# Not anxious to come out



## Siobhan (Dec 21, 2010)

I'm going to look into a new and bigger cage for Maggie this weekend, but meanwhile I want to let her come out so she can get some exercise and interaction as much as possible. The problem is, she doesn't want to come out that much. I open her cage and she might (or might not) come to the door. If she comes out, she flaps her wings and walks around the table a bit and then goes back in, usually. She's kind of a perch potato.  And she prefers her perch to any other place to sit -- she's not a shelf sort of dove, apparently. I left her door open this morning so she could come out if she changes her mind -- the parrots are still locked up, so I won't have to supervise so closely -- but she had her breakfast and went to her perch and puffed up and stuck her chin into her chest and there she sits. She's not sick or anything -- she's eating and pooping quite heartily. And when she does come out, she likes to explore and stick her beak into everything that looks interesting (don't worry, bird safe house because of the parrots), it's just that she doesn't want to do that very often. Is that just what doves do? I'm used to parrots who want to be out all the time and sit on us and monopolize our time.


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## Ede-bird (Jul 7, 2010)

Cooter acts like that too ( she's a feral pigeon that I hand raised) sometimes she wants to get out and explore and some times she just wants out for her bath and heads back into her cage. She has eggs ( infertile) right now, so she stays pretty close to the cage.


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## Victor (Dec 18, 2004)

Hi Siobhan, A rare but possible thing going on here. Your Maggie sees her cage as her retreat and her territorial home where she feels safe, secure and knows that she is attended to. She may not feel comfortable venturing out. You may have to help her get over this fear. Gently take her out and speak to her in a soft and pleasing voice, which is what you do anyway. Put her on a flat surface such as a table top. and don't make any sudden moves. She will react somehow, Try to not take her away too far from her home cage. Also, please close any drapes you have, cieling fans-off, if you have any and try to make the room as pigeon friendly as possible, which you already do since you have parrots.It will take a bit of time and patience on both of you.Doves are a bit less adventurous than pigeons.


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## Siobhan (Dec 21, 2010)

I don't think she's uncomfortable. When she does come out, she walks all over the house and seems very interested in everything, and flies up to sit on Hubby's head or mine and on top of the budgies' cage and pecks at their toys and stares at the other parrots (two Quakers and a cockatiel) as if she's trying to figure out what in heck they are. She likes to walk around on the bathroom sink (but doesn't want a bath, I've offered a glass dish, a ceramic dish, and a plastic dish and she rejected them all) and she walked around on the computer while Hubby was using it. I stay between her and the dogs, who are trained to leave birds alone but I'm not taking any chances, and she doesn't seem to be bothered by their presence at all. Her last home had two dogs, too, but they were small dogs and mine are big. Her last people told me "she really likes her cage" so maybe that's all it is. She just likes hanging out in it. IF that's the case, she might not be too thrilled with a new one.


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## Cyreen (Jun 6, 2010)

I find it very much depends on Ollie's mood. Sometimes Ollie runs all over the house and sometimes she has does a few short forays and she goes back in her cage. When I brought her new cage home, I set it up beside her old one (much smaller) and let her look at for a week before I moved her over. By the time I moved her, she _wanted _that cage. She quite literally did a happy dance the first time I opened the play top.


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

My ringneck dove Edmund can sometimes have moods like that. I just let him decide what he wants usually.

Also he did not like it much at all when I got him a cage twice the size of his old one. He sulked for a week! Now he loves the new cage and would be upset if I ever moved him to a smaller one. His condition has improved because he spends the whole day (while I'm at work and he can't be let out) going up the stair-stepped perches to the top and back down. 

cage setup of the new cage (original cage is sitting on top of it w/ diamond doves inside):


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## Siobhan (Dec 21, 2010)

I guess I just needed to figure out her personality. Maggie's a morning person and likes to come out right after she's uncovered, and wander around examining things. This morning she found the beaded curtain between the dining room and kitchen (put there to keep birds from going into the kitchen) and she was fascinated and played with it quite a while. She even put off having breakfast to play with it. LOL All the others are afraid of it, which is good because the kitchen isn't a place we want them to be. She didn't try to go through it, though. She just likes to peck the beads.


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## sreeshs (Aug 16, 2009)

Siobhan said:


> I'm going to look into a new and bigger cage for Maggie this weekend, but meanwhile I want to let her come out so she can get some exercise and interaction as much as possible. The problem is, she doesn't want to come out that much. I open her cage and she might (or might not) come to the door. If she comes out, she flaps her wings and walks around the table a bit and then goes back in, usually. She's kind of a perch potato.  And she prefers her perch to any other place to sit -- she's not a shelf sort of dove, apparently. I left her door open this morning so she could come out if she changes her mind -- the parrots are still locked up, so I won't have to supervise so closely -- *but she had her breakfast and went to her perch and puffed up and stuck her chin into her chest and there she sits. She's not sick or anything* -- she's eating and pooping quite heartily. And when she does come out, she likes to explore and stick her beak into everything that looks interesting (don't worry, bird safe house because of the parrots), it's just that she doesn't want to do that very often. Is that just what doves do? I'm used to parrots who want to be out all the time and sit on us and monopolize our time.


still the first thing which pops in my mind is that she might not be in her perfectly healthy times............


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## Siobhan (Dec 21, 2010)

I'm sorry, I don't know what that means. 

It turns out, I just didn't know her preferences. She likes to wake up and come out first thing in the morning, do her wandering and her exercising and then go have her breakfast. I was trying to let her out on a parrot schedule, and they're used to being out in the evenings. By evening, Maggie's done for the day and wants to go to roost. The parrots, being used to my work hours, think of evening as play time and that's when they're most active. I suppose Maggie will adjust eventually, but she might always be a morning person. The last few mornings, when I uncover her, she's waiting at her door for me to open it, and she pops right out and flaps her wings and preens and explores and follows me around and then goes back into her cage and expects her breakfast to be waiting for her -- and being well-trained by the parrots, I make sure it IS waiting for her, LOL -- and she eats and then takes a little nap. She had a nice bath yesterday and tried out my tiel's play gym and this morning she played with the wood beads on the beaded curtain and flew around quite a bit.


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