Female Ringneck Dove - always lying down

[karthigan]

I have had a pair of ringneck doves. The female laid 2 eggs a few weeks back. The eggs were not fertile and did not hatch.

I threw the eggs away.

About 2 weeks, later, she laid 2 more eggs - the eggs were fragile and broke. One broke on the female and she was in a complete egg mess.

So, I washed her clean is warm water. I washed the boy in warm water as well.

After the bath, the boy has been fine.

I also took the next box off to prevent breeding.

The girl seems to eat and drink okay. However, she seems to lie on the floor all day. Won't step on to the perch at all.

It seems to me that she may hurt her leg. However, she does not seem to have any visual injuries.

Both her legs look fine.

What could possibly be going on?

 

[Hokum Coco]

The girl seems to eat and drink okay. However, she seems to lie on the floor all day.
What could possibly be going on?
Frost bite comes to mind but I imagine you ruled that out. I personally find it is better to supply the pair with dummy eggs or boil their eggs to prevent breeding. Otherwise you may find yourself with another clutch in about 10 days. Wish I could be of more help.

 

[karthigan]

Thank you for your feedback. How to check for frost bite? The birds are in reasonably warm weather - 50F to 75F.

I put her on the perch today and she stayed on the perch for some time and finally got down. It looks like she may have hurt or sprained one of her legs - visually I couldn't see any hurt. She is using her wings a lot to rest and balance. Does not stand straight up unless I let her out. Then she flies to a high place and perches.

Very puzzled. She is struggling to climb one step up to her food and water. So I put it on the floor for her to reach.

She is very alert and healthy otherwise.

Don't know what may have happened to her legs.

 

[jak2002003]

I think your female ringneck dove may be suffering from calcium deficiency.

This will cause her to get very weak legs and loose proper use of them.

I guess this because of a couple of things you said in your post...

1. She has been laying eggs frequently (this uses us a lot of her body calcium from her bones).

2. Only the female is showing these problems.

3. You can't find any visual injuries to the legs or feet.

You need to get her some calcium rich suppliments.... like crushed oyster shell grit, powdered cuttlebone sprinkles over her feed.

TIP..lightly spray the seed with mineral oil or water to get the cuttlefish bone to stick to the seeds... throw away any uneaten seed at the end of the day to stop it going moldy.

If its winter where you are, or you keep your birds indoors she will also need a vitamin D supplement in order to help her body use the calcium. Vit D comes from unfiltered sunlight... or you can get some bird vitamins... or better still get her an injection of vit D at the Vets.

In the future don't throw away the eggs as this only makes her lay more.. which is a great strain on her body eventually. Replace the eggs with fake ones.. or small white balls, or even hard boil the eggs and let her sit on them (when they are cooled down lol).

If she gets a vitamin and calcium injection from the vets she will recover very quickly.

I guess you already provide your birds with bird grit and minerals.. if not they always need this available to digest their food properly and for nutrients they can't get from seeds.

Please let us know how she gets on.

 

[loftkeeper]

give her one human calcium tablet wait a day should be fine

 

[Hokum Coco]

The girl seems to eat and drink okay. However, she seems to lie on the floor all day. Won't step on to the perch at all.

Do you have any idea how old the female dove is?