# lost all my diamond doves



## sharkness (Dec 16, 2012)

Hi 

I'm new to this so please bear with me i went out to aviary this morning to find my 12 diamond doves all dead I'm a little worried as i keep them with my canaries there was no sign of any illness in the birds all week but i haven't been out with them since Friday but it a bit unusual to find all 12 birds dead some were old but most were this years and last years any help would be grateful


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## Wodin (Nov 5, 2012)

that is odd! did the canaries stay alive? were they showing any signs of illness? i know diamond doves are strong on the wing and can be very jumpy, maybe something shocked them in the night and they ended up killing them selves against the aviary sides? i had this happen once with a a canary after a firework went off and they all went bonkers. apart from that i have no idea. Maybe the diamond doves ate something the canaries didn't? after all they eat things whole whereas canaries shell their food.


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## sharkness (Dec 16, 2012)

i lost no canaries just the doves only thing I've noticed is that on some of the dove there breast bone seems very pronounced but they couldn't have starved since Friday


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## Dima (Jan 15, 2011)

sharkness said:


> i lost no canaries just the doves only thing I've noticed is that on some of the dove there breast bone seems very pronounced but they couldn't have starved since Friday


You mean that it was no food for them left?


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## sharkness (Dec 16, 2012)

they all eat from the same 2 food tray's and same two water drinkers


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## sharkness (Dec 16, 2012)

no no there was food there in the two feed trays more then enough i was feeding them once every three days I'd have fruit and veg out in the flight every day and plenty of water


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## Wodin (Nov 5, 2012)

did the water freeze? i know for the past 3 or 4 days here in the uk i have had to defrost my pigeon drinkers twice a day....but to be honest i would expect the canaries to drop dead 1st- they are much less hardy. maybe it was just an outbreak of canker or something. did you look in the dead birds mouths? were their feathers battered like they had been flying at the wire?


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## sharkness (Dec 16, 2012)

we haven't had a freeze here since wed I'm in Dublin Ireland i had a look in there mouths didn't see anything but not sure what i should be looking for i found them inside on the floor huddled in the corners or some directly on the floor under perches that would 4 feet off the ground


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## sharkness (Dec 16, 2012)

sorry no feathers lose around them


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## Wodin (Nov 5, 2012)

hmm its a hard one. sorry you lost them all, if they were huddled in the corners and falling off perches, with prominent bones i can only assume some illness went through them all very quickly! what this is i have no odea without seeing the birds themselves. Maybe PMV? or a very bad case of something simpler like cocci/canker/blood poisoning? id give the flight a clean out, washing all bowels etc just in case, however if it was gonna get your canaries i would guess they would be the 1st to go!


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## likebirds (Oct 22, 2012)

Maybe they ate the canarys droppings. I know sparrow and mice droppings can kill them and pigeons will eat them.


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## sharkness (Dec 16, 2012)

cheers thanks for the help wodin i gave the place a good clean already hopefully i don't lose any more birds thanks once again


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## nancybird (Jan 30, 2011)

I am sorry you lost all your doves.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Can you post a picture of where you keep them?


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

If they were thin and the keels were prominent, then they had to be sick for a while, not just since Friday. How long have you had them?


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## sharkness (Dec 16, 2012)

i keep them in a 10foot by 8 foot shed with a 8foot by 3foot flight they get the sun all day the shed is metal on the outside and lined with wood in the inside i was only holding some of the birds last Sunday the seemed fine i only noticed that the keel was prominent today when i picked them up I've been breading them for the last 4 years this it the first time this has happened to me Ive breading birds the last 12 years never have i had this happen to me


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

It is possible it could of been night fright, but this is just a guess and this could always be a mystery unless perhaps you can get one of the tested for disease, but with all of them dead at one time that does not seem like how that would happen. here is a quote from a diamond dove care page.

"Night Frights" are contagious - if one starts - the others will follow and the results can be disastrous, not only eggs and babies knocked from the nest, but broken wings, banged heads and bleeding cuts."


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Can mice get into the loft?
Have you checked way down the throats with a flashlight to see if there is any obvious canker?


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Night frights can happen, but I don't think that all of them would have died.


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## Wodin (Nov 5, 2012)

sharkness said:


> cheers thanks for the help wodin i gave the place a good clean already hopefully i don't lose any more birds thanks once again


no probs. dont kick yourself about it, sometimes this stuff happens and it cant be explained. they sound well looked after- if all the birds were related it might be the family or strain cant cope well with certain bugs and it just knocked them for six.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

These things can usually be explained. Just have to figure out what happened. That is kind of important to prevent it from happening again.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

Jay3 said:


> Night frights can happen, but I don't think that all of them would have died.


I know, a mass death like this will be hard to know unless some testing is done. the night fright theary and that is all that it is, could explain all of them gone at one time.


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## sharkness (Dec 16, 2012)

on one of them there was a small bit of blood on the nose the first thing i looked for was any sign of mice found none i have looked down the mouth but not sure what i should be lookin for i was going to get them tested tomorrow to be safe as they were with my canaries i'm a little worried


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## Wodin (Nov 5, 2012)

mmm the blood on the nose, i would go with trauma. they must have hit the sides too hard. Cats can be a pain in the rear end around here, either that or a loud bang may have started them all. they are so jumpy and strong fast flyers, it would have been a domino effect i imagine.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Even if you don't see signs of mice, if it is possible for them to get in, then they might be. I would get the freshest poops checked right away. I know having a bird who has passed, checked for why is expensive, but checking the droppings isn't. But they must be fairly fresh.
With canker, if they are eating and drinking from the same dishes, then I would expect the canaries to be showing signs of sickness also.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

did you get a new bag of feed latley? food contamination, or disease or the night fright thing, would be three possible reasons. at first I was thinking cold, but if you have had these birds like this for 4 years without problems then I discounted it. but, from what I have read they do like it toasty.. 70 to 80 degrees F.


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## sharkness (Dec 16, 2012)

no finished off a bag friday started new bag to day all food kept in a sealed barrel made a plastic they do like it warm not a very clever bird according to books i read on them they don't seem to have to knowledge to move around when cold thery have a major problem with the cold i'll get a few tested and see what comes back thanks everyone for the help and advice


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

The weird thing is that the canaries don't seem to be affected with whatever it was. They share the same seed and water, so the canaries should show some symptoms of illness, if they were ill. So that points to the night frights, but you wouldn't think that they would all have died. Please let us know if the canaries start to show symptoms of anything.


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## Lefty07 (Dec 30, 2009)

I'd bring one or more of the dead Diamond Doves to an avian vet, if you have any nearby, for a necropsy. If their necks aren't broken, their bodies are otherwise OK (i.e. no animal attacked them), and there was plenty of seed and water available (i.e. you are sure they didn't starve), it could be a disease. 

There is a disease (virus, I think) out there call Proventricular Dialation Disease, which kills birds by messing up their digestive systems so they cannot digest food and they eventually starve. A prominant keel, like you described, would go along with this disease. It is contageous but many birds can carry the virus without getting sick. I had a parakeet die from it - it was diagnosed by a vet from a necropsy - but my Ringneck Doves seen unaffected.

But it's very surprising that ALL the Diamond Doves would die and none of the canaries. You'd think doves would be the tougher bird, to any kind of ailment.


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## rasheed.rubeena (Dec 29, 2011)

sharkness said:


> no no there was food there in the two feed trays more then enough i was feeding them once every three days I'd have fruit and veg out in the flight every day and plenty of water


YOU FED THEM ONCE IN THREE DAYS!!!MY PIGEONS EAT LIKE EVERY 5-10 MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Rubeena


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## tjc1 (Aug 22, 2012)

There was food in there everyday according to that post. He wrote "I'd have fruit and veg out in the flight every day and plenty of water".


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

I would like to see the flight. If it is possible for mice to get in there, and food is being left out all the time, then it's possible for mice to be causing illness. Pictures would help.


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## spirit wings (Mar 29, 2008)

I hope he comes back with the findings it would be a good learning experience to know. I also thought he always had food in there and just replenshed it after a few days.


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## jeff houghton (Jul 17, 2010)

spirit wings said:


> It is possible it could of been night fright, but this is just a guess and this could always be a mystery unless perhaps you can get one of the tested for disease, but with all of them dead at one time that does not seem like how that would happen. here is a quote from a diamond dove care page.
> 
> "Night Frights" are contagious - if one starts - the others will follow and the results can be disastrous, not only eggs and babies knocked from the nest, but broken wings, banged heads and bleeding cuts."


night fright ? can you explain what this is please never heard of this before , thankyou .


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## sharkness (Dec 16, 2012)

i found that if i feed the birds everyday they wouldn't eat all the food so i was throwing out gd seed so i was told to only feed them every 3 days I've been doing this for the last 12 years and it seems to work they never go hungry the trays are two foot long 1 foot wide and a inch deep.all my fruit and veg is hung from wire off the roof of the flight. the flight base is 3 feet of a concrete base which i hose and brush down to keep food that falls through the wire away.the fruit and veg is there every day but i only replace it when they eat what they have. night fright from what I'm to believe is when a bird gets a fright during the night tries to fly in the dark gets injured to which the injury can be faithful.i sent two of the birds off for a check the results won't be bk till after Xmas .its been a week since i lost the birds and so far i haven't lost any other birds and there showing no sign of any illness or weakness, I've been out in the aviary every Day when i come in from from work they all seem fine and no sign of any mice.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

If you leave feed out there all the time, and there are holes in the wire large enough for mice to get in, then you more than likely _do_ get them, whether you see them or not.


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