Ask Lafeber

Dove nutrition

We have a 23 year old white ring neck dove (retired magic bird) who has always been on a seed diet. Do you recommend a pellet for Merlin?

Hi Tina,

You have certainly taken great care of Merlin to for him to reach this age! Doves are granivores, meaning their natural diet consists of mostly seeds and grains. Doves also enjoy dark leafy greens, chopped veggies, chopped fruits, cooked brown rice and multi grain bread. In the wild they also eat some berries and insects. At Merlin’s age, I would not recommend any major changes to his diet. Doves can eat pellets – finch, canary, parakeet or cockatiel size are recommended. But these would be a small amount offered separately or mixed with the seeds. If you give him any added vitamins, or if the seeds are fortified, then I would not add pellets. With doves, since they swallow everything whole, their seed mixes are often fortified which works for them since they don’t hull their seeds. Parrots do, so loose seeds with vitamins added do not work since the vitamins are lost with the hull. While it can take years for a nutritional deficiency to take its toll, Merlin is reaching the maximum known life span for doves, so whatever you feed him is working for him. But no worries about his age – doves have been known to live into their 30’s so Merlin should still have plenty of good years ahead of him.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda