comments:
Were did you research that ? All birds need uvb, it's not commonly used for doves because well, people didn't really care about these animals as sad as it is but parrots owners know more about the importance of these lights, same for reptiles owners. Of course it doesn't mean your dove will necessarily die young without one, but it doesn't make it right either. For example my first pets were budgies on an all seed diet (very, very bad if you've never had one, we didn't know back then), and yet not one lived under ten. It doesn't make an all seed diet for budgies acceptable. Doves are picky, they usually leave lentils / peas for last but they can very well eat those it's used for flocks or birds etc so your female is likely being picky if you are overfeeding. And no you're doing great by changing the seeds everyday, but if there's waste that means you overfeed, so you need to feed a tiny bit less each day until there's not much thing left from one day to another. But it's definitely odd if your dove almost choke on peas, poor gal probably ate one the wrong way (it happened with one of my diamond dove and a smaller seed and he threw some seeds up and was fine right after). I think it's likely you overfeed even more by your pellet comment, it's not rare doves don't really enjoy the taste compared to other seeds so if you feed too much = they'll choose what they like and leave the rest. If you dont want the Des moines mix because of the peas there's the Versele laga 20kgs (NOT the smaller bags) Dove mix that doesn't contain any and is good, but you will likely struggle a ton to find it if you're in the US. And if you find it please share the link with us here 😆 I get my sprays on amazon and in general pet shops but I dont live in the US. I know there are sprays on amazon for you guys too, usually labeled for birds / parrots or for hamsters, but it's the same as long as it's natural sprays with no chemicals it's fine: https://www.amazon.com/Acsist-Hamsters-Enrichment-Decoration-Accessories/dp/B0FVRVZH4K Just be careful with some "hamsters sprays" products for example the ones with flowers idk which is edible for doves or not but rice/wheat/flax seed/ millet is all good and bunny tails make good decoration / nesting material. In bird specific shops it's easy to find the red millet and yellow millet too. The daily nature mix is just a seed mix with lots of seeds and herbs that are different from their main seed mix, but like with any other wild bird mix it's fat so it should never be a full diet, only rare treats to give by hand to change them alongside other stuff. I'll try finding some links for you if you'd like