baby doves die at 1 week old

Question
My 2 beautiful white pet doves have raised 3 squabs to maturity, 5 in all, but now the last 3 squabs all 6 have lived for about -1+ week as of now. And it has become a problem. It seems as though they feed them at first then withdraw. I work and I have limited time. What to do? Is it bad to take the eggs away?

Answer
Hi, Sherry,

When the parents stop feeding their babies this young, this usually means there is something medically wrong with the babies, if the parents have been good parents in the past.  When the parents stop feeding, it would be your job to take the babies away from them and handfeed them.  You may want to consider taking the dead babies to a certified avian vet in order to determine why they are dying.  You'd have to take the bodies to the vet within 48 hours of death (preserve the bodies in the refrigerator in a baggie).  Babies can acquire illness through the egg shell if the nest isn't kept clean, they can acquire illness from the parent(s) if the parent(s) are ill (passing illness when being fed) and/or can acquire airborne illness if present.  Babies are born without any immunities, which develop as the baby grows and are exposed.  

If you are not able to intercede when necessary to handfed babies that aren't being fed by the parents, don't allow the parents to mate and produce offspring.  It's not bad to take eggs away as a means of birth control, however, doing so may result in the female laying and laying each time you remove her eggs.  She'll want to replace what you remove, so the best thing for them is to not allow them to breed if you don't want babies.  Excessive egg laying can be detrimental to the health of the female.  A certified avian vet can give a hormone shot to the female, which will stop her from laying for about 9 months, depending on the individual bird.  However, keeping her from laying in the first place is the best thing to do.  Limit their light source to 8-10 hours per day to discourage breeding and don't provide any type of nesting material or nest for them.  Separate them if you have to.

Chrys