So My Dove Is Apparently Fat!

EllenD

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Aug 20, 2016
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State College, PA
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Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
This Ringneck Dove is going to be the death of me, I swear. I love him dearly already, but he's way more frustrating and difficult to understand than any Parrot I've ever known....probably because I'm treating him like he's a parrot, lol...

Anyway, he went to my CAV today for his Wellness-Exam, and besides that my CAV wants to pluck 4 or 5 of his ratty tail-feathers (they were picked apart by the adult Doves in the cage with him, and they also had formula gluing them together, so they had to be cut, and now they really don't resemble feathers at all, lol)...HE SAID THAT DYLAN IS FAT!!!

Now explain to me how in the world you get a Dove to lose weight when all they eat are seeds and egg-food? He gets fresh veggies and some fruit every day too when the other guys do, but he just picks at them a little and throws them around more than eats them...I had weighed him when I first brought him home from that pet shop that was torturing him, and in the month he's been with me he gained 72 grams? How is that possible?

So as my CAV laughed at me as he told me that I needed to get him flying more now that his Primaries that I had to clip the formula out of have grown back, and I told him that I had no idea how in the world I was going to get Dylan to actually "Fly"...HE DOESN'T FLY, HE "HELICOPTERS"!!! Dylan does not fly forward, he only flies up, then suddenly over...up, then over!

I knew he was getting extra-cuddly, I just wrote that in a post earlier this-morning before his vet visit, lol. He's all soft, round, and squooshy...and I like him that way...But his liver isn't going to like it, so now I have to figure out how get a Dove to lose weight. Any tips would be much appreciated...

Oh, and he's still hiding under my bed since we got back from the vet (his cage is in my bedroom, separate from the parrots). I let him out of his carrier and instead of getting on his play-gym or going inside his cage, he ran right under my bed, and has been doing his "Cooing" from under there all afternoon...
 

GaleriaGila

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May 14, 2016
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Poor Dylan... he's... ummm... portly?

I have nothing but sympathy for both of you. Oh, and... huge giggles. Sorry! The idea of an extra-cuddly chub-dove just makes me do that!

And I have no idea how to trim a dove down. Doverobics? Jazzerdove? Pilatdoves?

I'll stop now!

Seriously, though... if flying is a bust, for now, at least... maybe... LESS seeds and egg food???
 

ChristaNL

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All are rescues- had to leave their previous homes for 'reasons', are still in contact with them :)
Cut down on the eggfood - most doves do not get that anyway.
(He doesn't need it- being a male he does not produce eggs/ is not feeding young ones.)
It's just seeds and grit for most of them.

They will peck greens once in a while.
Does he snack on fruit as well? (Sugars)- even small small amounts... cut them out for now.

Anyway- dove/ pigeons can be targettrained like no other, so you always can make him work for his supper.

Give him the flapping-exercises on your hand?
Hold on to his feet and let him flap vigorously ... you know the drill ;)
 

StephenM

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Jun 19, 2018
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Green Cheek Conures - Magnus & Merlin
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I’d cut out the egg food, I offer it occasionally as a treat but even then mine don’t really bother with it, chicks will take a bit when weaning sometimes but otherwise there’s no need for it. Sounds like your guy may be over indulging :) as most of a doves exercise seems to be to potter around on the floor you could try a small treatball for cats and put some of his seed in there to see will he work to get it out? Some doves are very smart, others not so much, you never know lol
 
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EllenD

EllenD

New member
Aug 20, 2016
3,979
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State College, PA
Parrots
Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
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"JAZZERDOVE"!...That's classic Gail, I love it...maybe I could turn this into a lucrative YouTube career...Dylan the Ringneck, helping "portly" Doves and Pigeons all over the world find their inner beauty"...

I talked to my CAV about the Eggfood as well, as he was the one who suggested that as being a normal part of a Dove's or Pigeon's diet in captivity. I had called him the day I brought Dylan home, as the only thing that I really knew about the diet of Doves/Pigeons was that they ate mostly seeds, and that they didn't shell them, they just ate them whole...Now my mother and step-father have bred and kept both Doves and Pigeons for years (not Ringnecks, but not much difference between the very common Dove species). However, not as pets or for the purpose of being "pets", but rather as game-birds for people to recall-train, like messenger-pigeons and such, as well as for the humane-training for hunting dogs. Their Doves/Pigeons have always been raised and lived in a large coop outside, and they have a huge aviary where they fly all day long, and of course the ones that are trained do an immense amount of flying.

So when I spoke to her about the diet my CAV had given to me, she agreed with the Eggfood as something they feed their guys too, along with different seeds, grit, veggies, and fruit...Now I don't give any of my birds much fruit at all, never have, obviously due to the sugar content. They get a little fruit treat a couple of times a week at most, and they don't get much (this would be the perfect spot to insert a photo of my blue Quaker, Lita...She's, well, let's go with "portly" as well)...But my parrots have always been fed a staple of pellets (first Zupreem Natural, now switching-over to Tropican) along with a small amount of a healthy seed-mix with no sunflower, black-oil sunflowers, etc. (used to be SunSeed Vita Prima without Sunflower Seeds, now we are also transitioning over to TropiMix, as it contains not only a lot more dried veggies, legumes, grains, etc., but it also contains a good amount of the Tropican pellets too, so it pretty-much tricks them into eating more of their pellets while they think they're eating seed-mix...Then they get fresh Veggies every single day, usually in the form of some kind of chop...And of course they get a bit of whatever I'm eating once in a while, if it's safe for them, and Kane, my Senegal, gets little fruit as treats as he really doesn't like fruit, but he of course loves nuts in their shells, so I use whole Almonds as his training and reward treats, and he goes crazy...

My parrots are all in really good health and at good weights, except Lita the Quaker, we're working on it :) . But Dylan won't really touch the veggies, I'm currently trying different veggies, cutting them differently, making them into little, tiny pieces, then huge pieces he can just pick at easily, etc. Nothing. He literally throws the veggies out of his cage onto the floor...But he absolutely loves the Eggfood, of course. He devours it...So I guess I answered my own question...

LOL, I was trying to convince my CAV that the 72 grams he has gained in the little over a month that I've had him was all due to the Grit inside of him :)
 

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