# Ringnecked doves tips to interrupt nesting behavior



## Dee_Ann (Jan 4, 2016)

Greetings. My 4 rescued ringnecked doves live in NW Missouri in an outdoor aviary 3w X 9L X 6h. For sure it is 1 mated pair, their son and 1 other. I believe that I have 3 males and 1 female. I allowed them to sit on wooden eggs most of the Spring. More eggs pop up all the time so I finally removed the nest boxes, baskets which were mostly there just for fun and comfort and also stopped putting hay in the bottom because they built nests everywhere. I finally got a closed-top feeder but they have now laid eggs in the last remaining open-top feeder and are laying on them. I have to freeze the eggs tonight because I always freeze them right away, so so so sorry but finding new homes for babies is overwhelming, I don't want them going to a cramped situation. 
I need help to make them STOP laying eggs. I'm sure there are other posts here to describe it and I tried to do a search but didn't find them. Also - would it be cruel to take the last open-top feeder out? I need this egg laying to stop, correct? I am worried about her health.


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## c.hert (Jan 15, 2010)

Pigeon and Doves lay eggs "that's" what they do and there is not much that can be done to stop that action. They love their mates, nest, and eggs and babies---that's how they are and I have worried about this egg laying by the females just like you. People say change their area around or take nesting away and all kinds of advice but nothing has worked for me. I even separated the males from the females in two separate lofts to give them a rest and they tied up with each other.I have one pigeon in my house by the name of "Catnip" and I say she must be laying over her 40th egg this year and a half. She is a egg layer and my television buddy as well for she watches the news with me because she at this time cannot be placed in the loft because of nerve damage. I tried for 4 months not to have anything to do with her but she still continues to lay eggs and she does not have a mate. They tell me not to pet her or love her and I tried this and it does not work. I took all nesting away from her and this does not work. We as pet owners especially female pigeons worry about them because of female bird problems. Whenever she lays her eggs I worry and hope everything comes out okay because we know what could happen. I am very attached but this is part of nature. Just make sure they get plenty of sunshine and calcium and Vitamin D. Sunshine and light even makes them lay more but we cannot keep them in the dark...You have a real problem like so many other people. Thank goodness they are content with plastic eggs and do not know the difference for it gives them a few weeks of rest and time to build up their calcium supplies. I say there is nothing you can do outside of hormone treatment and this is dangerous in itself and a lot of work to adjust the dosage as well as giving a needle in the breast for the rest of their life. These eggs you gather early and replace--break them and dry them out really good and you could lightly heat them after you break them and crush them and add them to your grit with some oyster shell. Nothing has worked for me----nothing and I had a Ring Neck Dove by the name of Mrs.Grouchy who laid eggs just as bad as Catnip. They love their eggs and nest and home and babies..That's the life of a pigeon or Dove...Get all males in even amounts and they will become friends and do just as good as loving to each other as a female and male. Its very tender to see. I say "nothing" can be done and even if you have surgery removing the oviduct and give hormones to stop the eggs there is great danger here because if she lays one egg it will go to the wrong place without a oviduct and die of Egg Yolk disease. Maybe other people have some ideas but for me just enjoy their way and pick up all eggs and replace with plastic and let nature do its thing but make sure they have plenty of calcium and /Vitamin D and real sunshine....We all worry about the same thing for females that you are worried about...Welcome to the club....Picture of Catnip coming. She is about five now...


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

c.hert is right. That is what they live for. Just make sure you replace any eggs you take with fakes, or frozen or boiled, or whatever. I use solid fake plastic eggs. If you were to just take them, then they will lay even faster to replace them. Really not much you can do about it. As c.hert also mentioned make sure they have calcium and vitamin D3 to help keep their calcium stores up. Unfortunately, this is why the males normally live longer lives than the females. You may as well give them back their nest boxes to make them comfortable, or eventually they will be laying on the floor. They will use what they have to. They may as well be comfortable.


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## Dee_Ann (Jan 4, 2016)

*Thanks!*

Oh good I feel so much better now that I have been educated on this. I thought I was doing something wrong. Actually I wasn't planning to but right after I posted that I replaced the eggs with the wooden eggs and froze the real eggs, one of them was cracked anyway. I know the eggs were all less than 72 hours for sure. I usually get them quicker than this. I couldn't help myself I gave the little boy a nice basket back and put all his wooden eggs in there, with some millet. He is just so happy sitting on them, there's nothing I can do. But I don't want them laying in the open top food dish so I had to take that out and replaced it with a nice basket.


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## Marina B (May 5, 2011)

You're not the only one with this dilemma, I also wanted to start a thread regarding this issue.

My 2 rescued red-eyed doves just want to breed the whole time, both are less that a year old. Every 3 weeks I have to be on the lookout for new eggs, and then replace them with fake ones. They will sit on the eggs for 2 weeks, then abandon it, immediately start mating again and a week later more eggs. I even have to plan my going away's around their egg-laying routine.

I agree with you for not letting them have babies, cause you don't know where the poor birds will end up. Although I would love them to raise just one or 2 babies, they have such determination.


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## RamseyRingnecks (Jun 18, 2013)

Dee_Ann said:


> Greetings. My 4 rescued ringnecked doves live in NW Missouri in an outdoor aviary 3w X 9L X 6h. For sure it is 1 mated pair, their son and 1 other. I believe that I have 3 males and 1 female. I allowed them to sit on wooden eggs most of the Spring. More eggs pop up all the time so I finally removed the nest boxes, baskets which were mostly there just for fun and comfort and also stopped putting hay in the bottom because they built nests everywhere. I finally got a closed-top feeder but they have now laid eggs in the last remaining open-top feeder and are laying on them. I have to freeze the eggs tonight because I always freeze them right away, so so so sorry but finding new homes for babies is overwhelming, I don't want them going to a cramped situation.
> I need help to make them STOP laying eggs. I'm sure there are other posts here to describe it and I tried to do a search but didn't find them. Also - would it be cruel to take the last open-top feeder out? I need this egg laying to stop, correct? I am worried about her health.


NO!!! Not correct!

Egg laying is not a misbehavior to be corrected! It is a bodily function equivalent to a human woman's period. You cannot and should not try to stop it! 

Because the only way you CAN stop it is by a combination of stress and malnutrition!

Please, just keep letting them set the wooden eggs.

I know it's an annoyance, but if you just take the eggs away, the hens bodies respond to that as they would to predation, immediately triggering the hormones that kickstart the production of eggs.

If you do that too many times, you can gt the hen stuck in production mode where her body can't stop making egg hormones and she can't stop laying.

The safest thing you can do is let her have her box and replace her real eggs with fakes. Add calcium supplements to her diet, and support her hrough this physiologically expensive process.

Letting her set the fakes allows her a physiological and physiological cushion. She will not be driven to immediately mate again, and the two weeks she spends setting will give her the chance to replenish what her body has lost.

Quitting the fakes after two weeks and laying again a week later is the normal reproductive cycle. If you provide her a safe place to set and keep up her supplements (oystershell is pretty much pure calcium), you will prevent a lot of the physiological issues that can come with laying, such as egg binding and paralysis.


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## Dee_Ann (Jan 4, 2016)

*No worries*

Well thank you because I appreciate your concern for her. I had a clue and so ordered the wooden eggs just as soon as they started laying this Spring. Actually made home-made paper mache eggs while waiting for my wooden eggs to be shipped. The paper mache eggs worked fine actually, but I prefer the wooden ones of course. No, at no time did I remove one single egg without replacing it with a home made or wooden egg. I will admit I was pretty ignorant and thought that I could interrupt the egg laying process by not providing nesting material and nest areas for them. I now know that is incorrect. I will say the odd thing is, I'm pretty sure there is only 1 female. The son incubates the eggs so the whole thing is rather strange. But they all seem very healthy and I do have the calcium. Appreciate ALL advice! Thank you!


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