# What toys do your doves/pigeons play with?



## Sweets

Hello 

I have a dove called Booth. He's 1 year old. My sister & I hand raised him from a tiny baby...now he only likes me & attacks everyone else 

He has a pretty big cage + free-ranges in my bedroom for at least 4 hours a day. (he has to share free-range time with my rabbit) 
I was just wondering what kind of toys he might like??

At the moment he has a little dish which i put dirt & sticks in from the garden, I put his seeds in & he likes to make a mess with it. He also just wanders around on my floor pecking things, and likes to sit on the beams in my ceiling & coo. (he LOVES my feet too  )

Any suggestions of toys that he might like would be really good  

Thankyou
Katie


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## doveone52

Booth sounds adorable! I wouldn't give him dirt to play in as he could get worms. Yuk!
My doves have a toy that is a bell with a knife, spoon and fork dangling from it. One of my males loves that thing and likes to get aggressive with it! They also like to tear up news paper. I'd use some without colors because there's lead in the colored print. Yes, I am a worry wart!


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## Sweets

thanks for your reply 

hmm...I never thought about Booth getting worms from dirt. maybe i'll just stick to the sticks & hay...i'm trying to get him to have a bath he's not too keen on water though. his footprints were so cute on my floor!
Booth has newspaper on his cage floor but i'll tear some up & see if he likes to play with it.
hehe yeah i'm a 'worry wart' when it comes to my pets too 

i can imagine a dove getting aggressive with toys, Booth's pretty fiesty sometimes, i guess it's the same with most male doves?


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## Smidgeon

My girl Smidgeon has a little stuffed teletubby clipped to her cage that is her "love object." She also loves playing in her water dish. I joke every day when I change her water and say "OK Smidgeon, here's your bathwater" b/c the first thing she does is take a bath. 

I have a mirror with a little dial thing on it but she doesn't seem to play with it. She stares at herself, but that's about it.


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## Jivu

This one! This is Stuart's favorite. She'll ring it all day. Got it it Petsmart for like... 3 bucks, I think.


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## Sweets

Smidgeon sounds so cute having a bath every morning! 
I've tried giving Both a mirror & he didn't care for it...

That toy that Stuart likes is pretty cool, maybe Booth would like one like that. I'll have to find him one!


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## doveone52

Btw, what is a honeyeater?


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## catmicky

doveone52 said:


> Btw, what is a honeyeater?


I'm pretty sure its a type of bird.


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## Sweets

yup yup a honeyeater is a type of bird 
Phil is our honeyeater, we hand-raised him from about 1 week old because he was bought into the vet after falling from his nest, same with Booth. they would have been euthanised ... so we took them 

Oh I gave Booth a little dish of water for a bath & he stood in it! very proud of him


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## doveone52

Well, that is so sweet! Say "hi" to the gang! I'm going to google honeyeaters!


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## Sweets

doveone52 said:


> Well, that is so sweet! Say "hi" to the gang! I'm going to google honeyeaters!



 If you wanted to see Phil, look up 'singing honeyeater' on youtube...we made him a little video, hehe. Got some of Boothy there also.


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## Cyreen

Good name "Phil". 

As for toys, my pigeon, Ollie, loves anything with a bell (i.e. cat toys, parrot toys, small bird toys, whatever) and occasionally she gets a wadded up ball of brightly coloured tissue paper that keeps her busy shaking, stomping, dragging for several days and in the summer she enjoys the odd sprig of rosemary from the garden.


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## Doves1111

Cyreen said:


> Good name "Phil".
> 
> As for toys, my pigeon, Ollie, loves anything with a bell (i.e. cat toys, parrot toys, small bird toys, whatever) and occasionally she gets a wadded up ball of brightly coloured tissue paper that keeps her busy shaking, stomping, dragging for several days and in the summer she enjoys the odd sprig of rosemary from the garden.


I gave my friend a Bull-eyed White dove (Snow) many years. Snow loves her bell too. After she lays an egg...she get out of her nest and goes and rings the bell...and then goes back to her nest to set. The first time Snow did this my friend thought it was just a coincident...but no...she does it every time she lays an egg now! 

Dawn


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## doveone52

That is cute, Dawn! What a smart little girl! I'm gonna check out Phil, the singing honeyeater now!


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## Sweets

oh cool i'll get Booth some toys with bells then, seems most doves/pigeons like them! Tissue paper sounds like fun, Booth LOVES (and I mean 'loves') anything pink, so I'll get him some pink tissue paper 

Snow sounds so cute ringing her bell after laying an egg!

thanks for the replys guys, lotsa good ideas for toys


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## Siobhan

Maggie the Pigeon Queen likes wooden beads best. We have a bead curtain across the kitchen doorway to keep the parrots out of the kitchen and Maggie likes to sit there and knock the beads around. She has a couple of toys with bells on them and bangs them around a little, too, but that bead curtain is her favorite thing. What she really likes to do for fun is sit on the parrots' play gym and survey her realm. LOL


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