I had a dove that was being pecked by antoher - seemd two males so I separated them. Then I wanted to have all in the same cage and made the mistake of putting back the male in the same cage they fought a little the first day but then - I came home yesteday and found it had half of the head feathers out, was bleeding(not bleeding but feathers red from the blood stains) and one eye is shut- maybe from the swelling ? I separated it again right away- but I hope the eye opens back up - I know the feathers will grow again cause its happend to me with another dove - but not too sure about the eye ?

Anyone advise?

Jaime

Jaime, the head is the usual place the male dove will attack and they will go for the eyes. This is serious. There could be several options here. The tissue around the eye is swollen from the pecking and it hurts to keep the eye open. The second more serious option is that the pecking actually hit the eye. It's like if you got something in your eye, you tend to close the eye lid. Since the bird can't tell you what happened, I would suggest you take your dove to an avian vet as soon as possible. The swelling will go down but if there is injury to the eye, only the vet can remedy or diagnos it.

As long as your dove isn't bleeding, the injury isn't life threatening. I had a dove a few years ago that scratched itself around the eye and actually cut through the eye lid. The vet cleaned it up, and applied super glue to the cut. It took awhile but the cut eventually healed.

Thanks Dave,

Appreciate your help as always.

Jaime

About the feathers, I don't know how much is gone, but this happened to one of my doves. A female infact, but anyways, half the head was bare. If you are planning on it to grow back quickly, mine took several months.

Dove is better - eye opened back up like 2 days ago- seems a lot better.

Any updates?