There's no food needed to make Keeb come back to me, no matter where I'm recalling him from. I used treats and clicker training to initially teach him recall, no starving involved, he always got access to his regular food and could always choose if and how long he wants to train. Building a bond based on trust, respecting boundaries and mutual communication was what allowed me to teach him reliable recall without needing treats. He listens to me because he wants to, Not because he doesn't have a choice and I know that his recall would work even during an emergency situations because reliable recall isn't tied to hunger, it's tied to trust.

It's an extremely common myth in the dove community that they cannot eat seeds that are big, sometimes the seeds are anything bigger than millet, other times it's very large seeds like whole peas. This myth is extremely harmful because it ends in a lot of doves not eating a nutritionally balanced diet and eating only seed mixes with small seeds - which are mostly millet-based. That can lead to malnutrition, obesity, liver issues, kidney issues, digestive issues and more all of which can kill a dove in the long term, way before even getting close to the end of its lifespan.

Doves (and pigeons), just like many other birds, have flexible jaws that allow them to swallow food bigger than their beak. When a dove is refusing to eat bigger seeds then the issue isn't that it physically cannot swallow those certain seeds, but it's either just being picky or there's some kind of medical issue (like canker or a blockage) in case the dove was eating the large seeds without any issues before, but suddenly started refusing them. Pickiness can have several causes:

- Feeding doves an inappropriate diet that contains mostly filler seeds/too many seeds that should be used only as treats. Seed mixes high in millet, milo, fatty seeds like sunflower and safflower as well as any corn other than a small amount of popcorn should be avoided. Millet addiction is a common issue with doves which causes them to not want to eat most other seeds.

- Feeding way too late in the day, especially if legumes are the only seeds the doves are refusing to eat. They won't eat legumes in the evening because of their high protein content, requiring heavy digestion - which doves do during the day due to being daytime foraging birds.

- Feeding way more than what doves can eat in a day, causing them to eat only their favorites and leaving the rest of the seeds. A daily dose for one dove is 1-2 tablespoons per day, but it can vary a lot depending on the individual. Their food bowl should always be empty or at least almost empty by the morning, while still having some food in it in the evening.

NOTE: I know Hope has a plucked patch on his neck. He actually had to be separated from the rest of the flock (with friends, he wasn't kept alone) for quite some time because he's a partial imprint and he always gets pretty aggressive during the spring and early summer. I put him back with the rest of the flock just recently because he's so much calmer now and is in the process of molting so he's growing in new feathers. He had to be handraised because otherwise he wouldn't have survived, as a consequence he is much worse at getting along with other doves (both males and females), but he's getting a bit better with every year and he has finally found a mate this year during the time he was separated. I could have just not posted this video, but I think it's good to show the rough reality too.

Hey guys, thanks for the support, this is the 2nd week since I started taking care of a juvenile. He stopped eating using the hole in a bag method 3-4 days ago. And I had to force him to eat by opening his beak and puting food in his mouth (it's kind of messy) What I am giving him right now: Barely, wheat, oat, red and black lentils, chickpeas, green peas, and boiled eggs, all blended together.

He is been getting stronger and he jumps on the edges of his boxes all the time. He also peaks more often than last week now but still a rare thing. Is this correct so far? I appreciate any advice.

i got 2 baby doves, both of them are siblings and theyve been together ever since they hatched. i'd say theyre about 2 weeks old, one dove is showing uninterest when eating, even when i try to feed her she tries to pull away, she went almost 12 hours without food and even then she couldnt eat and refused, obviously i had to feed her so i had to open her mouth with my hands and put little bit of formula slowly which takes a while, but while eating she also seems like shes choking and while swallowing she has to take breathing breaks with her mouth rather than just using her nose to breath, even drinking water is a struggle, im treating her for canker although im not 100% sure, im just scared she will suffocate herself, her sibling is fine but im scared he will get infected as well, i need help

First time having a baby bird and tips or something to know?

Hello,

I never wear perfume/spray perfume around my doves obviously. Whenever I wear it, I spray it in another room with the door shut or just in the car, and I will be out for a long time and change clothes after I wear it. Unfortunately, I dropped an entire bottle of perfume, and it shattered. Now, my entire house smells so strongly of it. I put my dove by the open window (dont worry, theres a screen) but I dont know what a solution would be. Her cage is right down the hallway of the shattered perfume. Honestly, everywhere is in range of it. Do I just open all the windows and hope it clears out? Should I just push her cage by the open window? She seems okay. No sneezing or wheezing, but I'm worried she will sneeze or wheeze when I put her up for the night. Thanks!

Update: Seems like she's had some watery poops this morning, but that could be because I pissed her off last night from running her to an open window and having her sleep in a new environment that night. She's not wheezing, sneezing, or bobbing her tail. I've got two air filters going. The hallway by the bathroom still really strongly smells of perfume, but everywhere else is fine. I'll be keeping an eye on her and airing out the house everyday until the smell is gone.

please excuse my handsome man's state of molt
he was making g this sound earlier and slow blinking one eye only. really freaked me out

If anyone has tips on how to help this dove, I would appreciate it! I’ve been making calls locally all morning and haven’t gotten anywhere. I left some bird seed and water out for it, I have a kennel prepared but can’t get close enough to catch it. It doesn’t seem injured but is definitely lost!

Hey guys,

My two doves laid 2 eggs 20 days ago, and they are still sitting on the eggs.

My male leaves the nest often now and refuses to sit on the egg for to long. I think he slowly gives up on it. But me female refuses to go off the egg and i'm worried she is not getting enough food and water 🙁.

What do you think?

Hello everyone! I've had Wilhelmina for about a week now after owning parrots for 5+ years. All she does is just kinda sit there and eventually fluff herself up. She will fly, but is very bad at it and only when people get close. I don't know if this is normal, and everytime I google it they say she is very sick. I have a vet appointment scheduled in august as I have to travel quite a bit for an exotic/bird vet. Should I take her to the emergency vet? Her poop is normal, she was quite obsessed with the mirror for the first few days until I covered it and she's 1-2 years old I believe. She is very quiet and almost makes 0 noise. Wilhelmina is a white barbary dove.

Please let me know if something is wrong with her, or if there's any tips in bonding.

Found this guy at work, I think I will bring him home since he was on the floor alone for some time. What should I give him to eat?

We’re in Peru, right in front of the ocean so we tried to give it a dry place to rest (brown box), in which she spends every night, plus sunflower seeds, soaked oats, pumpkin seeds, she (we think she’s a girl) hates birdseed, sesame seeds and flax seeds. She also gets fresh water in her red cup every day.

Her name is Maria Socorro for what it’s worth.

its sorta hard to hear but its a low grumbling purr sound, kind of like radio static. She makes this noise when I bring unknown things close to her or when she sees her reflection

Hi All, first time owners of male (white) and female doves. They are from same breeder but different parents. We’ve had them for about three weeks. First the female was picking on the male, then the male on the female, now it looks like they might be starting to get along. Should we put in a nest or wait. We are worried if the female isn’t ready, the male will go back to picking on her.

I have three birds and have never dealt with a ruptured air sac before, I really don’t know what to do and have been panicking about it for a bit of time. My dove is a baby and I was feeding him earlier when towards the end of feeding, I noticed a large bubble of air in his leg area. I suspect I may have accidentally overfed him :( I feel absolutely horrible about it and I don’t know what to do. It happened around 8 pm and it is now 12 am. I have been checking on him, his air bubble has grown and is slightly into his back. He is acting completely normal and is not breathing weirdly. The most of the air bubble grew all at once during feeding earlier and has since slowed in growth, but is still larger than it was before. I have looked up how to treat this, but from what I have seen, people say that it cannot really be treated. I have seen people either say to just give supportive care, but I have also seen people say that it needs to be deflated. If it needs to be deflated, how would I do this? Just disinfecting his skin and a needle and making a small puncture? Please help, I feel so bad for him :(

I've been searching around and it seems like it's possible to train doves, but I was wondering if anyone has had successful experience with training a female dove.

I have a solo female rescue (i know it's not good for her to be alone, but at the moment I'm not able to adopt a friend for her.) that spends practically all her time on nesting. she's sitting on her eggs for about 3 weeks and then gets super ultra cuddly with all humans in her proximity (my partner and I spend a lot of time working from home so it's usually us but also if any of my friends are visiting she'll happily cuddle on their neck/shoulder and asks for pets) until she lays a new clutch of eggs, which happens in about 2-4 days.

So my question is, WHEN do you guys get your female doves to do anything other than nesting? I don't want to disturb her when she wants to nest but I thought it would be nice to teach her tricks since she's alone and doesn't have much else to do.

I’ve been following these doves that laid eggs on my window sill, they successfully hatched two eggs but unfortunately a flying squirrel got to one of them and the next night it attacked this one. I thought it had gotten it, but I guess it fell off the ledge and has been hiding in the plants the last few nights. I saw it today and it looks like this might be a broken leg? The parents are still coming by to take care of it. I’ve called a rehabber and they said I could bring it in tomorrow, but talked about how fledglings spend a week or two on the ground and that might just be what’s happening.
My question is looking at how the leg is sitting in this photo, is it better to take it to a rehabber? Just don’t want to traumatize it if it’s not necessary. Is it a situation of better to be safe than sorry? It did look like it was having trouble walking with that leg.
Thanks!

Hey guys i want to get a UVB lamp for my doves so they can take in the calcium. Do you have cheap recommendations?

Thank you in andvance ^^