Diamond Dove - A few Q's.

[RandomWiktor]

My boyfriend did not want his diamond doves anymore and gave them to me last night. I have always been interested in the species but wasn't really expecting to get any! I have what seems to be from my reading a nice flight cage set up for the two of them, good varied perching, a ledge (which they love!) and they have a high quality finch mix combined with some other types of seeds as well. But, I have a few questions regarding their care.

- What fresh foods can I give them, and do they need any pellets in their diet? Some sites said a 100% seed diet is best, some said to offer some pellets & greens. I'm ASSUMING at the very least some greens would be good for them. But a better explanation of diet would be much appreciated!
- The current mix they are eating has white millet, red millet, siberian millet, nyjer, canary, sunflower chips, golden flax, brown flax, sesame, amaranth, and quinoa. Is this an OK seed mix? Anything I should add, remove?
- Is there a specific kind of grit they should be getting? I just bought generic small grit from the store but I don't know if they need a special kind (there was very fine grit, larger grit, crushed oyster grit, etc.).
- What kind of behavioral enrichment can I give them? I have a suet feeder stuffed with nesting material for them to pull out and use, and mat of a fake grass they can peck seed out of. What else can I do?

Thanks in advance for any tips.

 

[BraveheartDogs]

My boyfriend did not want his diamond doves anymore and gave them to me last night. I have always been interested in the species but wasn't really expecting to get any! I have what seems to be from my reading a nice flight cage set up for the two of them, good varied perching, a ledge (which they love!) and they have a high quality finch mix combined with some other types of seeds as well. But, I have a few questions regarding their care.

- What fresh foods can I give them, and do they need any pellets in their diet? Some sites said a 100% seed diet is best, some said to offer some pellets & greens. I'm ASSUMING at the very least some greens would be good for them. But a better explanation of diet would be much appreciated!
- The current mix they are eating has white millet, red millet, siberian millet, nyjer, canary, sunflower chips, golden flax, brown flax, sesame, amaranth, and quinoa. Is this an OK seed mix? Anything I should add, remove?
- Is there a specific kind of grit they should be getting? I just bought generic small grit from the store but I don't know if they need a special kind (there was very fine grit, larger grit, crushed oyster grit, etc.).
- What kind of behavioral enrichment can I give them? I have a suet feeder stuffed with nesting material for them to pull out and use, and mat of a fake grass they can peck seed out of. What else can I do?

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Congrats on your doves! I don't have diamond doves but I do have ringneck doves. I feed a cockatiel mix and fresh food. They seem to love the brown rice and bean mix and veggies. I also offer pellets sometimes too. Mine are not picky and pretty much eat whatever I offer them. My two recently had babies, so I have two youngsters that are just starting to eat and I offer them everything. I offer the oyster grit too.

For enrichment I have a small animal hay ball that I fill with timothy hay and they love to pull the grass out of it. I also get them a little haystack from Micheals craft store which they love to hang out and sit on. I have not done training with the adults but am going to train one of the babies and my friend, a very talented multi species animal trainer is going to take the other baby to train.

I hope this helps some!