Need Help Possibly Diagonising Dove Disease

[BackyardDove]

I've been breeding and raising white, pied, and ringneck doves for the past 7 years. It seems that every time a problem is fixed, a new problem comes up a few months later. In my 7 years of breeding, I've never had an issue of disease with my doves. There was a time when they had some kind of parasite in their feathers, but that was taken care of long ago. Otherwise, all the deaths that have occurred with my doves where either due to wild animals or, in the very very beginning, when I didn't have a good brand of dove seed.

Today I found one of my white doves dead. She was one of my older doves, anywhere from 5-7 years old(I wasn't documenting exact age when I got her), but even then doves typically die naturally at around 12-15 years old. She had been a breeding dove up until a few months ago when I decided to retire from breeding them, so that likely shaved off a few years of her lifespan, but she was still pretty young. Good weight, no missing feathers, healthy appetite. No noticeable signs of disease, her eyes were clear. I even looked for any abnormal looking feces, but I came up with nothing.


Is there anything I might be missing that I could look at for any signs of disease? I'm suppose to be giving around 7 of my young doves to a family member of mine soon and all my doves are in one cage. I don't want to give sick doves to anybody. I'm also planning on getting a couple of pheasants and perhaps a quail to add into the aviary with the doves in a few weeks, so if there is a disease I need to find and treat it now.

 

[jak2002003]

If only one doves died and no others seem ill.. I don't think you need worry. If there was an infections disease then others will get sick quickly too.

Do not add any pheasants or quail to the dove aviary.. that will end in disaster!!

Pheasants will kill and eat the doves.

Quail (particularly the males) will attack you doves then they land on the ground.. and try to mate with them.. and injure them by pecking their heads.. and can scalp them! The smaller 'button quail would be a better choice, but they also have some diseases that can spread to doves.

If you want to introduce other birds with you doves I suggest canaries are a good choice, or peaceful parakeet species such as a pair of grass parakeets or splendid parakeets.

 

[BackyardDove]

I think she might've had a medical problem, such as a heart attack. I'm not sure if doves can even have heart attacks, but whatever happened to her happened only to her and quickly with no symptoms. The others are doing great and no symptoms have appeared in the others.

As for the pheasants, I'll be getting a pair of Red Goldens. Red Goldens do very well with other bird species and it is even recommended to have a pair of doves with Red Goldens. It helps calm the male if there are other bird species in the aviary and will keep him from turning on the female Red Golden. Same with Lady Amhersts, in fact my mom use to keep Lady Amhersts with her doves all the time. I'm not too sure on quails, I haven't researched them enough, but I only plan on getting miniature quails. If attacking does become a problem with them, I'll separate them.

I've actually thought of adding in parakeets or other small birds, but that won't work for where I live. Parakeets are very sensitive to the heat, and here in Texas it gets very hot outside. We've had several parakeets in their own cages before, but the heat is still too much for them. Another issue is that the wire for the aviary is just big enough for small birds to fit through. I'd like to get wire with smaller gaps, but the price for wire like that is very expensive.

Thank you for responding!

 

[jak2002003]

As for the pheasants, I'll be getting a pair of Red Goldens. Red Goldens do very well with other bird species and it is even recommended to have a pair of doves with Red Goldens. It helps calm the male if there are other bird species in the aviary and will keep him from turning on the female Red Golden. Same with Lady Amhersts, in fact my mom use to keep Lady Amhersts with her doves all the time. I'm not too sure on quails, I haven't researched them enough, but I only plan on getting miniature quails. If attacking does become a problem with them, I'll separate them.

I am sure the pheasants will badly injure the doves.. and for sure eat any babies they hatch!

I have learnt the hard way about them. I had a pair in a mixed aviary with budgies and canaries. I can tell you that my birds were vanishing.. and then I actually saw .. a few times.. my pheasants catching and swallowing hole a canary and a budgie. Believe me!!! I had to re home the pheasants. I have also spoken to others that had the same experience.

Your doves are ring neck doves right? They are too small to house with pheasants.

You CAN house white doves (fancy pigeons) with peasants as they are bigger and stronger.

The small quail won't attack your doves... only the bigger species will. But they can have diseases that may affect you doves. But they are a much safer choice than the pheasants.

Do you have another coop to put the pheasant in? It will cost more money to make a new coop than to but thinner spaced wire for your current aviary.

 

[BackyardDove]

Pheasants are primarily herbivores, but some of the pheasant breeds will eat off of a dead body. I no longer breed my doves, so there wouldn't be an issue with them killing any babies.

What kind of pheasants did you have? Like I said, my mom use to own Lady Amhersts who did perfectly with her doves. Each breed is different. If you had multiple pheasants in one cage, no matter the breed, that would be why you were losing other birds. No more than one male and one female pheasant should be in one aviary. I've also spoken to others and they have all told me Red Goldens do great with doves.

If the doves are too small, then why isn't a miniature quail too small? The quails I'm looking at are about the weight of a dove.

No, I don't have another aviary. Not one that's big enough to house a pair of Red Goldens.

 

[jak2002003]

Pheasants are primarily herbivores, but some of the pheasant breeds will eat off of a dead body. I no longer breed my doves, so there wouldn't be an issue with them killing any babies.

What kind of pheasants did you have? Like I said, my mom use to own Lady Amhersts who did perfectly with her doves. Each breed is different. If you had multiple pheasants in one cage, no matter the breed, that would be why you were losing other birds. No more than one male and one female pheasant should be in one aviary. I've also spoken to others and they have all told me Red Goldens do great with doves.

If the doves are too small, then why isn't a miniature quail too small? The quails I'm looking at are about the weight of a dove.

No, I don't have another aviary. Not one that's big enough to house a pair of Red Goldens.

I had golden pheasants... only one pair. It was hard to re home them.. I was very attached to them.

Seems you will get them yourself... good luck. ,,, oh, and here is a photos of a pheasant eating a mouse....

 

[BackyardDove]

That's very odd for Red Golden's. But, like any animal, each one of them is unique and might not conform to breed standards. Just because one pair of Golden's was out of the norm doesn't mean they're all bad. Not only that, but there are several factors that could've led your pheasants to killing the other birds. Such as their cage was small and forcing them to fight for territory, not enough perches for everybody, improper introduction, etc. Especially improper introduction. Any bird will kill smaller birds if it is moved to a new area with them and not properly introduced. Though, they could've just been odd birds.

It's a good thing I won't be keeping small rodents in the aviary too then, huh?