Dove with laying issues

[Blisschick]

I have two female ringneck doves I keep, and every couple of weeks they each lay a pair of eggs. The past few months, my white one has been having issues when laying eggs. She becomes lethargic for about a day or two, will sit in the bottom of the cage rather than the nest box, and won't feed or drink until she passes the egg. I'm assuming that this is not normal, since my other one does not do this. I have no idea how old my white one is, since she showed up in my yard one day while I was feeding the chickens, and a hawk had tried to scalp her. The other, a tangerine, is probably about 4 or 5 years old. Is there anything I can do for my dove? She looks absolutely miserable. She's fine once she lays the egg.

If it helps, I've been feeding them Wild Harvest Universal Blend Nutrient Rich Food for Small Birds for years now. I live in a rural area where specialized bird seed isn't found.

Stacey

 

[jak2002003]

I have two female ringneck doves I keep, and every couple of weeks they each lay a pair of eggs. The past few months, my white one has been having issues when laying eggs. She becomes lethargic for about a day or two, will sit in the bottom of the cage rather than the nest box, and won't feed or drink until she passes the egg. I'm assuming that this is not normal, since my other one does not do this. I have no idea how old my white one is, since she showed up in my yard one day while I was feeding the chickens, and a hawk had tried to scalp her. The other, a tangerine, is probably about 4 or 5 years old. Is there anything I can do for my dove? She looks absolutely miserable. She's fine once she lays the egg.

If it helps, I've been feeding them Wild Harvest Universal Blend Nutrient Rich Food for Small Birds for years now. I live in a rural area where specialized bird seed isn't found.

Stacey

She sounds like she is suffering from laying all those eggs! Its a huge drain on their bodies.

She is probably lacking in calcium.

Get a cuttle fish bone form the pet shop,, and grind some up and sprinkle over her seeds. Also cut some of it up into small cubs.. just the size of a large see she can eat. But these in a shallow dish in the cage.. where she can eat them.

Can you get bird vitamins to add to the drinking water? That will help.

Also you can hard boil an egg. mash it up.. with the shell on.. and offer this to her.. you may have to sprinkle some over the seed to temps her to eat it. This will help boost her energy, and give her more protein and calcium also.

Finally... don't keep taking her eggs away......that will make her lay more and more each time.

You can leave her to brood them.....they won't hatch anyway with 2 females. Or you can make you own fake eggs with small white pebbles or something that look like an egg, and leg her sit on those for as long as she likes. That will slow down her laying new ones and give her time to recover.

If she still seem ill after a few days you should take her to the vet where they can give her a vitamin D and calcium injection.

Good luck.....

 

[bigrob83]

good advice on letter her lay on them
its at least easier on them without constantly "needing to make a egg"

doves are smart in the fact that they know exactly what a egg should be so fakes rarely make the cut
let her lay eventually she will kick the egg out because she knows it bad but at least the physical demand wont be so hard on her

amazing how smart and in tune with instincts they can be

 

[jak2002003]

My doves and pigeons.. and chickens are not very smart then it comes to knowing if they have fake eggs or not.

In fact, I use my pigeons to hatch out bantam chicken eggs, my ring neck doves used to hatch out quail eggs, and my chickens will hatch duck eggs.

I found some small white plastic balls that were about the size of marbles. The ring neck doves would happily sit on those.

How is you dove doing now? I hope she is feeling better!