# Abnormally slow feather growth in rescued mourning dove



## paillette (Jan 6, 2018)

Writing from Brooklyn, NY. Would appreciate some advice or insight about a pet mourning dove. We rescued her five months ago after finding her abandoned in a cage on the street. We keep pigeons on our roof in Bushwick so are comfortable handling and rehabbing. When she came to us she couldn't fly but was otherwise healthy. It looked like her wings had been clipped and we figured that if kept safe and well fed her feathers would grow back and she'd be fine. So she has been living inside in a large cage with fresh food and water, but her feathers have still not really grown and she still cannot fly. When a tail feather does grow there is often a kink in the shaft that is bendable, or it falls out easily. Some of the feathers are still stumps, or have a blunt end to them (I assume where they were clipped). She doesn't look bald or patchy and does not pluck her own feathers. She refuses to bathe and doesn't seem to preen very much. She seems healthy otherwise. Any idea what is going on? Some sort of nutritional deficiency or hygiene problem?

We have been feeding her a mix of canary seed, white millet, red millet, rape seed, flax, safflower. I am going to buy kaytee dove food mix to see if that helps.


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## bootface (Jun 29, 2017)

Vitamin A is important for feather growth, and they often don’t get enough from seeds. Giving her a bird multivitamin wouldn’t hurt either though. 

Has she been through a molt? Flights especially might not grow back until she molts.


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