beak and nails are perfect. Although, the two doves that I just got have too long nails, and I’m trying to fix that.