We gots Doves!

[silkifyre]

Thanks to Mary, we now have 2 prs of Ringneck Doves. They are so pretty and sweet. We have a white male, a pied male (white with tan splashes), and 2 tangerine (?) females. The girls look almost like twins, and their color is close to the "wild" color. The pied male's spots are this same color. They coo and make all kinds of neat noises. Right now they're in our living room, but I'd like to have the cage suspended from the wall a tad higher. Currently, it's sitting on top of our empty aquarium unit and our Husky, Blizzard, shows far too much interest in them. We don't trust him and cannot leave him loose in the house unsupervised with the dove cage where it is, so if we can't keep an eye on him, into his crate he goes.

One of the best parts of this deal is that the birds were free! Otherwise, we'd probably still be doveless. We love having the doves -- they are sooo cool! ;D

[Arlene]

doves are so sweet.. you know when one's mate dies the other stays alone for ever.. how sweet..

I got ducks by the way.. well one now.. wild muscovies came by and one of them adopted me.. and my ducks. tried to take them with him/her but I called them back.. he/she has been here for 3 days now hahah. prob passing through but it sure likes the snacks I been feeding it.. I am talking this duck gets right in front of me.. like not wild at all.. weird!!!

[silkifyre]

I'd heard that about doves before. That's so neat about that duck! Cool!

[silkifyre]

Here's a pic I took from my camera phone of the doves. It's not the greatest pic, but it shows the white male pretty good. The other two in the pic are our tangerine-pied male, and a tangerine, which was originally thought to be a female, but we now know to be a male. That makes 3 cocks and 1 hen... who at the time of the pic was sitting on her nest of THREE eggs! ;D Yep, the one turned out to be a male. Uh... Mary, if you read this, you wouldn't happen to have those extra doves anymore wouldja? We could use 2 more females. That tangerine started bowing and cooing to the pied male, and the size of the bird is equal to the white and the pied. The tangerine female is a lot smaller. We will keep our eyes open for a female or two for the bachelor boys.



The white male seems to be the most dominant one. The pied was 2nd dominant, but now I'm not sure, because that tangerine fellow started acting amorous to the pied. Silly birds! But they're all soooo pretty!

Mary... did your mom let them hatch out their eggs? If so, what did she use as nests? I'm not happy with the plastic bowl I have in there. It's a little too flimsy, and it's too close to the corner. The hen seems to have not quite enough room. I think she may need a little bit larger nest. Also, what is the best nesting material? Are they used to something in particular? Does it matter what I put in there? If you can answer, that'd be great!

I have a pic of the hen on the nest, but I need to pull it off the cell phone. I'll post it soon.

[silkifyre]

Well, here's an update on the doves. It turned out that we have 3 males and 1 hen. The 2 bachelor males would pick on the li'l girl, so we separated them out and ordered them their own cage. I got it on eBay for 1¢ plus shipping! It's brand new and the same size as the other one, and nearly identical. So that's cool. As soon as it arrived, we put the 2 bachelors in there. They seemed pretty happy to have more room.

The li'l girl still sat on her nest, along with help from her hubby. The eggs were due to hatch on Oct 26, if they were gonna hatch. There were 3 of them. Well, the 26th came and went. We thought we'd give them a little more time, since we weren't sure if we calculated their setting time right. Still no babies. The other day, I came home and found the hen sitting on the perch next to her mate. The nest was uncovered! I figured I'll quick remove it, since we now knew for sure the eggs weren't going to hatch. Perhaps they realized that, too, for they NEVER left the eggs uncovered while setting. They were diligent about that. And they took turns, and they were very sweet with each other. Doves make good couples!

I tried candling the eggs to see what I could see, and each egg had a dark spot, one was rather liquidy, but none were that far developed. Not sure why. I didn't have a very good nest for them, so perhaps, even with them sitting on the eggs, maybe, they just weren't warm enough. I'll have to find a better nest bowl than a thin plastic margarine dish. (It was all I had at the time.) Hopefully, she won't lay again for quite some time. Otherwise, we'll have to take the male from her. I would rather not put him in with the other 2 males because then the cage becomes kind of crowded. I think 2 is the max for those cages.

Doves are really cool to keep. I'm glad we have them.

[silkifyre]

Announcement: We gots a baby dove!!! ;D

The first brooding cycle didn't produce any chicks, so we removed the nest. The pair took a little break, and tried again. When I saw she laid another egg, we put the nest back in. This time we gave them a better nest. There were a few times when both of them sat on the nest together, crammed in there, side by side. It was too cute. I'll have to see if I can post a pic of that later.

This morning when I went to refill their food and water, Daddy was on the nest and tucked his head down like he was adjusting an egg. But he wasn't! He was attending to Baby! It poked it's funny little head up and then Daddy fed him. So we have at least one little baby dove! I think it either hatched yesterday or last night, because he looked all dry, although there really isn't much in the way of down on him. He's mostly nekkid. So, he might've hatched this morning. But I'm saying his b'day is Nov. 30. I'll have to try to get a pic of him. (Or her... is there a way to sex them this young?) Either way, I'm excited... I haven't had any baby chicks in the house for like eons!

[Arlene]

awwwww! so cool! what was daddy feeding the baby? how cool! please post pics !!

[silkifyre]

UPDATE!!! There are TWO babies!!! Bob saw the 2nd one tonight when daddy was feeding them. He called me in, but by the time I got there, the male was settling over them again, and hid them from prying eyes.

Doves feed their babies "milk." I don't know how they create the milk, but the baby sticks it's beak way up into the parent's throat, and they regurgitate this milky liquid right into the baby's mouth. Sounds disgusting, but hey... Nature ain't always pleasant.

It'll be really interesting to watch these babies grow and develop. I'll try to take some pics... IF I can get a shot of the babies! Those doves keep them well-hidden! We discovered those babies completely by accident!

Today I found a piece of eggshell in their food cup! I guess they were housecleaning, and didn't know what to do with the empty shells. I tossed it for them and refilled their food dish. Silly doves. ;D

[Arlene]

awwwwwww

just awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!

I want some doves! I saw a post on freecycle but said NOOOOO Arlene don't do it! and for once I listened
but am picking up some silkies today! what is WRONG with me?!!!!!! hahaha

[silkifyre]

Ok, here's a pic that Bob took of daddy dove feeding the twins...



Neat, huh? ;D And the doves are both very protective of their babies. If you get too close, they don't like it, and they'll puff all up. Makes 'em look twice their size! If you're too sudden, like my son was this eve, the one off the nest (the daddy in this case), will charge the bars of the cage and flap his wings at you. They'd peck at you, too, if you reached in there. I tried cleaning out the cage the last time she was setting, and had to reach in to scrape off some of the bars, and mama dove tried pecking at me. Guess I got too close to the nest for her comfort! Their cage, and the other one, needs cleaning badly, and now that they have babies, I'm wondering just how clean I can get it. Oh well, I'll just have to give it a shot.

[Arlene]

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww how precious!!

[silkifyre]

The babies are out of the nest!! Wow, and they're only 2 wks old! They're fully feathered out now, too. And they flap their wings like they're trying to fly. They're too cute. Mommy & Daddy both do parental duties still. It's really neat to see.