• Welcome to Avian Avenue! To view our forum with less advertisments please register with us.
    Memberships are free and it will just take a moment. Click here

Diamond Doves disappearing

Luvmyparro

Moving in
Joined
3/7/20
Messages
8
My diamond doves are disappearing and I am at a total loss of what is happening! I have 5x14 foot aviary Concrete pavers around the bottom, heavy pet proof screen on the outside, topped with the bamboo grass & bamboo around the outside bottom of the aviary. They have a tunnel with hardware cloth leading into an interior room I built for them 3x4 feet, inside what I call the nursery (air conditioner shed). I put up cameras & all I found is a mouse getting in the outside aviary, easy enough to get rid of. There's no holes so the mouse is getting in between the wires & working it's way thru the back of the screen. I've checked the wires are connected. Ive been locking them inside at night. So I let them out to their aviary & shut the door. The door hasn't been opened. I go in there tonight to tell them time for bed & I'm missing one. I stayed outside all evening because in the past if 1 gets out, they come back. No feathers! But nothing showed up! 1/4 inch wires on the steel aviary. Any ideas?
 

Shezbug

ASK ME FOR PICTURES OF MY MACAW!
Super Moderator
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
4/28/18
Messages
25,829
Location
Vic, Australia
Real Name
Shez
Not sure where you live but snakes could be a possibility depending on your area.
I’ve heard of them entering while very small and eating bugs and mice in the aviary then reaching a size that’s large enough to take birds, one I know of that was baffling the owners for quite a long time only was found when it got stuck trying to exit the aviary.
 

.........

Jogging around the block
Joined
6/13/21
Messages
703
If you haven't already, I would check every little inch of the aviary from top to bottom to make sure there are no escape holes. Or little nooks or crannies birds could possibly get caught down. Or the missing bird.
I can't think of any other predator able to get in through that netting other than the above, a small snake.
I really hope you can find out what happened, as an aviary owner myself it's awful thinking a bird was lost, thankfully I haven't had any times yet that I didn't just need to recount, but you have all my sympathy.
 

Luvmyparro

Moving in
Joined
3/7/20
Messages
8
Thanks we are going in to look closer. I am surprised to not find a snake. I can't figure out where it could be hiding waiting to digest a bird. We have practically emptied the whole aviary! I didn't think of it getting in so small and growing. Would seem a good possibility. We have kept whose left indoors. Seems 1 is missing every 3 days which I would think says snake. I installed more cameras. We have guineas to help combat snakes. They were around before their arrival so I think will wear boots. We saw a lot of Copperheads last year! Day 3 is tomorrow so maybe I'll have the guineas spend the night in there! Thanks for the ideas!
 
Top