# First Diamond Dove! Advice?



## yukithediamonddove (Jan 7, 2015)

This is my first dove, and first small bird at that. Just got him last night. He's eaten but shown little interest in drinking water, which I assume he will come around about eventually. It'd reassure me to hear about how everyone else's dove acted when first brought in.

Right now my concern is whenever I approach the cage and put what he needs inside, he sometimes freaks out and flies up into his cage. It's a wire cage (don't worry, I have a flat pan for the bottom) and size is just slightly above the minimum for a pair at the moment. How dangerous is this and is it normal? He of course isn't familiar with his perches yet, so he flaps right into the sides until he reaches the ground. It makes me really anxious and paranoid that he might hurt himself pretty bad. I'm pretty sure that small birds flapping all around in their cage when frightened is normal and not of too much concern especially when they're new, but aaaah I just worry so much. Right now I'm just staying on my side of the room haha.

It makes me especially worried for when I start my attempts at bonding with him in the future. I'm not sure if I can do the small room attempt right away so any tips about warming him up inside the cage?

Also, he was cooing lots earlier! He even started cooing at 4:30 in the morning. He coos in response to videos I play to help him feel like this is more of a friendly place, but he quit responding and showing interest in that a while ago. I still like to occasionally play the videos for comfort, though.

Right now he's just chilling at the bottom of his cage. He got frightened earlier and hasn't gone back up since, so I hope he does a little exploring while down there. And as I'm typing this, of course he starts to strut around and check things out! 

Thanks for reading!


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## PamperedPigeon (Sep 23, 2014)

I'd just give him a little more time. Do you know how old he is? 

Some training tips (just what worked for us - I'm no expert):

My pigeons (Rio and Lola) only sleep in their cage at night...during the day on days we work, they're in their outdoor flight enclosure, and on days we're home, they have free roam of the house. When we were first training them, we clipped their wings - just the longest few feathers - so that they could still fly up, but it took a lot of effort, so they didn't go very high. Now, we no longer have to do this, and they'll come when called - NEVER not adorable!

The only time that they get really freaked out is when I try to get them from their cage first thing in the morning...they growl and bite...it's funny but annoying - and also pretty normal behavior, from what I understand. So, I put a perch near the front door, and if they don't come down to that perch and come out nicely with no biting, then they have to stay in their cage, which they hate. It only took a couple of times of them being left in the cage all day for them to stop that.

My birds will stand on their heads for hemp seeds (not really, but you get the idea)...I call it birdie crack...I keep some in a little jar, and use it as a reward for good behavior. Now, I can shake that jar and they'll come running! Great feature for when they have free roam time in the house and you can't find them.

Hope this helps


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Jess, not to get off topic but are those pics of your birds current? If so they dont look well, far too fluffed up to be inside a house, you may want to give them a quarantine treatment of general antibiotics and trich meds. They should be much tighter feathered and when you see the heads tucked in like that as in shoulders shrugged up, that is an unwell sign. 

Hope the photo is an old one and the birds look much better than that.


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## PamperedPigeon (Sep 23, 2014)

CBL - they always puff up like that when they're resting...when they're startled or getting ready to fly, they're nice and sleek. Why is that not normal? I've had other types of (hook beak) birds that exhibit this same behavior...their stools are normal, and they don't have any symptoms of illness...now I'm worried


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

No no dont be worried but I mean a little light fluffing is normal on one foot and when cool, but if inside and on two feet and VERY fluffed to the point where it looks like they are shrugging their sholders and the head is almost buried tells me they dont feel 100%

I say can be fluffed but the feathers dont separate as you see. They can look like a slight puff but usually when I see excess fluff to the point of feathers separating, I think they dont feel well. Try googling sick fluffed up birds to normal roosting birds see if you see a difference. I dont mean to scare but just to give a heads up. Just my experience with birds. I too have caged birds, and when they are too fluffed it is a good sign of illness. Yours seem excessively puffed for inside a warm house. Especially the white one, u can barely see the beak, that is too fluffed. Mine are outside in -22 and are less fluffed than that.


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## PamperedPigeon (Sep 23, 2014)

CBL, I'll PM you tomorrow with pics I just took of my birdies...I love them so much and would appreciate any guidance on what we may be doing wrong


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Ok I will look for it.


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## yukithediamonddove (Jan 7, 2015)

Thanks PamperedPigeon!! Loved your reply, made me smile.  Hope your birds are all well, they're adorable. He's 4-5 months old right now.

My dove is used to me now, he doesn't get scared of me approaching the cage and I'm just now teaching him that my hand is safe to be around. He doesn't mind my hand at all when it's still but he gets a bit frightened when I move it sometimes, especially when I'm placing it in and he's on the floor. 

He eats from my hand no problem, and now I'm getting him to fly to my hand for the food. He's a smarty pants though, he tries to wait it out and make me put the seed into his feeding tray so he doesn't have to hop into my hand. When I nudge him from under to try to get him to step up, he runs over my hand within a second!! He's really stubborn, he knows exactly what I want him to do by now but it's so cute that I let him off the hook. 

I have a new concern though. Since I work at home, he's in my company pretty much all of the time, but he's a single bird at the moment so I put a small bird-safe mirror into his cage. He loves it! He pecks at it, plays with it and even sleeps beside it. I keep it in there so he won't be bird lonely, but this does unfortunately make him care a little less about me and it concerns me. Before I put the mirror in, he was more prone to pacing and making a racket for my attention (which at the time I couldn't do much for him since he'd only been here for a week and I didn't want him to stress himself out in free flight). Should I try taking the mirror out for periods at a time so that he will focus a bit more on me now that he's used to being here, or should I just leave it in until I clean my room and allow him to free flight? I'm going to experiment today, but any advice is appreciated.

Another thing he's been doing is growling at me. Sometimes I think it's affection, but sometimes I think he doesn't agree with what I'm doing. It's getting hard to tell the difference but overall I think he's falling for me slowly. He growls in response to my coos, and coos back to me. He'll also growl at me when I talk to him while offering my hand, sometimes doing a little 'hiccup' is what I call it (basically a coo growl, but with a little squeak).

I won't be getting him a mate until later this year, once I can buy another cage plus drive out for another dove. I had to drive for hours just to get him. He was well worth it, I should take pictures sometime!


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## Lefty07 (Dec 30, 2009)

A mirror can make a male Diamond Dove very aggressive. They think it's another male in their territory. I'd get rid of it or just keep it outside his cage, so he can attack it when he's flying around. But keeping it in his cage can be too much stimulation.

I had a male Diamond Dove for 15 years. I learned quickly to take the mirror out of his cage but he found other things to attack. For example, as soon as I opened the cage door, he would fly out and attack the side of my toaster! While this was amusing, the extra aggression was very hard on his female mates, that I got later. He would peck them endlessly and make them breed over and over. I ultimately ended up selling the female mates along with the babies to save their lives, it was that bad.

So if you get a second Diamond Dove, I'd recommend a second cage for her. If they like each other and want to breed, you can put them together - but keep the extra cage in case you need to separate them when not breeding. Also, male Diamond Doves tend to be intolerant of their own babies, once they reach full adult size with long tails. The males will chase them until you get them out of their father's cage. And if you get a mate for him, make sure you get one from another breeder because the mate should not be related to your male (to avoid inbreeding).

Here is a photo of "Pecker", my male Diamond Dove, that I had from 1982 until 1997!


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